Smorgasburg - home to Mighty Quinns BBQ, Raindrop Cake guy and other innovators

Got a killer food idea? Smorgasburg, New York, is where to start. Some of these stalls are now restaurant chains.

A young guy wielding a pizza paddle steps back from his copper-clad wood oven and retrieves a cracking margherita: $US12 well spent. Blistered, charred and bubbling, it’s superb to eat in the way only a mature, properly slow-leavened dough can be after such a brief (45 second) cooking time. He talks about the 48-hour proving of his dough; the freshness of the domestic (not imported) tomato and mozzarella; the correct oven temperature…

Fancy restaurant? A slice of Italy in the New World? No, we’re outdoors at probably the hippest food market on the planet. Welcome to Smorgasburg, a 100-vendor celebration of food and youthful entrepreneurial zeal on the banks of the East River in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It’s more than just a place for brunch; it’s an incubator, a Woodstock for bearded foodies, a proving ground for America’s most enduring dish, raw capitalism. If you can make it there…

In one corner is the Raindrop Cake guy, Darren Wong, soon to launch on the other side of the country in LA, recipient of more publicity than Trump’s Tweets and already copied in many places, including Brisbane. At $US8 a throw I’m not sure if he’s flogging the Next Big Thing or the Emperor’s New Clothes, but there’s a healthy queue for his rainwater jelly with matcha sauce and caramelised soy bean powder. Smorgasburg has provided Wong with a platform for world renown.

Further down, you’ll find the folks from Mighty Quinn’s BBQ, vendors of slow-smoked meats and other stuff, what they call “New York barbecue”. I wonder how many of the 20,000 weekly visitors strolling the Smorgasburg compound this Saturday morning remember Manfred Mann. Never mind. Mighty Quinn’s started here four years ago, famously refusing to start serving until there was a queue. It now has five permanent restaurants throughout the massive greater NYC region and another in Taipei.

There’s another impressive queue on the southern flank of Smorgasburg: maybe 50 folks are lining up for a ramen burger. Or rather, the “original ramen burger by Keizo Shimamoto”. Back in 2013, the LA chef/entrepreneur unveiled – right here by the river – the first American burger made with a ramen noodle “bun” instead of bread. It was the start of a food craze that shows no sign of abating. You can buy ramen burgers all over the world these days. And Shimamoto now sells his apparently delicious “original ramen burgers” at food fairs and markets all over New York.

On it goes: tacos, sandwiches, bizarre waffle desserts, noodles… and one of the best pizze I’ve ever eaten. There’s a freedom, an iconoclasm to food here that is inspiring, and competition for space is fierce, I’m told, with hundreds of applicants to choose from.

It’s happening in Australia, too, to a lesser degree, at venues such as Hank Marvin Markets and The Food Truck Park in Melbourne, or Carriageworks Farmers Market in Sydney. These energetic, entry-level business ops will ultimately be the crucible for significant ideas and food businesses, not just copycat stuff. These “chefs” are the garage bands of food. Find one. Get inspired. Eat. And if you’re in New York…

John Lethlean visited the US as a guest of NYC&Co