Fab food, fab building: Smorgasburg moves indoors to Fort Greene’s Williamsburgh Savings Bank

Eye On Real Estate

November 23, 2016 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

That's quite a door — and it leads the way to Smorgasburg in the basement of the banking hall at Fort Greene's iconic Williamsburgh Savings Bank. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan

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As a true-blue real-estate nerd, there’s nothing we love more than gawking at the architectural details of the banking hall inside Fort Greene’s Williamsburgh Savings Bank.

When Smorgasburg and sister market Brooklyn Flea settle into Skylight One Hanson’s landmarked space for the fall and winter, the place is a must-see for the real-estate-obsessed.

We went there on a recent Sunday and got our fill of 1920s-vintage architectural eye candy.

And once we spent a looong time looking around the main floor of the banking hall, where the wonderful vendors of Brooklyn Flea were stationed, we heard the siren song of the Smorg.

It was located in the banking hall’s basement — where, by the way, there were nifty-looking bank-vault doors.

The famed Ramen Burger was tremendously tasty. So was the pork sandwich with coleslaw on top from Fletcher’s Brooklyn Barbecue. So we ate two lunches. You got a problem with that?

We were also going to buy Chinese street food from Jianbing Company. But there were lots of people waiting to pick up orders, and we were short on time after staring for so long at the banking hall’s mosaics and statues and lovely afternoon light.

The trendiest thing we tried was Raindrop Cake. It looks like a giant, quivering drop of water, which is kind of magical.

We also tried ice cream wrapped in fresh-off-the-griddle Hong Kong egg waffles from Wowfulls. So we ate two desserts. You got a problem with that?

After all that noshing, we burned a few calories by returning to the main floor of the banking hall and strolling around the Brooklyn Flea merchants’ displays.