Aug 18, 2016
We caught Eric Demby just before launching his next big venture: Smorgasburg LA. It features highly curated artisanal makers, local food sellers, and other vendors in a marketplace patterned off of his prior successes in Brooklyn and New York City, starting with Brooklyn Flea in 2008. Eric gives advice for artisans looking to launch their own products in outdoor market, and tells stories about the rollercoaster ride of Brooklyn Flea and his colorful vendors over the years. He was a huge force in stoking a culture of manufacturing local artisanal goods in Brooklyn over the past decade. As he sets his sights on Los Angeles, what is it like for him to try to create culture and community in a city you don’t live in? And surely this isn’t the first artisanal market in LA. Will he be able to rise above the noise and get his new venture in an overlooked industrial part of Los Angeles get off the ground? For show notes: http://makeitinla.org/ericdemby