Brooklyn Food Hall Gotham Market Ups Its Game With Bolivian Llama Party

Fort Greene food hall Gotham Market at the Ashland axed four of its six tenants earlier this year but will soon be filled back up — including with food vendor hit Bolivian Llama Party.

The market on the ground floor of glitzy apartment building The Ashland, entered from 590 Fulton St. near Ashland Place, opened early last year, but in January, most of the food tenants left, with owner Gotham Organization saying vendors like Mason Jar and Flip Bird needed to change “based on feedback from the community and neighborhood.”

Now, the developer says that the popular South American Bolivian Llama Party will be joining the hall. Here, brothers Alex, Patrick, and David Oropeza are expanding the menu. This outpost will have more options of their popular version of cholas, a classic Bolivian pork sandwich: Besides a three-pork and brisket sandwich, they’ll offer a vegan version with caramelized jack fruit. It will also have far more options for papitas, their version of fries with pink salt and various sauces. Some will come with toppings, such as chicken, brisket, or fried queso blanco. The restaurant’s popular salteña — a thick pastry shaped similarly to an empanada but bigger and filled with a chunky, rich meat stew — will also be available here. See the full menu below.

Nick Solares/Eater

Bolivian Llama Party is a restaurant that’s been as a low-key hit for years, developing a cult following starting with its Smorgasburg spot and then as a hyper-busy pop-up destination in the Rockaways. The brothers only opened their first permanent outpost in 2016, in Columbus Circle’s subway food hall Turnstyle. Eater critic Ryan Sutton has called it “an underground sensation” in a one-star review and has also praised its chicken sandwich.

Elsewhere, a craft beer hall filling one of the bigger vacancies is now called Fulton Hall. The bar, which will have 20 taps, is run by nightlife vets Paul Longo (Ida’s Nearabout, Elder Greene), Kaelin Ballinger (American Beauty, Webster Hall), and James Cruickshank (Whitman’s, Lola). Food will come from chef Joey Scalabrino, a vet of Lighthouse in Brooklyn. Expect American comfort food that’s shareable, on brand for what’s aiming to be a neighborhood drinking venue.

And Brooklyn coffee chain Hungry Ghost Coffee will finish out the new vendors. It will be the seventh location for the company, which serves pastries and Stumptown coffee. All these new vendors join Bar Granger, tapas restaurant Boqueria, and pan-Asian noodle spot Hey Hey Canteen, which is in the rotating pop-up space of the market.

As for the new contenders, Bolivian Llama Party will join first, opening in the market later this month, while both Fulton Hall and Hungry Ghost are slated to debut in April.