Brooklyn Food Hall Gotham Market’s Revamp Is Almost Complete

Fort Greene luxury apartment building’s ground floor food hall Gotham Market at the Ashland is almost back to full capacity, less than six months after the market nixed four of its six food vendors in a bid to revamp the space.

Last week, a small bar in the space flipped into The Flamingo, a palm leaf print-laden area serving beers and tropical cocktails like mai tais. On Thursday, a new anchor tenant — aka, one taking up the biggest amount of space — will be opening, a beer bar called Fulton Hall.

Though Gotham Organization manages the space overall, Fulton Hall is run by nightlife vets James Cruickshank (Whitman’s, Lola), Paul Longo (Ida’s Nearabout, Elder Greene), Kaelin Ballinger (American Beauty, Webster Hall). That section of the market, which has a bunch of seating, will serve shareable bar food, like fried pickle chips and chicken wings, as well as a cheeseburger. Drink-wise, the bar has 20 beers on tap, some of them available by the pitcher, and classic cocktails, such as a negroni, a dark and stormy, and an old fashioned.

Nick Solares/Eater

And finally, critical hit with a cult following Bolivian Llama Party is expanding to Brooklyn with a new outpost here, opening next Sunday, May 20. The former Smorgasburg vendor and popular Rockaways pop-up from brothers Alex, Patrick, and David Oropeza is serving a similar menu of salteñas here. The thick pastry — which looks similar to an oversized empanada, but is filled with a rich meat stew — is the star of the show, but other options like the chicken sandwich are fan favorites as well.

Gotham Market at the Ashland opened in January 2017, one of the many developer-driven food halls flooding NYC, but despite a solid track record with the Gotham Market on the far west side of Manhattan, the company apparently didn’t quite nail the vendor list in Brooklyn. Barely a year after its debut, the Fort Greene food hall got rid of most of its food tenants following “feedback from the community and the neighborhood.” Other food options in the market include tapas mainstay Boqueria, coffee shop Hungry Ghost, and noodle restaurant Hey Hey Canteen.

Take a look at the menus for both the new vendors Fulton Hall and Bolivia Llama Party below.