Smorgasburg LA turns 10—and somehow free parking isn't even its best feature

The most extraordinary thing about Smorgasburg LA is not that it turns 10 on June 21. It's that the free parking there isn't the first thing an Angeleno brings up about the weekly food market.

That’s how good the food on hand is every week.

That should come as no surprise to longtime visitors, who have seen everything from Tacos 1986 to Bridgetown Roti to Broad Street Oyster graduate from a parking lot food stand to a brick-and-mortar location over the last decade. Not to mention now-beloved L.A. staple Holy Basil, whose chef Deau Arpapornnopparat was named a Food & Wine Best New Chef.

“Smorgasburg was such a great starting place for us,” Arpapornnopparat tells Time Out over email. “We began with The Base and were able to kind of test out what worked and what didn’t. During COVID, we expanded and evolved with Holy Basil and were eventually able to open up our brick and mortar location in downtown.”

People always claim that Los Angeles is a city without a past, that old canard from urban geographer Michael Dear that has been repeated so often over the last 30 years that it’s now accepted wisdom. Never mind that one can go to Musso and Frank and sit in Charlie Chaplin’s booth, or go to the Egyptian Theater to catch a movie the way Angelenos did 100 years ago. And while a decade pales in comparison to much of what L.A. in general and downtown in particular can offer, the landmark anniversary is especially impressive considering everything the city has endured since 2016.

“There was COVID,” manager Zach Brooks says on a sunny Sunday, walking through the tidy rows of food trucks slinging lunch for the crowds. “Then the fires, then the strikes.” In other words, Smorgasburg is the city’s dining scene in microcosm, minus the crippling overheads and razor-thin margins. 

Before any of that rolled through, Smorgasburg arrived at ROW DTLA as the shopping destination was finding its footing. The idea was already a proven success in New York City, so when the team there decided to expand, it seemed like an easy cookie-cutter transition. Brooks—a former New Yorker who taught a generation of Midtown office drones that life was more than chopped salad with his popular blog Midtown Lunch—understood better. 

“When they first saw this parking lot, they said, ‘We’ll only need about half this space,’” he says with a laugh. Brooks prevailed, and the larger swath of parking lot was secured, making it a distinctly more spacious option than the one in New York.

How spacious? In addition to the 50 or so food stalls, there is also a center aisle for shopping for everything from sunglasses and knives to Rx candles, as well as a tented dining area with a TV and a bar run by L.A. institution Guelaguetza, serving wine, beer and their I Love Micheladas to thirsty eaters.

And for one day only, attendees can experience the 2026 iteration of Smorgasburg (curated by Brooks) as well as flashback to some of the most popular vendors to ever set up shop in the parking lot.

Smorgasburg LA 10th Anniversary Alumni Lineup

For the 10th anniversary on June 21, Smorgasburg throws it back with Smorgasburg All-Star Alumni, including The Base, Shrimp Daddy and Ramen Burger; meanwhile, look for collabs from Bub & Grandmas x Shady Grove Foods, Evil Cooks x Trompo y Carbon, Carnitas El Momo x Barranco’s Fruit and Cheezus x Franzl’s Franks.

In a city where entire neighborhoods get written off as food destinations because of traffic, think of Smorgasburg as your continued weekly one-stop shop to see what the next big thing is going to be. And besides, there’s free parking. What more do you need from a Sunday afternoon?

Smorgasburg LA is held every Sunday, rain or shine, from 10am–4pm at ROW DTLA, 777 S. Alameda St. For more information, click here.