Artisans

You might know Frankie’s Sputino as that kick-butt Italian restaurant with both a Manhattan and a Brooklyn location. You should also know they make their own olive oil too, created from organically grown olives in Trapani, Sicily in the DOP certified valley of Nocellara del Belice, in fact. To maintain authenticity and quality, they use trees between 300 and 400 years old, and each is hand-pruned, and each olive hand-picked.

“Bee raw honey is about purity of flavor. Raw. Real,” said Zeke Freeman, the founder of Bee Raw. Zeke grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania, where he gained an appreciation for homegrown foods and quality ingredients. He took his passion to the culinary world, first enrolling in the University of Montana’s School of Food Management & Culinary Arts, and then heading to France to continue his education at the Hotel School of Grenoble.

For longtime pals Monika Luczak and Przemek Adolf, a decade-long friendship quickly turned into a business partnership after traveling abroad. After returning stateside, a recipe brainstorm session led to a sandwich epiphany. The answer: global-influenced spreads using local ingredients—no preservatives or tongue-twisting ingredients allowed.

“It looks good because it is good.” That’s Early Bird Foods’  motto, and its straightforward simplicity matches its goods perfectly. Their granola is baked in tiny batches using three of their favorite ingredients: “salt, olive oil, and love.”

Early Bird was started by former-Texan Nekisia Davis; she took her strong belief in flavor and pure whole foods and started cooking up granola—with lots of olive oil.

Think mixology bar where the drink of choice involves tea leaves. And when you consider the amount of thought behind each bespoke blend at tea atelier Bellocq, mixology seems the only apropos descriptor.

Co-founded by a trio of tea enthusiasts, the Greenpoint (by way of London) shop has made waves with its handcrafted loose leaves. Their current lineup of artfully mixed blends runs the gamut.

With its commitment to fresh and seasonal ingredients, Liddabit Sweets of Sunset Park is satisfying Brooklyn’s candy craving, without the guilt.

Although they hail from different backgrounds, Liddabit’s founders, Liz Gutman and Jen King, found themselves enrolled in New York City’s French Culinary Institute, where they became fast friends. United by their passion for sustainable ingredients and love of sweets, the two founded their own candy shop in 2009. Like many artisanal Brooklyn vendors, Liddabit got its start at the Brooklyn Flea.