Artisans

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.

A free association with the word “Brooklyn” may conjure many things: brick oven pizza, quiet streets lined with historic brownstones, a disco-dancing John Travolta, or the seaside towns of Rockaway Beach. Enter Salty Road Taffy.

The company’s founder, Marisa Wu, was inspired to create her own line of the classic chewy confection during a summer spent on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk in 2011

Serendipitous describes The Jam Stand’s origins to a tee. Feeling unsatisfied with her fashion marketing job and unsure of what to do next, co-founder Sabrina Valle decamped for Ecuador. In between tasting the local cuisine and visiting family, she took a side trip to Patagonia where she sampled the best jam she’d ever had.

Some people come home from vacation with souvenirs. Michael Kurtz returned from South America with a burning desire.

On his adventures, he had spotted an intriguing pepper-infused honey inside a Brazilian pizzeria and was adamant in trying to replicate his own version. The process it turned out would take him seven years. Meanwhile, Kurtz started a job bartending at Greenpoint pizzeria Paulie Gee’s.

Upon tasting Davis’ Famous Pistachio Crack, you’ll have no questions about where the name came from. The highly addictive sweet & salty brittle treat was created by accident, when rock hard brown sugar and leftover pistachios came together. Creator Dave Miss found that his customers couldn’t get enough of the stuff, and when he ran out of stock, there was an instant angry mob chasing after him for more.

An artist and designer, Brady Dollarhide has managed to cross over into the art of making home goods too. Brady’s an Oklahoma native with a BFA from Ringling School of Art & Design in Florida, and his work has been exhibited across the globe, in New York, Tokyo, and Chicago