The Brooklyn Flea Market

Quirky, inclusive, and full of unclaimed treasures—that's Brooklyn in a nutshell, and it also aptly describes the Brooklyn Flea. This little market that could is now one of Brooklyn's most popular shopping attractions, luring locals and bargain hunters from afar with vintage finds, hip crafts, and crazy-delicious eats.

The Flea is a hybrid of traditional flea market, garage sale, and crafts fair. It's a tumble of the expensive, the cheap, and the strange. Some vendors hawk high-end items like antique doors refashioned into tables, rescued fixtures from prewar houses, or midcentury lamps identical to those in Mad Men. The most "Brooklyn-y" component is the local artisans, and buying their one-of-a-kind handmade wares gives shoppers the altruistic feeling of supporting arts and crafts, whether that's silk-screen T-shirts of giant squid, tongue-and-cheek charm bracelets with little daggers, or hand-stitched stuffed elephants. You'll also find not a small number of oddly specialized booths. Exhibit A: the vendor who sells nothing beyond oil paintings of bicycles. Why not? Finally, there is plenty of bric-a-brac to sift through: great stuff that may not be practical (mink stoles, nonfunctional alarm clocks, Star Wars collectibles), but it makes for fun browsing.

When you've exhausted the shopping side of things, the Flea boasts some fantastic food options. You'll find fat pretzels from Sigmund Pretzel Shop, funny franks from Asia Dogs, cold cuts and sandwiches from Mile End delicatessen, organic ice cream from Blue Marble, even the popular McClure's pickles, all with plenty of Crop to Cup family-farmed coffee to get a second wind.

The Flea takes place in two locations every weekend from mid-March to late November. The market splits time between the parking lot of a local school on Saturday and the stunning interior of the landmark Williamsburgh Savings Bank (now an event space known as Skylight One Hanson) on Sunday. During the colder months the Flea happens at its indoor location on both Saturday and Sunday. Mid-Mar.-late Nov., Sat.: Bishop Laughlin Memorial High School, 176 Lafayette Ave., between Clermont and Vanderbilt Ave., Fort Greene; Sun.: One Hanson Pl., Fort Greene Winter: One Hanson Pl., Fort Greene www.brooklynflea.com Free Sat. and Sun. 10-5 A, C to Lafayette Ave. for outdoor location; 2, 3, 4, 5, B, Q to Atlantic Ave.; D, N, R to Atlantic Ave.-Pacific St. for indoor location.