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Jacob Komarow
- Baklava Street Vendor
Jacob Komarow sells Good Baklava to strangers in New York parks and at festivals.
It started as a bet at a Phish concert in 2021, where he resold three trays of grocery-store baklava and tripled his money.
It stayed a concert side hustle for three years, until he tried closer to home…
I got back to New York and I started going to Sheeps Meadow, in Central Park, to sell on beautiful spring days.
I’m like, “Holy crap, I just made some money in the park.”
Now he imports the baklava from a bakery in Turkey, and sells it online and wholesale to cafes too.
Over a recent nine-month stretch, the business averaged just over $20K a month in sales 🤑
It swings a lot though, from nearly $70K in December 2025 to under $10K the month after.
The business covers the rent on his Brooklyn apartment (which doubles as the packing room), but Jacob has yet to take a salary.
The turning point came from handing out free baklava outside Madison Square Garden during the Knicks’ playoff run, and filming it…
Sometimes it’s painful to give away thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of product throughout this series, but I’m completely removed from it emotionally.
As a marketer, I’m just like, hey, if it’s working, triple down on it.
The videos went viral, the New York Times wrote him up, and a halal food chain bought 1,000 pieces a game to hand out 👀
He sells in parks without a city permit, so start legit: test a few trays of a hard-to-find treat at a farmers market or festival stall 👍
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