A Briney Tradition Thrives
Lower East Side Late afternoon on a Monday, customers stream in and out of the cavernous, narrow storefront of The Pickle Guys at 49 Essex Street. Red tubs filled to the brim with pickled cucumbers, pineapple, tomatoes, olives, and sweet peppers fill nearly all the space between a white and an exposed brick wall. Staff prepare mangoes and pineapple in the back as owner Alan Kaufman, a friendly man with a booming New York accent, explains that he learned pickle making between jobs when he was a commercial photographer. As some of the older pickle makers left the area, Kaufman opened his store. “The only way to keep pickles alive on Essex St. was for me to open up the store, so that’s what we did.”
The Lower East Side used to be a pickle paradise. In the 1930s, the streets of the Lower East Side were jam-packed with peddle-cart pushers selling produce, and there were 80 pickle vendors selling their brine-soaked treats in the area. Today, despite the recent trendiness of and hipster interest in pickling and home canning, The Pickle Guys are the only pickle business in operation on the Lower East Side.
Kaufman believes the biggest challenge of running his business today is the steep operating costs. “Well it’s got to be getting harder because everything goes up, except our prices. Containers go up, rent goes up, insurance goes up, no matter what.”
Kaufman’s biggest sellers are the sour pickles -- soaked in brine longer than the other pickles -- and his favorite are jalapeno-stuffed olives.
On Sunday October 19th, The Pickle Guys will get some company as many other picklers, food vendors and pickle lovers from all over NYC and beyond head to Orchard and Delancey Streets to celebrate Lower East Side Pickle Day.
Pickle Day is organized by the Lower East Side Business Improvement District. Natalie Raben, director of marketing and communications, says that visitors can expect “a day full of all things pickled” at this neighborhood favorite. Fifteen picklers will be on hand, and 23 food vendors, including Russ and Daughters, Brooklyn Taco and Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya. Some of the food vendors will be serving special pickle-centric creations, like Melt Bakery’s pickled pumpkin ice cream sandwich. For those who aren’t sure whether they like briny cucumbers or clever wordplay best, Punderdome is sponsoring a Pickle Day Pun off competition.
Brooklyn Brine, making the journey from their Gowanus factory across the river, will be bringing spicy half sour pickles and mixed pickled vegetable skewers, and will be sharing a table with their vegetarian restaurant The Pickle Shack, serving their popular fried pickles. Brooklyn Brine’s Elena Balletta explains that they have been part of the event for many years, but it will be the first for The Pickle Shack, which opened last Fall.
For the amateur, a home pickling contest invites participants to enter samples of their wares to be judged by celebrity guests from the food industry. The categories are pickled pickles and pickled other, and the winner will receive a gift bag from Essex Street Market. In the past, entries have included a variety of vinegary produce including ramps and beets.
Asked what The Pickle Guys have planned for Pickle Day, Kaufman answers, “What are we doing? Same thing we always do! We’re going there and we’re gonna give away pickles!”