Image from facebook.com/PickleGuys
There’s a new pickle shop in town, and they’re going to serve deep-fried pickles!
According to Eater New York, The Pickle Guys moved to a larger location, where they’re adding a casual restaurant to their popular retail shop and will be breading and frying their barrel-cured classics.
One hundred years ago, the neighborhood was teeming with pickle shops. Essex Street was known as “Pickle Alley.” Today there’s just one pickle guy, and it’s Alan Kaufman, who got his start at (the closed) Guss’s Pickles and opened his own shop in 2003. As the number of pickle vendors, delis, appetizing stores, and bialy shops in the Lower East Side dwindle to the single digits, there’s been great interest from the community and tourists in changing this trend.
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The Pickle Guys will join other establishments with Jewish roots, Kossar’s Bialys and the Donut Plant, in this single-story retail building on Grand Street. It will be the only establishment on the block with kosher certification.
Kaufman keeps tradition alive with at least nine varieties of sour pickles, and doesn’t stop at cucumbers. He pickles carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, olives, okra, and even mango and pineapple, which sit in salt brine with fresh garlic and spices.
A number of these brined delicacies will be fried in The Pickle Guys’ soon-to-be casual restaurant. They’ll open in March or April, so stay tuned!
