They’re tangy, salty, crunchy and delicious. What’s not to love about pickles?
That question has inspired a new fried pickle restaurant that will open this spring in New York City on the Lower East Side, according to Eater New York. The shop is the brainchild of the team behind The Pickle Guys, a popular kosher pickle retail store with nearly 40 types of pickled produce.
Though the new restaurant doesn’t have a name yet, its menu will feature fried okra, fried mushrooms, fried tomatoes and other goodies (in addition to pickles, natch).
Basically, if you can pickle it, you’ll find it on the menu at the new restaurant.
“We pickle many, many things throughout the year,” manager William Soo told Eater. “We’ll try to bring that stuff to the eatery.”
In addition, the restaurant will whip up traditional diner fare, including burgers, chicken sliders and beef sliders. Pickled items will be the main attraction, however.
“That will be our main thing, what we’ll be best at,” Soo said.
Like the gourmet pickle shop, the eatery will be kosher, a decision that represents owner Alan Kaufman’s dedication to the neighborhood’s Jewish history. There won’t be much room for customers to stay and eat, as the casual restaurant is designed for to-go orders.
The Pickle Guys launched 14 years ago and claim to have the best pickles in New York. They’ll pickle anything and everything—from celery to mangoes to pineapples to string beans, according to their website.
Their kosher pickles are so popular that they recently launched a delivery service in Brooklyn.
“The Pickle Guys makes pickles from an old Eastern European recipe ‘just the way mom used to make them,’” according to the company’s website. “The pickles are made by letting them sit in salt brine with garlic, spices and no preservatives. Storing them in barrels, from a day up to six months, the pickles cure as they sit.”
Can’t make it to the new restaurant? You can always make your own pickles at home with this easy overnight pickle recipe from Snappy Gourmet or this “killer” spicy garlic pickle recipe from Foodie Crush. And if you’re really a pickle fan, make sure you try this pickle soup recipe, which calls for sour cream, potatoes and carrots in addition to dill pickles.