<< back to foods in New York City

What: Its name is Dutch, its history ancient and widespread, and by definition, it can consist of many different foods. But pickles as we know them in NYC—those staples of Jewish delis and burger joints—are most often crisp pickled cucumbers, and can be sour, sweet, or spicy, depending on their brine. In Manhattan, handcrafted pickles have long been the domain of the traditionally Jewish Lower East Side—now a major hipster ’hood, but still boasting a few historic haunts.

Where: Essex Street, once the briniest street in the briniest New York neighborhood, is today home to just one pickle shop, The Pickle Guys (49 Essex St.; second location at 1364 Coney Island Ave. in Brooklyn, map), but it’s a great one—kosher-certified, small, and crowded with pickling barrels swimming with cukes, tomatoes, string beans, carrots, okra, and garlic, plus marinated mushrooms, various olives, giardiniera, hot peppers, and more. Pickled herring and lox, sweet and sauerkraut, and freshly peeled and ground horseradish are also on offer.

When: Sun-Thurs, 9am-6pm; Fridays, 9am-4pm (Lower East Side location)

Order: New pickles taste the most cucumbery and offer the most snap, then there’s the familiar, tangy half-sour and our personal favorite, the full sour—intensely flavorful, spicy, briny, and by far the most pickle-like. The spicy variety is also good. We recommend buying a quart ($6.25), which will yield you about a dozen pickles you can mix-and-match if you wish.

Alternatively: New on the Lower East Side scene is An Choi Pickles (83 Orchard St., map), a spinoff of the Vietnamese-street-food joint next door; the space is said to peddle traditional dill as well as Asian-inflected varieties like kimchi daikon and Vietnamese escarole. Ess-A-Pickle (212-334-3616; 1470 39th St., map), formerly known as LES icon Guss’ Pickle, may have a new name and new digs in Borough Park, Brooklyn, but the pickles are still fantastic. Meanwhile, the new school of artisanal NYC pickles is perhaps best represented by Greenpoint-based Brooklyn Brine (for retailers see the blog), a young venture that combines unusual, super flavorful brines with heirloom and seasonal organic vegetables, from fennel beets to garlic scapes. Try their garlic-dill NYC Deli Style Cucumbers.