The restaurant industry is riding a brine wave.
Foodies might gush about street foods and pumpkin spice whatever, but anyone looking past the glitz and hubbub would notice a less glamorous product moving in volume onto menus and promotional calendars. The hottest item circa fall 2022 may well be the pickle.
The humble gherkin and its kin were everywhere as summer drew to a close. But the brining craze isn’t stopping at cukes.
Operators have been pickling everything from pineapples to potatoes as they look for a relatively easy way to turn ingredients into pricier dishes while simultaneously defending themselves against kinks in the supply chain.
A staggering 43.9% of restaurant menus mentioned pickled ingredients in the second quarter of 2022, reflecting a steady rise during the last two pandemic-ridden years, according to Technomic Ignite Menu data. They appear in preparations ranging from sandwiches to specialty salads and fish appetizers. And they’re even gaining steam on pizzas.
Creative takes abound
Sonic Drive-In went so far as to offer a repurposed dill in drink form, albeit just for August. It brought back the Pickle Juice Slush, a frozen beverage that had slipped off the menu in 2018.
The fast-food chain had gotten a preview of the pickle’s current drawing power back in April when it showcased a limited-time sandwich called the Big Dill Cheeseburger. Patrons could order it with a side of pickle chips, batter-dipped and deep-fried.
The pair were such a hit that Sonic brought both back about three months later—again to strong acceptance, according to a spokesperson.
It’s not the only operation offering briny riffs in drinkable form. New York City-based Diller, part of a sleeper segment of pickle-focused concepts, offers a pickled-pineapple lemonade for $4.50.
All of Love Peace Pickle’s drink mixes, sold in 760 mL bottles like wine, contain pickle brine. Options include the Bloody Mary and the Pickled Surfer, a combination of pickle juice, lime juice and jalapeno.
“Pickling and fermenting seem to be everywhere once again, kind of a revival from about a decade ago when we saw that pickling trend pop up really significantly,” says Lizzy Freier, Technomic’s director of menu research and insights. She intends to call it out as a trend to watch in Technomic’s predictions for 2023.
“The difference now is that we're seeing a lot of newer and unique products getting pickled, from proteins to nuts to herbs,” she says, noting that some of those preps can be “really strange.”
Chef Pepe Moncayo of the highly regarded Cranes restaurant in Washington, D.C., is pickling foie gras. The Toasted Pickle in Rockport, Mich., offers a pickle-flavored ice pop for dessert, while its sister operation in Grand Rapids, offers pickled pesto.
The Toasted Pickle, also in Michigan, offers a grilled cheese and pickle sandwich—the brined cukes share space with the cheese (pimiento, in this instance).
Peace Love Pickles, a multi-unit Midwestern operation, uses a big pickle sliced in half as the foundation for its 16 sandwiches, which range from a club to a multilayered sub of classic Italian cold cuts. Picture a hoagie roll, but one that’s light green, tart and juicy.
An inflation and supply chain salve
Part of what’s fostering the brine wave, says Freier, is undoubtedly the low cost of cukes and other ingredients that lend themselves to pickling. She notes, for instance, the prevalence of pickle slaws. A version tops the Hot-Sour Brined Pulled Pork Sandwich that’s a signature of Jacob’s Pickle in New York City. (The restaurant is part of an indie group called Pickle Hospitality.)
The foundation for those preps can be cabbage, peppers or any number of julienned bargain-priced veggies.
The cost benefits are reflected in the now-widespread availability of deep-fried pickles, be they spears or chips. Once a curiosity with Southern overtones, they now frequently share space on bar menus with nachos, pretzel bites, loaded fries and other alternatives to pricey, hard-to-get chicken wings.
Fried pickles figure into the renewed push for happy hour and bar business from Buffalo Wild Wings and Chili’s, for instance. At Chili’s, they fetch $7.39 in the suburbs of New York City, or just 40 cents less than what units in the area get for an order of guacamole.
Because pickling is also a preservation method, high-end operators are embracing it as a way to weather supply chain problems. Chef Michael Correll of Ruse in St. Michaels, Md., pickles ramps, a foraged item with a very narrow picking season. He pickles the bulbs in vinegar and blanches the green tops, then freezes the leek-like onions.
“Once thawed, they can be pureed or chopped up and used in many preparations,” says a spokesperson. They’re currently being used in Ruse’s Blue Crab & Corn Rangoons, with ricotta cheese and Calabrian sweet and sour chili sauce.
Pickled products also provide the benefits of traveling well and translating easily into big-batched retail items. Most of the emerging pickle-focused concepts are as much pickle stores as they are restaurant operations. Jacob’s Pickles offers two sizes of jarred pickles, for $10 and $15. The varieties range from Candy Red Beets to Dilly Green Beans and Sweet & Spicy Carrots, in addition to Big Dills and horseradish-spiced cukes.
One place where pickles have yet to show up are on the pizza menus of Domino’s, Papa John’s and Pizza Hut (though Domino's did feature them as a topping on its Cheeseburger Pizza, a past limited-time product). But that could change: Their availability as a pizza topping has grown by 30% over the past four years, and they can now be found on 5% of the pies offered, according to researcher Datassential.
Some of the smaller challengers to the big brands are already giving pickles a try. Donatos, for instance, includes dill chips on its Hot Chicken Pizza.
Meanwhile, independents are finding the public loves the flavor of a pickled pizza, or at least the novelty of one. Langel’s Pizza, a two-unit operation in Indiana, says in a posting on YouTube that its’ Big Dill Pizza is “bringing people out of the woodwork.”
And novel it is. The foundation is a garlicky cream cheese-based sauce cut with pickle juice. That base is covered with cross-cut pickle slices and mozzarella, with a dash of dill seasoning.
Pizzeria Paradiso, a landmark in Washington, D.C., added a pickle pizza on Sept. 16. Similarly, Slice Minneapolis puckered out this month after being flooded with requests for a dill pizza. Many locals apparently sampled a pickle pizza at the state fair and decided they wanted regular access to the combo.