What is in this article?:
- Pickles pop on restaurant menus
- Unusual picklings
Chefs are pickling everything from the traditional cucumber to watermelon rinds and jalapeños.
Pickles are proving to be a popular and fairly easy way for chefs to add personal flourishes and an aura of craftsmanship to their food.
Americans eat more than nine pounds of pickles per person annually, according to trade association Pickle Packers International, Inc., and many of those are being made in restaurants with a simple solution of vinegar, salt, often sugar and a variety of herbs and spices.
In fact, according to menu research firm Datassential, pickles appear on more than a third of the country’s menus today — which is 13.2 percent more menus than they appeared on in 2008. Take a look at how they're showing up on restaurant menus across the country.
Assorted pickles are becoming an increasingly widespread bar snack, such as these ones served at The Bedford in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Partner Sean Rawlinson said that, although on some days customers seem completely uninterested in the $5 appetizer, on other days everyone seems to order it.
Village Whiskey, which has locations in Atlantic City, N.J., and Philadelphia, as well as Old Town Whiskey in Scottsdale, Ariz., serves its seasonally changing house-cured pickles in individual mason jars.
