NEW YORK—As the Jewish immigrant population exploded near the end of the 19th century, many settled on Manhattan’s Lower East Side (LES), bringing with them one of their favorite foods—the pickle.
Pickle vendors lined the streets and dozens of retailers and wholesalers set up shop in the neighborhood, the smell of brine thick in the air.
“One of the things that most struck outsiders when they walked to the Lower East Side was what they described as the ’stench' of pickles,” Adam Steinberg, senior education associate for walking tours with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, said by phone Wednesday. “The whole neighborhood just reeked of pickles.”
Steinberg said during the early 20th century, near the peak of the pickle business, there were nearly 200 Jewish pickle stores in New York City and nearly half of them were on the LES. He cites a 1929 Saturday Evening Post article.
My, how times have changed. A visit to the LES today will yield only one pickle store: The Pickle Guys on Essex Street.
This Sunday [UPDATED: The event will now be held on Nov. 4] the streets of the LES will once again be filled with the smell of pickle brine for the 11th annual Pickle Day. There will be live music, and of course barrels of locally made pickles, a memorial to the glory days of the booming pickle business on the LES.
