Pickle Licious: Best Kosher Pickle in Town
Robyn Brown Samra (known as “The Pickle Lady”) simply has a passion for pickles. As a single mother and struggling waitress seeking to provide a better life for her two small children, she followed her passion and started Pickle Licious in 1995 at a local flea market with her brother Jay, despite limited resources.
As a Jewish kid from Jersey who was practically raised on pickles and bagels, Robyn felt confident that pickles would be a bestseller. And they were. The first Pickle Licious storefront opened on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1997. When her husband Leo passed in 2001, Robyn worked even harder, expanded her markets, and moving the storefront closer to her home in Teaneck. Before long, the company was written up in The New York Times and New York Magazine, and featured on MTV and CNN. They were even voted “Best Pickles” by the Jewish Standard Newspaper for eight years in a row.
Pickle Licious: A family affair
Today, Pickle Licious truly is a family affair. Robyn’s husband Ray assists with online sales and shipping. Her daughter Alex handles retail, events, and social media, and her daughter Taylor develops new products as a recent graduate of The Culinary Institute of America.
Mark Malajian is a partner with Pickle Licious, overseeing the sales and operations at several markets, including the West Milford Farmers Market each Wednesday. He said that for them, the entire company is family owned, blood-ties notwithstanding. The partners have worked closely with each other for over a decade, and they all see and connect with each other inside and outside of work almost every day.
“Robyn started the company running around with her kids at farmers markets, and wanted to do something local as a Jewish girl growing up in the Teaneck area,” Marc said. “ It blew up into a storefront, and a great website with online shipping across the country.”
Finding the perfect pickle
Pickle Licious currently carries twenty kinds of pickles, many of which are available at the market each week for sampling and purchase. Marc said their “New Pickle” has been a longtime best seller. He calls it a “borderline pickle”: It’s half “old” cucumber, half “new pickle” that undergoes only a short (few day) brining/curing process so that it looks like a fresh cucumber but has the crisp taste of a pickle.
Deli-style Kosher Dill is another fan favorite, as are their Sweet Pickle Chips that are like a bread and butter pickle with the sweetness (possibly the perfect hamburger pickle?). His personal favorite, however, is Sweet Horseradish that Marc loves to slice up and squeeze into grilled cheese sandwiches.
They also sell between 20-30 custom-cured olives and condiments, including olive combination mixes, such as their mediterranean mix.
One of Marc’s favorite condiments to recommend is their roasted garlic that can be used as a garnish or to be included in any recipe that calls for garlic. The oil they are cured in can be used in cooking to impart a brilliant garlic flavor. Meanwhile, their Krelish is the perfectly balanced pickle-based hot dog condiment for your summer grilling parties that includes mustard, sauerkraut alongside sweet and hot relish, all in one jar.
The facility in which the pickles are crafted and packaged is completely kosher, Marc said. Those who follow a strictly kosher diet, however, should know that a Rabi does not visit the market tables each week. However, all online purchases come directly from the fully-kosher warehouse. All of Pickle Licious products are sourced from local vendors in New Jersey whenever possible.
Stop by their booth for a quick sampling, to grab a pickle-on-a-stick, or to ask suggested uses for their pickles, olives and condiments. Or visit them online at picklelicious.com.