— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
The Pickleback, as seen in its native habitat at the Bushwick Country Club.
You've heard of picklebacks, right? A shot of whiskey immediately followed by a shot of pickle juice. It sounds nasty. Oh so nasty. Hell, some people can barely keep their faces from contorting into an unsightly mess after the pairing:
But it's really not that bad. Wikipedia claims “the pickle brine works to neutralize both the taste of the whiskey and the burn of the alcohol.” Which, sure, sounds possible. But as someone who thoroughly enjoys the taste of pickles and puts up with the taste of well whiskey, I can assure you the combo just works.
What's the point of all this, you ask? Well, Broke-Ass Stuart, whose been tending bar at 16th and Harrison newcomer Dear Mom, is bringing the pickleback to the Mission this and every Wednesday night:
I'm bringing an East Coast classic to the Mission: The Pickle Back! It's a shot of whiskey with a shot of pickle juice as a chaser. I'm doing it with Dickle Whiskey, so it's gonna be Dickel and a pickle back for $4. Plus the best part is that it's gourmet pickle juice: I'm getting my pickle juice from the guys who do the Wise Sons food truck and will be soon doing the Wise Sons deli on 24th St.
Do yourself a favor and give this a try. Just, please, never wear this hat while slamming them back.
[First photo by Muppitz, Second by Trecarious]
Comments (7)
My chef friend Thor served me a whiskey with pickle garnish years ago. It was weird, but it worked.
Kill the taste of the whiskey? WTF, drink zimas you kids…
I don’t understand why you would want to neutralize the taste of whiskey. I drink whiskey because I LIKE the taste. I would still drink whiskey even if it didn’t have any alcohol in it. Hell, I would probably drink even MORE of it.
That being said, Mission Hill Saloon has been doing picklebacks for years, haven’t they?
Long ago some Russians explained to me that you’re supposed to take a bite of a pickle after taking a shot of vodka to kill the vodka aftertaste. It works surprisingly well.
This isn’t exactly new or original as a bunch of bars already do this but I’ll give Dear Mom props for managing to get free press weekly. They should make a “Shit Mission Bloggers Say” video.
I’ll let you in on a little secret: bloggers, like everyone else in this world, are spread thin and kinda lazy. We have our regular haunts that we go to and value our livers just enough that we cannot manage to get trashed at every bar that’s out there week after week. So why does Dear Mom get near universal press coverage from every SF blog? Is it because the blogging community has embraced them as one of the regular bars we turn up to every week? No, it’s because they’re the only bar in this part of town that bothers to send out press releases.
The restaurant industry figured out that press releases are good for business ages ago and, because of those releases, this town is able to sustain something like 15 food blogs. A mess of Mission restaurants literally employ PR firms whose job it is make sure everyone with some twitter followers and a wordpress account knows what’s going on with their business.
Most of the writers I know never go to the businesses they write about (including Dear Mom). But those places just make it so easy…
(And, for the record, I’ve been to Dear Mom a few times and enjoy their menu of cheap beers in aluminum cans very much thank you)
Kudos to them and their press team!
For the record, I have been there a few times and enjoyed it as well (except for the early last call on Friday night).
I’ll see if I can get a firm on retainer to send out our future facebook posts about our $1 can nights. ;)