This should upset me more than it does.
Lo-Down, via Eater, reports that Guss' Pickles, one of the last old-school, Lower East Side institutions, is moving to Brooklyn. The new location is 39th Street between 14th and 15th Avenues, the Kensington neighborhood "in a few months."
Patricia says she's running out of room and can't afford rent for a bigger space in the neighborhood since it's changed so much. When the city put a Muni Meter directly in front of her pickle barrels, blocking customers' access, it was the last straw.
I'd like Guss' to stay on the LES, where it's always been. But I have to admit that I don't mind the shift. As long as the place stays in business. After all, Guss' has been quite the same Guss' for some time. The business has changed hands a couple times since Izzy Guss retired, most recently to Patricia Fairhurst. And there was the move from the old location on Essex to the newer, less charming one on Orchard. Throw in the whole tangled dispute involving the rights to the Guss name, and you have to wonder aloud: "What difference does a move to Brooklyn make at this point?" It's like hanging a picture with a few cracks in it on a different wall.
Besides, a place with a name like Guss' pickles sounds like it belongs in Brooklyn.
Here's the thing about Guss' Pickles, they don't make their own pickles. I lived up the block from them for a few years and their pickles come to them on a truck from the Bronx. They aren't bad, but for the prices they charge that's a bit of a disappointment. Go to the Pickle Guys on Essex instead.
ReplyDeleteI may be wrong, but I believe Guss' merely buys their cucumbers from a Bronx concern, and then pickles them. I believe this was the case once. I'm not sure if it's changed.
ReplyDeleteguess we just don't love pickles enough...
ReplyDeleteas far as I'm concerned the LES doesn't deserve to have them. the neighborhood (and i am also a resident, albeit thankfully in the Two Bridges part) is an empty, soulless husk at this point. i am sure the transient children and yuppies that run the place now won't care one bit about guss's pickles moving out. it just paves the way for another "hot brunch spot".
ReplyDeletehttp://www.unitedpickle.com/
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure these were/are the guys.