Picklesburgh has it all: Pickled beer, whiskey, ice cream, popcorn
When Picklesburgh returns to town on Friday for the fourth year in a row it will be held over three days for the first time. The pucker power will be intense from the 35foot Heinz pickle helium balloon floating in the sky to the 40 vendors on the Roberto Clemente Bridge selling pickle-centric foods, drinks and merchandise.
“We received a fantastic crowd [for the two-day festival] last year and so wanted to expand it this time,” said Leigh White, vice president of marketing and communication at Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, which hosts the annual festival. Around 75,000 people are expected to attend over the two days but she is not quite sure what to expect with the addition of a third festival day. The music stage and a few booths will be expanded toward the North Shore so that the lines of people don’t bottleneck around the busier booths.
Several restaurants will be making an appearance at the festival for the first time. Penn Cove Eatery will feature tuna ceviche with pickled watermelon rind and dill pickle salmon sushi. Its Downtown neighbor, Warren Bar & Burrow, will pour a pickled watermelon margarita and a Picklesburgh Old Fashioned with candied ginger and pickled cherries.
Even before Richard DeShantz Group’s Coop de Ville opens in the Strip District later this year, festivalgoers can get a taste of its Southern fare with a pickle bent at its booth, which will feature two pickle-brined fried chicken sandwiches — Nashville Hot or Plain Jane. Asian flavors will be served by Bae Bae’s Kitchen in the form of kimchi and Superior Motors by way of donburi, a Japanese-style rice bowl. Superior Donburi will feature sushi rice with pickled egg, pickled trout roe and kimchi while a vegetarian version will replace the egg and roe with pickled tofu and pickled radish.
Millie’s Homemade Ice Cream will dish out a pickled cherry ice cream that is a riff on a cherry pie; sweet cream ice cream swirled with pickled ginger and plum; and bread-and-butter pickle sorbet. “We were going for ice creams that are just not for shock and awe but actually taste good,” owner Chad Townsend said.
Other pickle-centric foods include freshly popped corn sprinkled with such flavorings as bread and butter pickled jalapeno by newcomer Ekernally Yours Gourmet Popcorn, Belgian chocolatecovered pickle on a stick, pretzel stuffed with pickled chicken, pickled strawberry shortcake, and jewelry and cellphone bags with pickled themed-designs and prints.
For the first time, pickled beers will be sold at the fest. Southern Tier Brewing Co. will have an ale brewed with coriander, dill weed, salt and peppercorn called Dill Pickle Gose and Great Lakes Brewing Co. will introduce a special pickled-themed beer. Wigle Whiskey will release a limited-edition spirit, Eau de Pickle, which is made by flavoring grains that have been distilled three times in a copper pot with dill, coriander, mustard seed and garlic. Half-size bottles will sold at the festival for $34.
Cooking demonstrations will be held at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette demo tent on all three days by chefs who will share home-pickling techniques and restaurant recipes. At 2 p.m. on Saturday, PG’s food writer, Gretchen McKay, will show how to pickle strawberries in a jiffy and then demonstrate ways to use the berries and brine in a cocktail, salad dressing and hors d’oeuvre.
At the popular pickle-juice competition, contestants will viein five preliminary rounds on Saturday near the Giant Eagle stage. The 60 slots for the rounds are already sold out but there could be openings if a person who signed up isa no-show 10 minutes before the start of the contest. In the past three years, two of the winners have been walk-in contestants.
The first round will be at 1 p.m. and followed by contests at 2:30, 4, 5:30 and 7 p.m. Participants have to down a quart of dill pickle juice and the one who guzzles it down the fastest will be the winner of the preliminary round and move on to the final round at 8:30 p.m.
The winner on Saturday will not only receive $500 in cash and the title Mayor of Picklesburgh but also get to do it all over again at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Ultimate Champions Round and compete with the festival’s past winners — Timmy Durik of Pittsburgh (2015); Ryan DeCaro of Pittsburgh (2016) and Fred Smith of Erie (2017), who chugged down the 32ounces of cold juice in 8.34 seconds.
The ultimate champion will earn $500 and, of course, plenty of bragging rights.