Pickle Your Cocktails

Pickled things have been going strong on the trend-o-meter for a while, and now they are hitting the bar, going a few steps beyond the dirty martini. Grub Street has been a tireless picklespotter, noting that New York City's The Breslin is serving "off-the-menu pickle backs" (a shot of pickle juice to go with whisky) and Chicago's The Drawing Room is making a Chicago Dog Caipirinha, made with cachaca, sport peppers, and a celery-salt rim (there are no actual hot dogs involved).

Also spotted at 10 Downing Food & Wine in New York City, where a cocktail called the Pickle is made by muddling dill and cucumbers with salt and simple syrup; and in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the Black Forest Inn makes a Krautini with sauerkraut juice, Steinhäger (a mild German gin), and a touch of Kümmel, a German caraway seed liqueur. "I've heard more often than not 'I'm surprised how much I like it'," says Erica Christ, the bar manager at the Black Forest Inn. "People who would get a dirty martini really do like that pickley, sour, salty taste...Still we do get about one in five that is like BLECH!"

Make your own pickle-enhanced cocktail using our Martinowitz recipe (pictured).

Image source: Christopher Rochelle, CHOW.com