A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from July 03, 2005
New York City International Pickle Day
New York City International Pickle Day was started by the Food Museum in 2001 and has since been an annual event. The Lower East Side used to have many pickle shops, but most of them are now gone.

26 August 2001, New York Times, "Let There Be Pickles" by Tara Bahrampour, section 14, city, pg. 1:
The mighty pickle is still a fixture in New York delis, where a half-sour spear is often wrapped up with each sandwich. At Guss's Pickles, a 91-year-old establishment on Essex Street, customers come from around the block and around the world to buy sours, half sours, green tomatoes, red peppers and horseradish from barrels on the sidewalk.
(...)
Enter the Pickle Savior. On a sweltering day, in a cramped office at New York University, Lucy Norris pored over a pile of recipes, handwritten books and family histories from around the world. She flashed a dazzling Texas smile (she's from Duncanville, near Dallas) and rolled her eyes.
(...)
Ms. Norris began to widen her own pickle experience last year, when the New York Food Museum, a roving institution that holds exhibitions around the city, was considering a large-scale project on the history of pickles in New York. Suzanne Wasserman, a museum board member and culinary historian who is associate director of the Gotham Center at the City University of New York, had searched for background information on the subject but came up empty.
(...)
Eventually Ms. Norris plans a book featuring recipes and the family stories that go with them.

Meanwhile, hoping to help New Yorkers refocus on their pickling heritage, the museum has declared Sept. 30 the First Annual New York International Pickle Day. Orchard Street, that former pushcart bastion, will be closed off, and as live klezmer music plays, visitors will be able to taste pickles, watch pickling demonstrations and learn more about the city's pickling past.

29 September 2001, New York Post, "Let's Get Pickled - First Annual Lower East Side Food Fest Worth Its Salt" By Cynthia Kilian, pg, 33:
A dill-y of day is in store for fans of the briny bites when New York City's International Pickle Day commences tomorrow on the Lower East Side.

The first annual event is sponsored by the Lower East Side Business Improvement District and the New York Food Museum, a non-profit group designed to encourage people to think about the food they eat as it relates to their culture and heritage.

Cooking demos will show how to make relishes and pickles from kimchi to kosher dills to Japanese oshinko to Scandinavian pickles. China, Southeast Asia, Asia, India, Southern America, Eastern Europe and Africa will also be celebrated through their sour, crunchy specialties made from carrots, radishes, cucumber, lime, cauliflower, green tomatoes, and fish.
(...)
"There used to be 80 pickle businesses. It was cucumber wholesalers' headquarters. Now there's one."

The lone pickle specialist is Guss' Lower East Side Pickles, established in 1910, who'll be selling their wares at the festival.

29 September 2004, New York Post, "Hey, Dilly, Dilly, Eat Yourself Silly" by Cynthia Kilian, pg. 46:
Sour-pusses of every stripe can get their fill at the New York City International Pickle Day on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Orchard Street, between Grand and Broome streets.

"This year we're focusing on home canners and cooks and the farm-to-table process," says Nancy Ralph, director of the New York Food Museum, a sponsor of the event.

They're planning a multi-cultural celebration of pickling traditions, exhibits and samples from around the world, promising a preserved cornucopia that goes beyond the cucumber to radishes, okra, meat, eggs, mangos and limes.

1 October 2004, New York Times, section E, part 2, pg. 34:
ANNUAL NEW YORK CITY INTERNATIONAL PICKLE DAY, Orchard Street, between Grand and Broome Streets, Lower East Side. With tastings, exhibits and children's activities. Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Lower East Side Business Improvement District and the New York Food Museum.
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Food Festivals • Sunday, July 03, 2005 • Permalink


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