Pickleback: To take a shot of Whiskey and a shot of pickle brine in quick succession.
Origin: Reggie Cunningham, 2007, at The Bushwick Country Club bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. No one is exactly sure where the pairing itself actually came from. Even the type of whiskey can’t be agreed upon. Paired with the juice from a jar of McClure’s spicy dills, The Country Club bar serves it with Old Crow. Others use Jameson’s for a “sweeter” experience.
What’s New:
• Bartenders now sometimes refer to it as the “the pisky whickle.”
• The Gothamist.com uncovers the Sci-Fi Pickleback at Do or Dine in Brooklyn. “The pickle juice in this particular pickleback has been semi-solidified into a sphere with calcium lactate, so it’s almost like the texture of an egg yolk, befitting for a restaurant who also serves a foie-gras filled doughnut.”
• It’s the House Shot at the Ace Hotel in NYC.
• Deemed “The macaroni and cheese of the cocktail world,” by the Huffington Post.
• Zagats.com buzzed about the price of picklebacks, opining that $11 (at Soho’s Burger & Barrel) was just too much.
• Dionysus, a restaurant and bar in Baltimore, won the Best Pickleback honor by Baltimore’s City Paper.
• Is frequently used as a verb: “picklebacking.”
New to picklebacking? See how it’s done at Sam Livecast.