Guss' Pickles was founded by a
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
immigrant
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
, Isidor Guss. Guss arrived in New York in 1910, and like hundreds of thousands of other
Jewish immigrants, settled in the
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets.
Traditionally an im ...
. Clustered in the "pickle district" of
Essex and
Ludlow streets, early 20th century
pickle vendors gave birth to what would be known as "New York style" pickles.
Guss at first worked for L. Hollander and Sons, before opening his own store. At the time, the neighborhood was teeming with 80 other pickle shops. However, immigration restrictions, a ban on pushcarts and the steady economic decline of the Lower East Side felled almost all of these shops.
Guss' Pickles withstood the economic difficulty and now remains as the last store from the days of the Essex Street empire. In 1979, Harry Baker and his partner Burt Blitz took over Guss' Pickles. Through the 1980s and into the 2000s, Baker and his son Tim ran the store. .
Guss' Pickles was featured in the film ''
Crossing Delancey''. Guss' Pickles ships gallon size nationwide at their official web-site GussPickles.com. In June 2017 Guss' Pickles opened a new store in Brooklyn inside the Dekalb Market Hall.
Ownership
In 2002, Tim Baker sold his ownership of Guss' Pickles to Andrew Leibowitz. The Guss' Pickles trademark now belongs to Crossing Delancey Pickle Enterprises Corporation. Andrew Leibowitz is the president. They maintain a factory in
the Bronx and a farm in
New Jersey.
References
External links
*
1920 establishments in New York City
Jews and Judaism in Manhattan
Lower East Side
Polish-Jewish culture in New York City
Restaurants in Manhattan
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