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Guss' Pickles is a famous pickles vendor located on the Lower East Side of New York City. Considered one of New York's cultural landmarks, and for many years located on Hester Street, it is often included as a site of interest in tours of the Lower East Side, much as is Katz's Deli and Kossar's Bialys. As a wholesaler, Guss pickles was also a major purveyor of pickles to many of the hotels in the Catskills and Las Vegas while the storefront on Hester Street served as the focal point for its retail operations.

Guss' Pickles was founded by a Polish immigrant, Isidor Guss. Guss arrived in New York in 1910, and like hundreds of thousands of other Jewish immigrants, settled in the Lower East Side. Like many of his fellow immigrants, Guss rented a pushcart and sold produce - including his now famous pickles - on the Lower East Side. 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 later 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 survived these fallow times and now stands as the last holdover 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. The only 3 living people who know the original Guss' secret recipe are Andrew Leibowitz, Stephen Leibowitz, and Harry Baker.

For 7 years all I had to do was walk out my front door and walk 3 blocks to Guss'. Man o' man, you wanna talk pickles....So Bill, come on out to New York City and I'll personally take you down to Guss for the ultimate taste test. And it's all on me, except for the plane fare...

Stuart4th wrote:

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When I was growing up Vernors (not Vernor's) tasted a lot more like ginger beer than it does today. (It also had a darker, more golden color back then.)