Exclusive | Reliably cheap NYC pickles being monetized and scrubbed up for influencers — in these trendiest, briny cocktails

Bartenders across the Big Apple have gotten themselves in a pickle. 

It used to be that NYC’s crunchy and sour snack was a cheap, old-school deli staple, served as part of a mouthwatering sandwich. 

These days, though, the humble pickle has been elevated to the latest trendy ingredient.

Just ask Selena Gomez, who recently turned 33 with a pickle birthday cake, or peruse recent reports that pickle juice has a myriad of health virtues, from probiotic benefits to blood sugar stabilization. 

It’s all marinated into the current state of pickle-gentrification.

While Pickleback shots (that is, pickle juice served alongside strong whiskey) have been a dive bar favorite for a decade now, pickle juice itself has started to flow into cocktails with mixologists across the city workin’ their gherkins into everything from martinis to spritzes.

“Brine everything has been getting more popular, but pickle juice especially so,” said Brenda Riepenhoff, a bartender who slings drinks at Brooklyn watering holes like Jr and Son, Vacations and Phil’s. “It’s a versatile ingredient and really adds something special to a cocktail.”

Pucker up, people! The Post picked some of the primest pickle cocktails in the city to help celebrate picklemania ’25.

Aperol Spritzes are so last summer

Chez Zou’s Pickle Spritz ($18) | 385 9th Ave., Suite 85, fourth floor

While Italy’s favorite drink, the Aperol Spritz, has long been a go-to for when sweltering New Yorkers need a sunny sip, get ready to trade fruity orange for green pickles.

Cue Chez Zou, the creative Hudson Yards cocktail den above chef Juliana Lati’s Eastern Mediterranean restaurant, Zou Zou, to concoct the refreshing Pickle Spritz.

The effervescent cocktail consists of a lip-smacking homemade brine loaded with dill and cucumbers. Top it off with verjus blanc, vermouth, and Champagne, and your apparitions of Aperol will be a distant memory. 

What a bloody treat!

Phil’s Bloody Martini ($12) | 695 Knickerbocker Ave., Brooklyn

Since the aforementioned Pickleback was invented at Brooklyn’s Bushwick Country Club, it should be no surprise that the borough continues to be a home of pickle innovation.

Over at Phil’s, the Bushwick bar known as a “wine dive,” not only do they have pickles for noshing on the menu (including alongside their soft and salty homemade pretzels), but the bar is also the home of a Pickle Bloody Martini.

“Honestly, the Bloody Martini was a passion project created by the staff that we ran as a one-off special,” Phil’s general manager Liberty Baverstock told The Post. “To our surprise, it sold out in two days.”

Step aside, horseradish: aside from pickle juice, the cocktail consists of Moletti Tomato gin and dry vermouth. Strain it, mix it, and top the whole shebang with a crack of black pepper.

Adds Baverstock: “We’ve just been loving the rise of pickle-based drinks.”

Not your standard cocktail

The Standard, High Line Soda Shop’s Pickle Martini ($18) | 848 Washington St.

Meatpacking mecca The Standard has long been a center of downtown glitz, and this summer is turning back the clock by turning its patio into a retro diner with a twist. Boasting a menu of all-American eats, they capitalize on pickelmania with a Pickle Martini.

Thirsty patrons can order the gin or vodka of their choice, mixed with pickle brine courtesy of the Portland-based The Good Pickle, alongside dill Aquavit. But don’t sleep on it: the Soda Shop closes at the end of the season. 

Sshhh … it’s a secret!

Amo’s Pickle Issues (sorry, it’s off-menu — you’ll have to ask for the price!) | 15 E. 12th St.

The same word for hook and love in Italian, Amo in Union Square has made a name for itself, thanks to having the freshest Italian fish in NYC. It’s shipped straight from the sparkling blue Adriatic, including Mediterranean sashimi, plump scallops and fire-red Sicilian shrimp.

But just below the surface of their regular seafood offerings lies an off-menu, pickle-fueled delight.

“We wanted to create something salty with the pickle brine that could pair well with the fish,” owner Rosario Procino told The Post, pointing out that the seas around Italy flow with saltwater. The result is what they lovingly dub Pickle Issues, which includes the titular ingredient along with Wild Turkey and lime juice.

“It’s an off-menu secret, but now the secret is out, I guess,” said Procino, who recommends washing it down with a crisp platter of fried calamari. 

It’s all in the name

Maison Pickle’s Maison Martini ($16) | 2315 Broadway

Welcome to the house of pickle.

Much like visiting Disney World to see where Mickey Mouse lives, no pickle fan’s dreams come true until they visit Maison Pickle, which serves as the city’s ground zero for the eponymous ingredient.

Not only should one order up classic pickle accompaniments like sizzling patty melts and juicy French dips, but wash it down with their namesake Maison Martini. Alongside Ford’s gin, vermouth and the proverbial pickle juice, the Maison team also adds a dash of orange citrate bitters to balance it all out.

‘Pickle is present’

Tiki Chick’s Frozen Pickle Painkiller ($15) | 517 Amsterdam Ave.

A tropical treat — with tang.

Even Manhattan’s Upper West Side isn’t immune from praiseworthy pickle delights. Grab a colorful lei and head to Tiki Chick, a neighborhood staple for tropical delights like Hurricanes and Blue Hawaiians.

But the crown jewel is their Frozen Pickle Painkiller, which features a wacky mashup of flavors from rum to coconut, orange, pineapple and the pièce de résistance: Jacob’s Pickles Hot Sour Brine.

“We like to joke that ‘pickle is present’ in the drink, so while lots of people try it, it’s the pickle people that truly fall in love with it and come back for more,” Selina Ardan, the director of marketing at the Pickle Hospitality Group — which looks after Tiki Chick as well as Maison Pickle — told The Post.

“It’s also popular as a post-run cocktail for people breaking a sweat on the weekends.”

That’s some fine brine

Kubeh’s Torshi-Tini ($18) | 464 6th Ave.

From the islands to Iraq. With a menu full of creamy hummus, succulent shawarma and sweet baklava, Greenwich Village’s Kubeh (run by the husband and wife team of Chef Melanie Shurka and David Or) is known for an array of Middle Eastern delights. The cocktails are no different.

Here, they conjured up what they dub the Torshi-Tini.

“It’s made with the brine of our house torshi,” says owner and chef Shurka of the Middle Eastern pickled vegetable mix. At Kubeh, the torshi is shaken with the sharp taste of Beefeater gin.

“I grew up with my Iranian grandmother always having mason jars of torshi around the house. It’s briney and a perfect pairing with our meze plates,” Shurka told The Post. 

Absolutely filthy

The Penrose’s Dirty Pickle Martini ($16) | 1590 2nd Ave.

Sometimes simplicity is bliss — just ask customers at late-night bar and restaurant The Penrose, another Upper East Side staple, where its Dirty Pickle Martini has been a crowd pleaser since it hit the menu.

The salty delight doesn’t reinvent the wheel, with the Penrose cocktail slingers utilizing spicy pickle brine and your choice of booze.

The bar proves that sometimes you need to go back to basics to have a lip-smacking sip.