America’s resurgent love for the gherkin is expressed in deliciously offbeat ways at these Valley restaurants.
Dill pickles have gone from overlooked garnish to center-of-the-plate status, fueled by the TikTok dill pickle sandwich craze that shows folks swapping bread for hollowed-out pickles. While we couldn’t find any bonafide pickle sandwiches in the Valley, we did find some other fun, off-label uses that puckered our tastebuds.
At The Starving Artist (2144 E. Indian School Rd., Phoenix, 480-590-7065, starvingartistaz.com), O.H.S.O. Brewery + Distillery’s “dive bar meets cocktail lounge,” the kitchen puts out a dill pickle pizza ($25, 18-inch pie, pictured; $4.25, slice) that started as a special, but became so popular it earned a permanent spot on the menu, says O.H.S.O. culinary director Bruce Briere. The New York-style pizza, slathered with a cream-based garlic white sauce, is topped with mozzarella and ricotta cheeses, then sheathed in local Mrs. Klein’s dill pickle slices and finished with a generous drizzle of buttermilk dressing and fresh dill sprigs. If you’re skeptical about the flavor combo, keep an open mind. The savory pickle pie, built on a thin house-made crust, covers all the pizza requirements – salty, cheesy and leaves you longing for more.
Pickle enthusiasts will delight in the dill pickle wedge ($17) at Beginner’s Luck (7240 E. Main St., Scottsdale, 480-571-0416, beginnersluckaz.com), masterminded by chef/partner Bernie Kantak, who created the salad for his wife. “She wanted pickles with smoked blue cheese on her wedge salad,” he says. Kantak, an avowed pickle lover, anchors the salad with a wedge of cool, crisp iceberg lettuce scattered with chopped dill pickles, earthy Moody Blue cheese, applewood-smoked bacon bits and cherry tomatoes. Then, he crowns the whole affair with a pickle-packed dill ranch dressing, and adds a few spicy, smashed, pickled cucumbers to balance the avalanche of dill. Kantak finishes with a sprinkle of crispy, salty Kettle potato chips, for “a punch of salt and texture, texture, texture,” he says.
Meanwhile, All Pierogi Kitchen Euro Market & Restaurant (1245 W. Baseline Rd., Mesa, 480-262-3349, allpierogi.com), a Ukrainian restaurant in the East Valley run by owner Nataliya Koshalko, offers a smoked kielbasa and dill pickle soup ($4, cup; $8, bowl; $12, large bowl) that’s enlivened with chopped dill pickles, providing a tangy, briny counterpoint to the smoky sausage. Rounded out by slivers of carrots and onions, potatoes, barley, fresh dill and an infusion of sour cream, the broth has a velvety quality with a tangy finish. Whether or not you embrace the idea of pickles in soup, All Pierogi’s version is comfort in a bowl.
