That's So Pittsburgh: Picklesburgh

Saturday Dear Husband and I headed downtown to the Roberto Clemente Bridge (one of the yellow "Three Sisters") for the Picklesburgh food and music festival. It celebrates the legacy of Henry John Heinz (1844-1919), childhood garden-produce entrepreneur, whose first product was horseradish but whose most famous is probably ketchup, "the taste loved 'round the world."* Did you know that Brits eat so much baked beans because of HJH's marketing prowess? Pickles were definitely among the 57 varieties of condiments in his warehouse when Heinz coined the slogan in 1896.

We attended with, oh, about a thousand of our "closest" friends and neighbors on a hot, sunny, late July day. DH was grateful for scoring probably the best garage parking spot we have yet enjoyed in the Cultural District. Skipping the kiosk for wristbands for alcoholic drinks, we ended up starting at the Geico tent, where I guessed at the number of stuffed geckos in a container. (I entered 73, and then after I submitted it, their logo said they were celebrating their 75th anniversary, so I bet that was the correct answer.). Then I rolled some big dice and "won" myself a tiny stuffed gecko. First food was carnitas sliders from the Warren Bar and Burrow. They consisted of a hunk of meat on a tiny bun with a very acidic pickled green tomato, a dill aioli, and a pickled mac and cheese on the side.

While eating in the breeze overlooking the Allegheny River, we listened to the announcer call a heat of the pickle juice drinking contest. At one point he alerted the other contestants that they could stop drinking since a winner had already been declared...

We continued onto the bridge, where thick streams of people shuffled alongside each other and a row of vendors hawking everything from pickle-themed jewelry to gutter-management systems, bottles of potable pickle brine to "I'm a big dill" tshirts, pickle-flavored ice cream and pickle-flavored beer. DH wanted a non-alcoholic drink, so we stopped by a kimchi tent to buy a glass of strawberry lemonade. I was still hungry and braved the "jumbo peanut butter pickle cookie" (above left), which tasted like a sugar cookie with a pickle aftertaste. There were little green bits of pickle in the cookie. We bypassed the Heinz photo booth where families were getting their picture taken with pickle and gherkin cuts, but I collected a Heinz pickle pin from a volunteer. That is the essence of modern consumer culture: convince people that advertising for your company is a privilege. (See also, a certain stuffed green lizard.)

We did not stop at Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop, but I did take a picture of the signs advertising Pickle Salt Water Taffy, Pickle Oreos, Pickle and Ketchup Soda, and Pickle Cotton Candy. On Monday while I was wrapping up, another resident stopped in the lounge to print something. She had her son with her (5-6 years old), who made a beeline for me--do you think he could smell the pediatrician in the room?--and peppered me with questions until I agreed to try some of his pickle cotton candy, which was...interesting.

When we had walked to the end of the bridge, it took another 5-10 minutes until we could get past the no-alcohol-beyond-this-point gate and turn around to walk back across the pedestrian part of the bridge. It's such a big bridge that you can't hear the music being played on either shore when you're in the center. Later that day the bridge got so full that the police started restricting access to alleviate the crush. Writing this on Monday night, I can easily imagine the carnage that would have resulted if a gunman had chosen this specialty food festival to shoot up rather than the garlic one in California. The inhabitants of this city have already proven that they are "Pittsburgh Strong," and while we pray for the people of Gilroy, most of us had hoped that ours would be the last mass shooting. They're funny that way: Pittsburghers will swelter to poke fun at themselves with a street fair devoted to cucumbers in vinegar, and they'll also show up to help a neighbor or protest injustice. That's so Pittsburgh.


*Pittsburghers so love Heinz ketchup that when someone found out that local amusement park Kennywood tried to stock Hunt's ketchup, an online petition tracked their outrage to the tune of 8,500 signatures, and the Heinz ketchup was brought back.


If you liked this edition of That's So Pittsburgh, you might like this post about a clever exhibit hiding in plain sight at the airport, or this one about the artistic legacy of another of the Steel City's Robber Barons.