Family-owned local business Pickle Licious built with pluck and brine

Robyn Samra worked a run of low-level culinary jobs before finally deciding she’d had enough. Weary of waitressing, managing, bartending and hosting, she saw a way out: pickles.

“Basically, I knew I didn’t want to work for anyone,” she recalls with sarcastic edge.

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Armed with determination and a zingy name she’d thought of herself – Pickle Licious – Samra made the trip down to the Lower East Side to Guss’ Pickle. A Fair Lawn native working in New York, Samra knew that Guss’ was the pinnacle of the pickle world. She pitched them an idea: she would sell Guss’ pickles at her own Pickle Licious stand at New Meadowlands Market in East Rutherford. That was in 1993.

“I said, ‘I’m going to start with the biggest name out there, so that’s what I did,” she says. “They thought I was crazy, but I said, ‘I’m gonna go for it.’ ”

Over 25 years in business, booths at 45 farmers markets, a flagship store in Teaneck, her products in specialty grocery stores all over the tri-state area, and delivery orders coming in from across the country attest — she went for it.

What started in the Meadowlands grew to include booths at street fairs. She opened (and closed) a store in Manhattan on Amsterdam Avenue. Then, in 2002, she started the Teaneck store that stands as the heart of her business today.

Eventually, she started making her own Kosher pickles, trying to keep the flavor as close to Guss’ as possible.

"We realized that people don’t like change, especially when it comes to pickles,” she says. “It’s this really weird thing with pickles. They bring back an old-time feel for people. When they come into the store the first thing they do is smell the pickles, and it reminds them of when they were growing up.”

It’s this nostalgia that Samra taps into with Pickle Licious. Memories of grandparents surrounded by jars filled with brine and trips down to the corner store for a juicy pickle are what keep people coming back. Samra, herself, has memories of going down to the deli in Fair Lawn for pickles.

Now, Pickle Licious ships its products, which include olives, as well as pickles, nation-wide. What started with five to 10 orders a week has expanded to over 100, going to places like Florida, the Carolinas and California. Samra says these orders are from New Jersey natives sending gifts to relatives, as well as from people who have discovered Pickle Licious online or on vacation in New Jersey that can’t find quality pickles in their own area.

Samra’s family is in on the business, too. Her husband, Ray, is her right-hand man. Her daughter Alexandria works with her full time, handling social media and events, and her daughter Taylor, a culinary institute graduate, has created some recipes for the business.

Flavors include full sour, half sour, horseradish and sweet gherkins.

“We want something special about (our ingredients),” Samra says. “We want them to be made, not by just a big company. We try to keep things local if we can, keep things sustainable if we can. We feel that’s important.”

Pickle Licious is located at 384 Cedar Lane, Teaneck; 201-833-0100, picklelicious.com.

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