Have a Pickle Chaser With That Whiskey

The hottest New York bar trend is based on a decidedly unsexy beverage: pickle juice. The "pickle back," a shot of pickle juice to chase straight Jameson, was once a staff-only practice known as the "bartender's handshake." But ordinary customers have found that the unlikely combination is the perfect thing to tame the whiskey, the New York Post reports. “People used to look at me like I was a friggin’ Frankenstein,” says one East Village barman. “Now I have customers coming in specifically to drink pickle backs.”
(More pickle stories.)