This Restaurant Uses Huge Pickles Instead of Bread for Its Sandwiches

Pickles and sandwiches are the perfect marriage of flavors and textures. The former are typically served up sliced among the other ingredients or as a side with the latter, but a New Jersey restaurant is flipping that concept on its head...

Pickles and sandwiches are the perfect marriage of flavors and textures. The former are typically served up sliced among the other ingredients or as a side with the latter, but a New Jersey restaurant is flipping that concept on its head. Elsie’s in Haddon Township, New Jersey has swapped bread for gigantic pickles and the people are understandably obsessed.

The pickle-forward eatery allows you to build your own sandwich or pick from its long list of specialty options to pile between two pickle “buns,” which is a gluten free option we can get behind. You may be wondering how the fixings stay on this sandwich, considering pickles tend to be a bit… well, wet. At Elsie’s, each of the massive pickles used in place of bread are scooped out before any meat, cheese, or whatever else you want is piled high between the two parts. Oh, and toothpicks are added to help keep the layers together.

If you’re looking for something a little lighter, Elsie’s has another insanely pickle-y option for you, too. In addition to the viral pickle sandwiches, you can also order a pickle or cucumber roll-up version of each sandwich. Each order comes with six pieces -- served kinda like a sushi roll -- so you can chow down alone or share with a friend.

“We are a sandwich shop but, in lieu of bread, we use our Elsie’s signature pickle,” Katherine Cohen, co-owner of Elsie’s, told Thrillist. “We have a family pickle recipe that we resurrected and we started making sandwiches on our signature pickles and people lost their minds so we just rolled with it.”

Elsie’s has plenty of sandwich staples to choose from, including your standard deli fare and other popular sandwich accoutrements like its sriracha mayo and a spicy wasabi mayo. But enough with the details already -- who’s coming with us for a long lunch break in Jersey?


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Caitlyn Hitt is Daria IRL. Don't take our word for it -- find her on Twitter @nyltiaccc.