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Right off Interstate 690 East lies one of the Syracuse community’s favorite sandwich joints. A green gherkin sign, a neon-red Brooklyn Bridge, murals of the staff — Brooklyn Pickle draws you back 50 years, and you’ll find it hard to leave.

“It’s like a time capsule,” Mariah Root, manager of the Burnet Avenue location, said. “You get sucked into the Brooklyn Pickle life.”

For nearly half a century, Brooklyn Pickle has been immutable. Its sandwiches and hot specials, like Thursday’s chicken riggies, are community staples. It’s a packed lunch spot; go around noon and see locals grabbing a bite. It borrows its style from Katz’s Delicatessen in New York City; sandwiches are made and packaged with dill or garlic pickles.

Ken Sniper founded the eatery in 1975. As a child, Sniper’s mother would take him to visit family in Brooklyn over the summers. In those days, big pickle barrels sat outside the storefronts. Sniper loved to eat the pickles right out of the barrels.

The name stuck when he opened the Burnet Avenue stand: Brooklyn Pickle.

Root handles the day-to-day at Burnet Avenue’s Brooklyn Pickle as manager, including catering to medical centers and office buildings. A typical day sells around 1,000 sandwiches — the staff’s lowballed estimate.

The sheer amount of sandwiches going out each day is almost overwhelming. But the squadron at the Pickle is lethal, and 1,000 is just another day at work for them.

The day staff is Root’s “all-star” team. Julie Young, who has worked at the Pickle for 25 years, is Root’s “killer.” Staff members are expected to make sandwiches in less than 40 seconds. Day staff, the all-stars? They can do it in 30 with ease. Young, the killer? Try 15.

“We still want to spend time with our customers and have it be a friendly environment, but we still gotta get the people out,” Root said. “It’s necessary.”

Patrons don’t feel rushed at all. Lynee Hamm, who has been going to the Pickle for 20 years, orders a Cajun Turkey Breast Sandwich or a Corned Beef Sandwich, coming from her nearby workplace. She said the wait is never too long and the staff is always relatable.

“The atmosphere is important, but when you can come in and feel like family, that’s huge,” Hamm said.

Lars Jendruschewitz | Photo Editor

Craig Kowadla, the owner of Brooklyn Pickle, stands in front of a mural that greets customers as they enter the shop. The mural is custom-made and depicts him with the former owner, Ken Sniper, on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Regular patrons like Hamm are a welcome sight to staff; Root described them as celebrities for the day. Staff gets excited to see them each day, and ask about their family. Root said that makes it personal for patrons, which is one of her goals there.

“Some of them don’t even have to tell us their sandwich,” Root said. “We just make it as they walk in.”

This is the way it’s always been at the Pickle. There’s a history here.

Sniper was a father figure to Craig Kowadla, and dated Kowadla’s mother in the 1970s. Kowadla started working as a cashier at the Pickle at 7 years old. He left the Pickle for a time, returning in 2002 and eventually succeeding Sniper as the Pickle kingpin. Sniper now lives in Florida, where Kowadla says he’s peacefully retired.

Since Kowadla bought the Pickle, the restaurant has gone from a local staple to a growing brand, with three locations in North Carolina opening in 2023. Kowadla decided to split some of his time down there. The weather is great down there, taxes are low and people are friendly, Kowadla said, so why not open it up there? It’s a far cry from central New York winters.

“I’m getting old, and I started feeling that cold hurting my bones and joints, so I’m trying to get out of the cold,” Kowadla said.

Kowadla seems far from old — he has all the energy and drive of a point guard (his old basketball position). Kowadla’s not entrenched in traditions either. Besides expanding the franchise south, he’s also incorporated social media advertising, moved away from radio spots and adjusted his marketing approach to break into tight-knit southern communities.

Despite having a degree in business, Kowadla’s degree in psychology has been much more useful in managing the Pickle. Kowadla recognized the management style he experienced when he was younger — in-your-face coaching with high intensity — isn’t functional in today’s climate. His staff, still highly reliable, is more sensitive now, and Kowadla meets them in the middle.

Lars Jendruschewitz | Photo Editor

A Brooklyn Pickle employee places pickles on top of a customer’s sandwich. They wrap pickles with every sandwich in the traditional style of New York City sandwich shops.

“You’ve got to study people, how to talk to people, how to handle employees,” Kowadla said. “Some you can kick hard, sometimes you gotta be gentle. It’s a juggling act.”

Kowadla has done everything at the Pickle: swept floors, cleaned toilets, made sandwiches, sliced, cooked hot meals. He did whatever he had to do, which is an expectation he has for his staff now.

“I’ll never ask someone to do something I won’t do,” Kowadla said.

Even as the Pickle’s food kingdom expands, it remains down-to-earth. Many members of the staff, noted by regulars as friendly and by management as reliable, remain the same over the years.

For all the external change the Pickle has undergone, Root feels like it never changes. The way staff interacts with each other, patrons, the environment of the store, its look? That’s all stayed the same since she started working there.

There’s an everyday feel that Root compared to returning to your childhood home. There might be slight differences in appearance, people might get older, but the feel of the place is always the same.

“You walk back in here and it just feels like you’re coming home for Thanksgiving,” Root said. “We’re all a big family.”

Published on November 12, 2024 at 11:22 pm