Sebastian Vargo doesn’t want to come off like a snake oil salesman, but he is very much an evangelist for the power of pickling.
Vargo received an early fermentation indoctrination growing up in suburban Detroit, where his mother led regular forays to the area’s classic Jewish delis. “It was too much meat for me as a kid,” he says. “It was these stacked high sandwiches and these half and full sours. My first time having a salt-brined pickle was so different than Vlasic and everything else. And I have nostalgia too: really good memories of us all being together.”
These have included his PowerKraut, with cabbage, Thai basil, jalapeños, pickled mustard seeds, turmeric, ginger, and garlic; a nuclear horseradish mustard; and a silky smooth variant of the Middle Eastern garlic spread called toum. There’s been pickled baby bok choi with Thai basil and galangal; brussels sprout-radish kimchi; ginger-turmeric beer and pineapple-lemongrass kombucha; Bulgarian-style yogurt parfaits with miso peanut butter and fermented strawberry jam; ramp hot sauce; chipotle beat-kraut, and tomato vinegar. There’s a new and nearly different drop each week, exchanged for “suggested donations” via Instagram—but always the garlic dill pickles.
