New York City’s Decades-Long Pickle War
This is the story of a famous New York pickle stand that sparked a salty legal battle spanning decades. Gloves came off, lawsuits were filed, and history remembers this brawl as the Great Pickle War. As the iconic store was passed down from generation to generation, one question fueled the warfare: Who is the true heir to the Guss’ Pickle throne?
First, let's get to know our key players in the sour battle ahead:
Izzy Guss: A Russian Jewish immigrant who, in 1920, opened the famous Guss' Pickles on Manhattan’s Hester Street on the Lower East Side.
Harold Baker: The next owner of Guss' Pickles after Izzy Guss’s death in 1975.
Tim Baker: Harold’s son, a pickle apprentice turned master.
Stephen Leibowitz: The owner of United Pickle Products, the longtime supplier to Guss' Pickles.
Andrew Leibowitz: Stephen's son, who became known as the “Chief Pickle Maven” (a self-assigned title).
Patricia Fairhurst: Pickle newcomer, who took over Guss' Pickles from the Bakers.
Got it? Good. Let's dive in.
Did you know that New York City once had a Pickle District? The Lower East Side’s Essex Street was once home to 80 pickle merchants, earning it the nickname “Pickle Alley.” Izzy Guss and his pickles were a staple of the thoroughfare until he died in 1975. After Guss’s death, the business was sold to Harold Baker, who operated it with his son Tim until 2004, when the Bakers sold it to Patricia Fairhurst. More on her later. For the nearly 30 years that the Bakers operated Guss’ Pickles, they sourced their cucumbers from the Liebowitzes’ United Pickle Products, the oldest, family-owned, continually operating pickle company in New York to this day.
The Bakers ran the store; the Leibowitzes supplied the ingredients. Two households, both alike in pickled dignity, in fair Manhattan, where we lay our scene.
Are you with me so far? It’s about to get messy. Or as the New York Post put it, “This tale of betrayal, madness, jealousy and rage makes ‘King Lear’ sound like a child’s bedtime story.”
In 2002, the sons of each pickle patriarch, Andrew Leibowitz and Tim Baker, joined together to open a second Guss’ Pickles location in Cedarhurst, N.Y., on Long Island. Leibowitz claimed that he had bought the rights to the Guss’ Pickles name and recipes. Baker disputed this, saying he never sold the name to the Liebowitzes.
Two years later, Baker left the pickle business and offered to sell the original Guss’ Pickles store to the Leibowitz family, but they declined. Baker then sold the store to pickle newcomer, Patricia Fairhurst. But trouble came when Fairhurst stopped using the Leibowitzes as her pickle supplier. In retaliation, Stephen Leibowitz sent a letter demanding that Fairhurst stop selling under the Guss’ Pickles name, claiming that she “bought a lease, not a trademark.”
Fairhurst responded by filing a lawsuit denying the Leibowitzes’ allegation that she was infringing on any trademark. She accused the Leibowitzes of unfair competition and “tortious interference,” alleging that they had intentionally disrupted her business, resulting in economic harm. Two months later, the Leibowitzes responded with their own lawsuit against Fairhurst, denying her accusations, and filed a counterclaim asserting they were the rightful owners of the Guss’ Pickles name and trademark.
It was Fairhurst vs. the Leibowitzes. One had the store and the name, the other had the history and the supply chain. Both retained the original punctuation, calling themselves Guss' Pickles.
The battle intensified when Whole Foods opened a new branch on the Lower East Side and began selling Guss’ Pickles. Which ones, you ask? Not Fairhurst’s, which were being peddled nearby on Orchard Street, but pickles from the Guss’ Pickles Cedarhurst store. (J’accuse!) Fairhurst claimed the pickles sold at Whole Foods were not true Guss’ pickles. “They never came from me,” said Fairhurst. “I am Guss’ Pickles.” Whole Foods, realizing they had accidentally stepped into a pickle minefield, made a simple public statement: “We believe we are selling the original Guss’ Pickles.” Dun dun DUUUN.
In 2007, the lawsuits were settled. Fairhurst was allowed to keep the name Guss’ Pickles on the original store, but only at that location. If she were to move her business, she would have to leave the name behind. In 2009, after 85 years of operation, the original Guss’ Pickles location closed, and Fairhurst moved her pickle business to Borough Park under a new name, Ess-A-Pickle. Guss' Pickles can still be purchased on the website created by Andrew Leibowitz. The homepage boasts, “Guss’ Pickles: Imitated But Never Duplicated.”
By: Rachel Manson
