Oceanside pickle sandwich goes viral

When Seven Brothers Gourmet decided to add a healthier sandwich alternative to their menu, they could have never anticipated the wildly positive reception it would get. A seemingly mundane idea turned into an overnight success by the power of TikTok, the pickle sandwich from Seven Brothers has been bringing in business from near and far.

The viral sandwich uses the two halves of a pickle sliced longways with the cores scraped out as substitutes for the bun. According to Anthony Fiorito, one of the co-owners at Seven Brothers Gourmet, it all started back in January when one of their cashiers wanted to see a healthier sandwich option on the menu and ended up asking for a sandwich on a pickle. At the time there was no explosion of popularity, but when the sister of one of Seven Brothers’ summer cashiers posted a video on TikTok of themselves trying the new menu item, it completely blew up.

“Little by little more and more people kept coming in for it, and eventually we reached the point we’re at now. It’s incredible, It really is,” Fiorito said.

In fact, the store recently set a new record, selling over 400 pickle sandwiches in one day. Fiorito attributes much of its success to the younger crowd now pouring into the establishment everyday. Fiorito said that the usual crowd is usually a lot of older people or families, but ever since they went viral on TikTok, they have seen a huge uptick in the number of young people that come into the store. The staff has even made a game out of trying to guess which customers are coming in to try the pickle sandwich.

“It’s just bringing in a whole new type of energy into the store,” Fiorito said. “Getting to see more of this younger crowd is really cool. We’re just hoping that people learn more about us and they try the other stuff that we have to offer.”

Since the surge in popularity of Seven Brothers Gourmet, the rush of customers seems to be never-ending. The rush, which usually starts around 11 a.m., now lasts until almost closing time according to Fiorito. The owners have had to get behind the deli counter themselves in order to help keep up with the sheer number of patrons.

“In the morning it’s pretty slow, but after like 11 a.m. it’s crazy all day until closing and you don’t really have time to stop for a break. It’s crazy,” Matthew Frangos, a deli worker at Seven Brothers Gourmet, said. “It’s something new that I’ve never seen before,” Frangos added. “You’re getting a whole new generation of customers in here. It’s like my generation and even the younger kids, we have an entirely new clientele.”

Part of this new clientele includes Leah Alba, who isn’t an Oceanside local, but traveled an hour from Bayshore just to try the viral pickle sandwich. Alba said she saw videos about the new trend on TikTok and Instagram and just had to try it. “Everyone that has tried it that I’ve seen videos of said it was amazing,” she said And I’m going to say it’s amazing as well.”