Home Northside Planning Council The Pickle Jar food cart offers locally sourced BBQ, sides and desserts

The Pickle Jar food cart offers locally sourced BBQ, sides and desserts

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The Pickle Jar food cart offers locally sourced BBQ, sides and desserts
Pickle Jar food cart and owner John Pickle. Photo by Jennifer St. Cyr.

Sheri Gasser
Northside News

Owned and operated by Jennifer St. Cyr and John Pickle, the Pickle Jar food cart serves up BBQ and pies made from scratch. To prepare their tasty fare, the owners needed a base kitchen from which to work. That’s where their relationship with the FEED Kitchens first developed.

After running backyard barbecues for some time and with encouragement from friends, the two considered opening a restaurant. The Pickle Jar started as a business in August 2014. With Pickle’s experience of over 20 years in the restaurant business —  in positions as varied as line cook, manager and, most recently, chef at Rockhound Brewing Company over the winter — he knew just how expensive opening a restaurant could be. He and St. Cyr decided to go with a food cart instead.

Built of reclaimed wood from Pickle’s grandfather’s old dairy barn, the cart has a distinctive visual appeal. This local, rustic aesthetic carries over into their menu, which features smoked chicken, pulled pork and sliced brisket sandwiches. Sides include cornbread, collard greens, cakes and pies. They make their own barbecue sauces and pickles.

What makes their food really stand out is the local sourcing of their ingredients. Their pork comes from Uphoff Farms in Dane County, ribs are from Fox Heritage Farms, chicken is from Wisconsin and brisket is from Wisconsin and Iowa. All of their meat is free-range and natural. Their produce is nearly all locally sourced from around the state and area farmers markets. Most of the fruit for their pies is grown in Door County.

With all these local and seasonal ingredients, the scale of equipment offered by the FEED Kitchens is a necessity in keeping the Pickle Jar food cart operational. According to Pickle, “FEED was truly a perfect fit for us, and without FEED our business would not exist. FEED made it easy for us to pursue our vision due to the quality of their equipment and advice.”

Intrigued while driving past as the building was going up on Sherman Avenue, he first connected with FEED’s manager, Adam Haen, through the website and during a tour of the facility. Besides providing kitchen and storage space, FEED has helped with advice for possible new ventures and business contacts. The Pickle Jar was able to install their smoker and “without that the quality of our BBQ would not be competitive,” Pickle said. “What we like best about our business is connecting with people through food. We love it when someone truly enjoys our hard work and we strive to really impress people with our quality and care of our products.”

The Pickle Jar food cart can be found on the Capitol Square weekdays for lunch at the top of State Street in front of the State Historical Museum, during neighborhood Let’s Eat Out nights for dinner and at other events throughout the year. Find information on the cart’s whereabouts on their Facebook page.