Get Some: The Real Dill Hand-Crafted Pickles

The Real Dill artisan pickle company received a tiny mention in our September Food Lover’s Guide to Denver. If you passed it over, well, I hope you didn’t miss last week’s Burger Night at Marczyk Fine Foods (both locations) where Tyler DuBois and Justin Park set up pickle bars for sampling.

The occasion was the Denver company’s retail debut: For the first time since the Real Dill officially launched five months ago, the beguiling pickles (jalapeño-honey dills, aji chile sours, and habanero-horseradish dills) reached an audience outside of the farmers’ markets. The snack finds shelf space exclusively at Marczyk’s—at least for now. And this makes sense given that DuBois used to work behind the market’s meat counter.

Before that, DuBois spent time on the line at Colt & Gray (which just nabbed #9 on our 25 Best Restaurants list). In fact, it was in that kitchen where he and Park initially made and tested many of their wacky-sounding pickles. It’s also where DuBois first met chef Ryan Leinomen who now owns Trillium (#16 on our 25 Best Restaurants list). Stay tuned for the Real Dill’s custom horseradish-caraway pickle destined for Trillium’s bloody mary.

There’s clearly a lot happening for the Real Dill but DuBois and Park insist on keeping things small. It’s a two-man company where everything is done by hand: the recipe creation, the cucumber cutting, the jarring, the labeling, the delivering. “We want to grow slowly,” Park says. “We want to learn it all and be hands on. This is a pursuit of passion. We see an opportunity to make high-quality pickles that are different and unique.”

Bonus: Once your pickles are gone, DuBois and Park offer recipes to use up the leftover brine, dill, garlic, and other goodies that come in each jar. Of note: Turn the remains of the habanero horseradish dills into a kicky bloody mary mix or use the pickled chiles from the aji chile sours in hot sauce.

Marczyk Fine Foods, 770 E. 17th Ave., 303-894-9499; 5100 E. Colfax Ave., 303-243-3355