First Look: Jacob’s Pickles Opens at The SoNo Collection

Jacob’s hot chicken biscuit may be listed under “Southern Biscuit Sandwiches” on the menu, but trust us, you’re eating this one with a fork and knife. They’ll even tell you that these “sandwiches” are of the open face variety. And of course…almost everything here comes with pickled cukes or some type of pickled something.

For several months, as in, almost all of 2023, a lot of Fairfield County restaurant buzz centered around Jacob Hadjigeorgis and his pickles.

We’re not kidding when we say the opening date of Jacob’s Pickles at The SoNo Collection was something we got asked about repeatedly.

But without further ado, and on the heels of several articles that only told you the grand opening date of November 6, the truth is, Jacob’s Pickles had their soft opening a week prior.

We snuck in for all their southern comfort indulgences and to get the scoop on Jacob, how he got started, why he decided to open Jacob’s Pickles in Norwalk, and to get to the bottom of all things pickled.

Norwalk! Keep scrolling for the inside look at YOUR Jacob’s Pickles!  

A big bar, plenty of dining room, and they even have a pickling room. Sweet space, eh?

Hadjigeorgis told us that he thought they’d be open in a few weeks, then a few weeks turned into several months. “It was all gravel and cinderblocks,” he says of the space. “I thought I knew when we were going to pen, but I kept being wrong.”

That’s a lot of jars of pickles!

While there are five Jacob’s Pickles locations, Norwalk’s Jacob’s is only their second full service restaurant with the original located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side The other three (Citi Field, Time Out Market in Dumbo, and Moynihan Train Hall).

But why Norwalk? “A lot of our Upper West Side guest and some of our friends have moved to this area, so that’s been nice to see them,” Hadjigeorgis says. “I love that there’s shopping, it’s an hour from the city, and it felt good, felt right, and it feels creative here, and we want to be a part of that. We’ve gotten a lot of support from the community and our neighbors. We also want to continue our tradition of giving back in some way and do it in Connecticut. Norwalk is an amazing city. There’s so much anticipation in us coming here, so we wanted to make this Jacob's Pickles, Norwalk's Jacob's Pickles.”

Hadjigeorgis didn’t intend to get into the restaurant business, but he was born into it. His father owned Seasons Restaurant in Harrison, NY and he grew up in Astoria.

“Seasons was a neighborhood staple where we met amazing people and built amazing friendships,” he recalls. “It was nice to have that familiarity with customers that became family. That's what inspired me to try to always be connected with the community. My father had a small business when it meant something to be a small business. It’s not like that anymore. Everything feels gentrified. I was the kid that slept in the basement at the restaurant when grandma and grandpa couldn't watch me. I was tremendously immersed in what my family was doing at the restaurant. Hospitality, service, care, personal touch. I decided on the Upper West Side for the first Jacob’s because it’s one of the few remaining communities in Manhattan. I could build those same relationships that I saw growing up. That's our DNA and want to bring same thing here.”

Deviled eggs are a popular starter and you must have known each one would have a pickle “chip” garnish.

Mac & cheese is a staple at Jacob’s. The reason stems from Hadjigeorgis’ time in Boston where he’d eventually open his first restaurant, Mmmac & Cheese. “Boston wasn't where I really wanted to be, but I was running away from law school. Even if I went, I Wasn’t going to practice law. I took some time off. In college days, I thought about mac and cheese and how that particular item puts a smile on everyone's faces. It's the ultimate comfort food and it clicked. It allowed me to be creative in different ways.”

More cheese, please! But make it pimento that you’ll smear all over those biscuit toast points. To cut through the cheese and carbs, there’s a little side dish of assorted pickled veggies like cauliflower, sweet & spicy carrots, and onions.

These pigs in a blanket are fancy. Everything seasoned puff pastry wrapped around a “hot dog” that’s more kielbasa than wiener.

Sure to be a social media hit is this obviously shareable order of poutine smothered in brown gravy, cheese, and hollandaise. The menu mostly stems from Hadjigeorgis’ travels with his family and when he traveled for fencing competitions. That comfort food became the inspiration for the food at Jacob’s Pickles.

“I was exposed to so many different flavors,” Hadjigeorgis explains. “I had so much awesome food, but realized NY somehow didn't represent regional American cuisine. If I craved certain foods, I had to make it at home. I knew my way around the kitchen, and it wasn't always what I was going for, but I kept working on it. My dad had a bunch of books I used for reference. I ended up with a bunch of recipes that I launched when we opened and to this day they're cornerstones. Pickles specifically are a hobby, like this cathartic, relaxing thing to do. I had a small garden and had already launched Mmmac & Cheese in Boston. It was just a chill thing to do to play with those flavors and an interesting thing to do. Jacob's Pickles was going to be a product in that restaurant, but it turned into Jacob's Pickles and it embodied the handcrafted nature of what Jacob's Pickles is.”

The “Mocha Martini” (Breckinridge Espresso Vodka, coffee cordial, Irving Farm Iced Coffee, chocolate bitters) is one of many craft cocktails featured. A few, like the “Dickel Back” (a shot of Dickel #8 and a shot of house pickle brine) and the Spicy Brine Margarita both have plenty of that briny, tangy bite.

In addition to including local spirits from SoNo1420 and a nice selection of craft beer, some from the nearby Spacecat Brewing Company, Jacob’s also has enough premium, rarer spirits, too. “We always have something special from Michter’s,” Hadjigeorgis says. “We can even get our hands on that aged stuff that’s harder to get.”

Yes, Jacob’s does have its own beer, made for them by Bronx Brewery.

“It’s a lager and we wanted it to be biscuity and bready,” Hadjigeorgis says. “That's why we call it a biscuit beer. We wanted it to be a year-round beer and had to pair well with fried chicken. We knew when we tried it that this was our beer.”

And yeah, that is a pumpkin variant for the fall season.

Biscuits + fixins with four types of butter; salted, maple, strawberry, and sundried tomato, plus some clover honey for drizzling.

The “Butcher Block” has some lofty grub like a chicken fried bone-in pork chop, baby backs, a red wine braised turkey leg, and this double cut bone-in beef rib.

Because this is a New England location, our Jacob’s has more in terms of seafood, and they’re talking to local farms and purveyors in hopes of developing those partnerships.

Desserts, like the dishes, are plentiful. This isn’t a slice of strawberry cheesecake, it’s classified as a HUNK.

Half-baked skillet cookies are a thing here, too, like this birthday cake cookie.

And last but not least…MORE PICKLES!

Most are made in-house with their other, more popular recipes having to be outsourced to keep up with demand. “In our kitchen on the Upper West Side, you know when it's pickle day because the smell lofts through the dining room,” Hadjigeorgis says. “The same as the biscuits, you can smell it. These core items, I developed in my own kitchen. We’ve convinced a lot of people to like pickles, especially when it comes to learning how to pair them with certain foods. Pickles are polarizing, but fried chicken with honey and pickles, come on! Everything I loved, I poured into Jacob's. My entire heart has gone into it.”

100 N Water Street, Norwalk
475.275.0985, jacobspickles.com