Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsay Malinowski and Bradley Treusdell.
Lindsay and Bradley, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When we would tell people we wanted to open a restaurant, they would always warn us. It’s a tough business. It’s unpredictable. It’s stressful. We both got our first jobs in fast food when we were teenagers and we’ve both been working in restaurants since then. We don’t really know any better. I was born near Chicago and grew up in Florida in and around Tampa and Bradley grew up in and around Buffalo NY. We met in Buffalo working together and dated briefly before I decided to move back to Chicago. I asked Bradley if he wanted to come with me. We hadn’t known each other that long, but the restaurant had closed and I was going to nanny for my sister while I looked for a job. He said he didn’t want to move but he would come visit with me and check it out. We were in Chicago for forty-five minutes before he changed his mind. We were riding bikes from Bucktown to the waterfront. He fell in love with the city so quickly. I had wanted to love in Chicago for a long time and I was so excited to finally make it my permanent home. We’ve been here for just over seven years now. For 18 years, I’ve been working in the front of the house doing counter service, waiting tables, as a barista, expeditor, busser, manager, etc. Bradley’s been cooking for 19. When we moved to Chicago, I started doing counter service at The Goddess and Grocer right away and Bradley got a position at The Boiler Room shortly after it opened. I moved over to Letizia’s Fiore at California and Altgeld and split my time between there and Enoteca Roma. Bradley managed the Kitchens at the Boiler Room and Parts and Labor and most recently worked on the line at The Radler. We traveled a lot during this time and really started forming concrete ideas about what kind of project we wanted to do. Three years ago, we purchased our building in West Logan Square and that’s when our plans slowly but surely started coming together.
Has it been a smooth road?
We both worked in Logan square for a long time before we decided to move here. Our goal was always to find a space that we could build our home in as well as our business and the western part of Logan Square had exactly what we were looking for. We bought our property knowing it needed a lot of work and we started rehabbing everything little by little during our time off. It was definitely a learning process but we really enjoyed doing the work ourselves. All of the units in the building were occupied besides our apartment at the time of purchase and our plan was to take it slow and work on it piece by piece. We were really excited to have a permanent home and to be a closer part of the neighborhood and community. We didn’t want to come in and displace people or businesses that were already here and that was a big factor while we were looking for a property. When our tenants moved out of the space that The Little Pickle is in now, our intention was originally to rehab it and rent it out again. We were still trying to finalize our restaurant plans and we thought it was still a few years down the line. Once we started doing the work of gutting the old currency exchange offices, we really started to see the hidden beauty under the drywall and dropped ceilings. This is when we really started talking about scaling back our original plans and doing something really simple and focused. While traveling we had seen so many small businesses and street vendor that were hyper focused on doing one thing really well and we wanted to do something similar. After living here, it also seemed much more like something that was needed in the neighborhood, that would fit in better. We put so much work into restoring the old building and the more we talked about it the more excited we got about getting started. From the beginning, we hit a lot of road blocks, from our architect, to permits, to plumbing and electric, every single step seemed like it was going to be an impossible hurdle. It took two years to complete drawings and construction. During that time though, we really leaned into the DIY aspects of the project. We are passionate about recycling and reuse in our home and we brought that to our restaurant as well. With the exception of the walls themselves and the restaurant equipment, we built or salvaged almost everything in the restaurant. All of the delays gave us time to put the work into building something really unique and personal and all of the physical labor really eased the emotional stress of the hurdles we were facing.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with The Little Pickle – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We make pickles! Pickles have always been my favorite food and Bradley really started to get excited about pickling during his time at The Radler. Our business is a small sandwich shop with a heavy focus on pickled and fermented foods. Our menu has Three choices of protein, roasted sliced pork shoulder, roasted pulled chicken, and slow cooked seitan. Each sandwich is served on a Chicago style french roll with a house pickle and a house sauce. Our pickles include classic garlic dill, pickled avocado, sauerkraut, pickled mango and sweet bread and butter pickles. We do build your own sandwiches with a choice of meat, pickle and sauce. Some of our favorite combos are Pork with sauerkraut and spicy mustard, Chicken with mango and BBQ and Seitan with pickled avocado and roasted garlic sauce. We run specials every week like, beef on weck, meatballs with marinara and giardiniera, buffalo chicken with pickled carrots with celery and creamy blue cheese. We also have sides like potato salad, pasta salad, slaw and balsamic pickled eggs. Bradley also makes a different soup every week and his soups are killer! We make everything from scratch in house except the bread, cookies and pasta. The menu is small and focused and our hope is to be able to change items seasonally and make sure that there is always something new to try. Our entire operation is everything you see when you walk in the door, two coolers, an oven and the two of us! We are always working on something new and we love testing our ideas out on our customers and neighbors! Our kitchen is wide open and a little messy but we really want people to be able to see the care and hard work that goes into everything we make.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Chicago’s neighborhoods are such an interesting part of life here. Every one is so unique. Our neighborhood can feel so small in the best ways. I love knowing my neighbors names and seeing familiar faces when I am out walking working or shopping. I love the sense of community we have where we live and the support we all give each other. Our alderman Carlos Rosa is amazing and we are proud to be able to volunteer our time and our space to help with the work he and The United Neighbors of the Thirty-Fifth Ward are doing here. Everything we need is here and we have been embraced by everyone we have met in the years we have been here. At the same time, it makes it easy to forget how big the city is and how much is happening here. Sometimes our bubbles make us blind to the struggles and changes that Chicago is going through and we forget that when we reach out to our neighbors we should reach as far as we can and make sure that every person in Chicago has the same opportunity to succeed that my husband and I have had. I think there is a lot of work to be done and a long road ahead to make that a reality.
Pricing:
- Average cost of lunch per person is $8-$14
Contact Info:
- Address: The Little Pickle
3703 W Fullerton Ave.
Chicago IL 60647 - Website: Thelittlepicklechicago.com
- Phone: 312-270-4538
- Email: Lindsay@thelittlepicklechicago.com
- Instagram: @chilittlepickle
- Facebook: Facebook.com/thelittlepicklechicago
- Twitter: @chilittlepickle
- Yelp: We prefer not to participate with yelp
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
