With a focus on Greater Philadelphia small businesses and entrepreneurs, "The Creators" is a weekly feature presented as a part of PHL Inno. Check back each Monday for a new profile on a local business. Have a story you think we should know about? Email associate editor Lisa Dukart at ldukart@bizjournals.com.
When PJ Hopkins and then girlfriend Valentina Nourse — they're now married — went to New Orleans for the 2011 jazz fest, they anticipated having a good time. Hopkins certainly didn’t expect to return from the Big Easy with the seeds of a burgeoning business.
But that’s what happened. Inspired by the pickled green beans served with Bloody Marys, so different from the celery stalks more commonly used, Hopkins returned to Philadelphia determined to create his own.
So he began “toying around,” he said. After all, the kitchen was a familiar place, having previously cooked at Iron Hill Brewery and spent many weekends with his family preparing and enjoying “Sunday gravy.”
In 2015, after years of trial and error, he at last had a recipe he felt confident in and Brine Street Picklery was officially launched. Bringing in several friends, each with their own area of expertise, they got the business off the ground.
Things began small, selling at pop-ups and farmer’s markets. Before long, retailers became part of the business plan. Brine Street was soon on the shelves of local stores like Riverwards Produce in Fishtown and Weavers Way Co-op, which has locations in Chestnut Hill, Mount Airy and Ambler. The brand also landed in about 10 Whole Foods Markets.
Momentum really swung in 2019. After a year of being in talks, Brine Street landed a deal with Giant Food Stores, placing its products in 120 of the Carlisle grocer’s outposts. Hopkins knew he needed to take things to the next level in order to keep up with demand and pursued a co-packer. While that meant giving up sourcing and making the product, “I realized it's just more efficient as a business if we found a co-packer that could make 10,000 jars in a couple of days,” he said.
It also suited Hopkins, who is a commercial insurance broker at The Graham Co. in Philadelphia and owner of Liberty Kitchen, a deli in Fishtown that debuted in 2019.
Now more than five years into business, Hopkins is seeing it grow steadily. Today, Brine Street Picklery produces about 30,000 jars a year, a dramatic shift from the 1,000 or so it did in its first year of business. Hopkins has also expanded the line to include a number of pickles, plus a seasonal hoagie relish.
Revenue, too, has skyrocketed. “We've been growing at about a 50% clip for the past two years,” said Hopkins, who declined to share the company's valuation. Those numbers are starting to flatten out, he said, because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It did push him to launch e-commerce, though.
While Giant has been a boon for Brine Street, collaborations have also helped. Its first was with Yards Brewing Co., together creating the aptly named Philly Special pickle. This summer, thanks to Giant, Hopkins teamed up with popular Delaware-based Dogfish Head Brewery for a co-branded pickle.
While those products certainly gain lots of traction, the Zing Beans, inspired by that trip to New Orleans and Brine Street’s first product, remain its most popular. “It's nice to have the real crunchy, spicy, briny flavor of the bean,” said Hopkins, “especially in a Bloody Mary.”
How did you get the recipe right?
I was literally buying cookbooks, going online, watching YouTube videos. It was a number of years of trial and error. As I got better at it, I started bringing [the beans] to a tailgate or barbecue or a party. And then eventually enough people were like, you should sell that.
How have things changed since partnering with a co-packer?
The sourcing has changed entirely. When we first started, I would drive to the Reading Terminal Market and … I would buy one case of cucumbers. As we started growing, we went direct to the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market down on Essington Avenue. … And then when we couldn't do that anymore by ourselves, we went to the co-packer. Now I don't control the sourcing at all. I went through a research and development process with them.
What led to the creation of Liberty Kitchen?
About 2.5 years ago, we were looking to keep growing, wanted to find a retail location but couldn't really justify a lease with just selling pickles. I met someone fortuitously who used to work for Di Bruno Bros. and he wanted to open a deli. I'm Italian American, so I've always kind of lived in that world. … He and I kind of hit it off and we thought, let's give this a shot. We opened our deli which is called Liberty Kitchen about two years ago.
Why a commissary kitchen in addition to the deli?
We have a little kitchen that we rent out to other food businesses. Pretty much all of them are startups. Right now we have seven tenants sharing the kitchen. We've got somebody making macaroons, a guy does cold steeped coffee, ice cream, two hot sauce makers. We make some of the pickles that we sell at the farmer’s markets there, as well. Liberty Kitchen kind of became this vehicle to expand the Brine Street business. The deli has been doing really well. … We use the market upstairs to help these new companies. And we sell their products, we let them test different price points, they'll pop up and meet customers.
How has the Covid-19 pandemic impacted business?
The cost of things like glass and even cardboard have really gone up. I factored them into my margin calculations in the beginning, but over time, as those raw materials start to increase, you have to really think about is my packaging the most cost efficient? We're actually working on a redesign and a revamp of our label and our jar now.
