Portrait of a Pickle Man

Paul Fitzgibbons went from laid off to royalty in a matter of months—and he has brined cucumbers to thank for it. 

The Perry Hall resident lost his 18-year job in the meat business on Jan. 31. 

"The first day I didn't have to get up and go to work, I felt guilty because I wasn't doing anything," said Fitzgibbons, who lives with his family in the Seven Courts neighborhood. "The second day, it got a little worse. The third day, that's when the wife left me a 'honey, do' list at home, so that's when I figured I've got to get the hell out of this house."

He was, it seemed, in a pickle, so he did the logical thing: He joined his nephew Tyler Fitzgibbons' business and began selling pickles under the banner of "Pat's: King of Pickles." He carries eight different varieties of pickles, from the standard bread-and-butter to the feisty fire garlic and, Fitzgibbons' favorite, half-sours.

"It's mild," he said. "It's got a good crisp to it."

At his Towson stand last Thursday, he was coaxing passers-by into trying the fire garlic. The flavor is deceptively light at first, but stronger with each bite, as the garlic and the spices emerge. 

He recommended them for cooking as well as snacking. 

"You can blacken good burgers [and] put one of those hot ones on there," he said. "I may run out of these today because they're selling so well."

Fitzgibbons also sells at farmers markets in Cross Keys and Waverly. When he's not out selling, he said he likes to experiment in his kitchen. The pickles he makes at home aren't for sale, however. Instead, he buys the ones he sells from a New Jersey distributor.

"I try to experiment with different things, but [without] a kitchen that's been approved by the health department, I can't really make them there and bring them down," he said, adding with a laugh, "I send it up to R&D."