For a brand called Pickleman’s Gourmet Cafe, pickles are not the first thing customers think about when they visit one of the 34, mostly Midwestern, sandwich shops. Pickleman’s founder and CEO Douglas Stritzel said that the brand is best-known for its clean-eating approach, serving sandwiches made with preservative-free artisan bread and antibiotic-free chicken and pork, as well as scratch-made cookies and dressings. (The Pickleman, meanwhile, is a nod to the company’s branding and six-foot-tall pickle mascot. Pickleman’s also sells Grillo’s pickles as a side.)
“The product appeals to people with a more discerning palette,” Stritzel said. “We don’t have any fryers. There’s no grease. There’s no fried food. Our QSR competitors are laden with fryers, burgers, and food additives. What makes Pickleman’s really stand out is we have good-for-you food that I’m proud to serve to my family.”
Before founding Pickleman’s in 2005, Stritzel started out his career in sandwiches as chief operating officer for Jimmy John’s. When he left to start his own business, the goal was to create a concept where everything on the menu passed the “Douglas’ palate” test and was high-quality from start to finish. The second goal of the concept was to create a people-first culture to attract and retain an above-average workforce with low retention.
Over the past 20 years, Pickleman’s has grown to 34 mainly franchised stores with the goal of becoming at least a 1,000-store brand with locations around the country.
“My long-term vision is to become tomorrow’s legacy brand,” Stritzel said. “Some of the legacy brands today are really missing the mark on the society’s evolution toward eating cleaner and better food. I think they’re part of the problem, so I want to be part of the solution. I want to be a good choice for consumers that care about what they eat and what their family eats.”
Some of Pickleman’s most popular menu items include the Italian club sandwich and the Italian beef sandwich, the latter a Chicago staple that Pickleman’s elevates by only dipping the au jus for about a minute and a half, so that the meat stays tender.
The Pickleman’s culture is the secret sauce that sets it head and shoulders above other emerging sandwich brands.
“From the top down, from our executives to our shift managers, the goal is to catch people doing things right and celebrate and reinforce it,” Stritzel said. “The old rule is 80/20: 80% of your feedback needs to be positive and catching people doing things right. We really like to have be at 90/10 … it’s really about recognizing all of the small wins that happen every day.”