Shontay Burks has turned her childhood love of pickles into a brick-and-mortar business in North Long Beach.
“I’ve always eaten pickles since I was a kid. It was like one of my go-to snacks as a kid growing up,” Burks said. “I would go to my local candy store and get pickles and I would put in Now-and-Laters or candy or Kool-Aid down the middle. And I just came up with the idea of starting a business.”
Burks has lined the counter and shelves of Wut-A-Pickle with a rainbow-colored assortment of bags and jars of flavored pickles.
The North Long Beach business serves over 20 different flavors of pickles: Burks’ personal favorite is grape while customer favorites include tropical punch and green apple. Spicy-food lovers gravitate towards the spicy mango and chili sucker flavors, which imitate popular Mexican candies.
The mouth-puckering Wut-A-Roll-Up consists of a pickle wrapped in a Fruit Roll-Up and covered in chamoy and Tajin. The signature Wut-A-Bites are individual pickle slices wrapped in fruit roll ups and coated in crushed Jolly Ranchers.
An order of the Wut-A-Mix activates nearly all the taste buds with a combination of sour, sweet and spicy. Up to four pickle flavors can be chosen, and the slices are covered with crushed Jolly Ranchers, Tajin, Now And Later candies and sour ropes.
The vibrant multi-color pickles slices are often mixed into candy concoctions, where multiple pickle flavors are combined with Gushers, Kool-Aid powder, Now-And-Laters, Tajin, chamoy, crushed Jolly Ranchers, sour ropes and more.
The Wut-A-Mix contains a range of different mouth feels—a crunch from the crushed Jolly Ranchers, a chewiness from the Now-And-Laters combined with the crisp and juicy pickle slices.
Burks is currently experimenting with a recipe for fried pickle slices, which will make their way to the menu once perfected.
Burks started the Wut-A-Pickle brand in 2016 with pop-up events before the pandemic began.
“Once that slowed down I still needed a location for our customers to actually come to be able to purchase,” Burks said. “So it was just ideal to actually open up a storefront location.”
Burks found and opened her first storefront location in North Long Beach in 2020. She first spotted the location as she was driving through the neighborhood, and was able to secure the lease.
Burks said the location provides easy access for her out-of-town customers due to being close to the freeway and the borders of other cities.
“I actually love being part of a growing business and actually being able to, one, see not only just a minority but a woman succeeding and thriving,” said Robberta Pearsall, manager of Wut-A-Pickle. “For her to be in business for six years and to have an actual storefront for a year and a half and showing that it can be successful is a beautiful thing to be a part of.”
In 2021, Burks opened the Wut-A-Pickle brand up for franchise so that others could open their own Wut-A-Pickle location.
Wut-A-Pickle also offers sandwiches that can be topped with pickle slices, a catering menu for large events, nationwide shipping and wholesale pickle orders.
Wut-A-Pickle is located 6727 Long Beach Blvd., and is open from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays and closed on Mondays.
