Pickle juice and vodka — it’s that simple. That’s all it took for Tiger Town Tavern’s Pickletini to claim the best signature drink in downtown Clemson.
Served in a typical martini glass with a whole pickle, the drink has become a fan favorite among bargoers, a phenomenon one of Triple’s owners would have never thought possible.
“If you’d told me people would pay to drink pickle juice, I’d be like, ‘no one’s gonna do that.’ And now we won best drink, and people love them,” Cameron Farish, one of the bar’s owners, told The Tiger in an interview.
The drink’s popularity makes it hard for the bar to keep up with the demand for pickle juice required to craft the community-loved cocktail.
“We give pickles away, so you come here and get a sandwich, and you get a free pickle. And it’s not just because I’m trying to be overly gracious with the food; it’s just that we need that pickle juice,” Farish said. “We have to go around and ask other restaurants and say, ‘Hey, are you throwing away pickle juice? Because we need it.’”
Farish said his newest idea is to partner with a local farm and trade its excess pickle brine for pickle exclusivity in the bar.
Farish genuinely has no idea what makes the drink so popular. He said it could be the myth that drinking pickle juice will offset a hangover, but his customers had different explanations.
“I drink them because they are different and because they’re a Clemson icon. I love pickles, and it tastes just like one,” one senior bioengineering student told The Tiger.
“It’s a nice refreshing twist on a classic drink that just works! If you like pickles at all, there’s no reason to get a regular martini,” a junior finance major said to The Tiger. “The pickle at the end is a nice bonus too.”
Regardless of their reasoning, according to the voters, Tiger Town Tavern’s Pickletini is “the” drink in Clemson.
Hours:
Mon-Thurs: 4 p.m.-2 a.m.
Fri-Sun: 11 a.m.-2 a.m.
Address:
368 College Ave.,
Clemson, SC 29631
Phone: (864) 654-5901
Website: https://www.tigertowntavern.com
Instagram: @tttofclemson
Facebook: TigerTownTavern
X: @TigerTownTavern
