Whether plain or pickled, these beauts have been part of bar culture going back centuries
The year was 2011. I was working my first editorial job in New York and my boss and I were leaving a Midtown hotel after attending some sort of media preview. As we walked by the fancy lobby bar, I noticed that sitting right there on top of the counter was a tree stand holding hard-boiled eggs, ready for snacking.
"Wow, that's the best idea I've ever seen," I said to my boss.
"Seriously? That's the grossest thing I've ever seen," she said in response. It became a running joke around the office that I was sick for thinking hard-boiled eggs paired well with alcohol, but it didn't matter -- I was hooked.
Before Keith McNally's legendary Pravda closed in 2016, I was a frequent drinker of the SoHo bar's homemade horseradish vodka, served with a pickled quail egg at the bottom of the glass. At much divier digs across the river, I used to end my Fridays and Saturdays in the single-digit morning hours with a PBR and pickled eggs from Rocka Rolla (I think they were three for $2 at the time). Before moving offices, when a plethora of snacks were readily available at all hours of the workday, I'd typically eat two hard-boiled eggs before nights out with (and to the chagrin of) my InsideHook brethren.
No one has ever understood my "pickled eggs are the best drinking snack" philosophy. Most people think it's downright disgusting. But in my defense, hard-boiled eggs were a bar-top staple for many years before they went out of fashion. In England, pickled eggs were a very au courant drinking snack of the 1830s. One famous pub was even called The Pickled Egg with an address on London's Pickled Egg Lane.
It didn't take long for the snack to become popular on this side of the pond. In the mid-1800s, it was common for American bars to offer a free lunch. And in cocktail bars where eggs were already on hand for use in drinks, the hard-boiled or pickled versions were a popular complimentary serve. Whether they were dressed with brine, salt or a condiment like mustard, the snack was a win-win -- free grub for customers but also something salty enough to encourage more drink orders.
Fast-forward to Prohibition in the 1920s, which wasn't just a blow to American drinking culture but also to my beloved pickled egg snack. Health departments began to tighten safety regulations, and bar food in many establishments fell by the wayside. As you're undoubtedly aware, bar food has made a triumphant return, and it's probably better than it's ever been. But besides a plate of fancy deviled eggs and the rare vat of bright-pink pickled eggs perched on a divey backbar, the humble hard-boiled egg has seemingly been swept under the rug in favor of more mainstream snacks like chips and mixed nuts.
Maybe you're rejoicing in these modern times because you also think I'm demented for downing a Martini between bites of my prized snack, and that's fine. I don't expect you to relish in a paper boat nesting a few roly-poly eggs the same way I do. But whether you're a fan or not, you can't deny that the hard-boiled egg is a bona fide part of bar culture.