EAL Fall 2023

and friends. They picked up many of their
first accounts in Atlanta at Americas Mart.
“We were quite fortunate to have the help
of our wives,” Andy says, “and maybe even
more so of my mom, Judy, and the Sims’
mother, Judy. They also brought in many
new customers. They were much better at
getting shop owners to taste and then stock
our new pickled products than we were.”
For many years, the pickles were mainly
sold in gourmet and gift shops. “We eventually
scaled up production,” says Andy,
“which allowed us to bring our prices down
to a point that we could sell to supermarkets.
We’ve been slowly but surely trying
to make Wickles a household name ever
since. We strive to keep Wickles affordably
priced while always using premium
ingredients.”
In 2017, they partnered with Magnolia
Vegetable Processing plant in Brundidge,
which is the largest vegetable processing
facility in the state, where they make most
of their products.
Andy and his partners are always dreaming
of new items to pickle in their “Wickedly
Delicious” brine. The most recent to the
line are the wicked garlic, dirty dill cocktail
cornichons, and Hula Pickle, which
are cucumbers packed with pineapple and
jalapeno.
“We’ve had a lot of fun with the Hula
item,” says Andy. “Hi-Wire Brewing based
in Asheville, NC just released their second
limited release, Wickles beer ‘Wicked Hula
Beer’. They are running another release of
the original Wickles Pickle Beer around
Labor Day.
“Not sure what’s next for Wickles,” he
adds. “It has been 25 years since we first
started, and we are now selling nearly 10
items in retailers nationwide. We hope to
have some other new items for the shelves
in 2024, potentially some that won’t be on
the pickle aisle.”
THE WAVERLY LOCAL
Marty and Andy had dined at Peyton
Place, the first restaurant in the 100 year old
building, that was one of the first Ford dealers
in the state. When the space became the
Yellow Hammer restaurant, they enjoyed
dining there as well.
The Andersons have always enjoyed food
and planned vacations around restaurants
they were interested in trying. When the
building became vacant, they began thinking
about how great it would be to bring a
restaurant back to Waverly.
Andy partnered with Chef Christian
Watson to open The Waverly Local. Andy
and Christian have been friends since
they were 7 years old and attended school
together in Auburn. Andy’s father owned
the Auburn Hardware, while Christian’s
dad is Doug Watson, who served as city
manager for many years.
When Christian was 21 years old, he realized
he wanted a career in the culinary field.
He had moved to South Carolina to help his
aunt and uncle on their farm when his aunt
was fighting cancer. One of his projects was
taking care of their garden.
He spent the summer in the fields planting
the crops and fertilizing. Once the vegetables
were ready to harvest, he began
cooking. “As I was eating a plate of freshly
cooked vegetables,” he says, “a light bulb
went off for me, as I thought how awesome
the food was and that I wanted to learn
more about cooking.”
Christian moved to Charleston, S.C., and
enrolled in the Johnson and Wales Culinary
School. He stayed in Charleston 12 years
working at various restaurants and then
began working at restaurants in major cities
across the country. After 18 years, he
decided to move back to Auburn.
They started working on the building
in the fall of 2016. It took over a year to
renovate and complete additions of a new
kitchen and restrooms. A new lounge with
dark wood, soft patina copper tables and
a mirror behind the bar provided a lodge
feel. The new indoor restrooms replaced
64 EAST ALABAMA LIVING