By Lorrie Baumann

Brooklyn is famous for being an attitude as well as a borough of New York City, and a taste of the food produced by Brooklyn Whatever will teach you something about what that means. Brooklyn Whatever is a family company founded by Rachel Shamah and her son Abe, who make Shpickles, Shmolives, Shnuts, Shpreads and sauces. “I’m born and bred in Brooklyn,” says Rachel Shamah. “Suddenly I’m famous.”

“Our first product was our Shmolives,” she adds. “I’m a yogi – I practice yoga almost every day…. I was in class one day, and it just came to me. ‘Sh’ is a play on ‘Shamah,’ and it’s a play on how Brooklyners talk. It just came to me in a quiet moment.”

Her company name, Brooklyn Whatever, came to her in a lawyer’s office while her incorporation papers were being prepared. “They said we could call it anything,” she tells the story. “Well, Brooklyn – we’re in Brooklyn. Brooklyn – whatever,” she answered.

The name stuck. “Nobody ever, ever forgets the name,” she says. “It turned out well for us.”
Her line of Shpickles, which does not include pickled cucumbers or any use of dill at all, is based on the Mediterranean tradition in which she grew up. “I know how to pickle – that’s what we do,” she says. “They’re all sugar free. They’re made with non-GMO vinegar. There are only four or five ingredients in each item. They’re the pickle, the water, the garlic, the spices and vinegar. That’s all. End of conversation. And love.”

“That’s why they’re so attractive to people,” she adds. “They taste clean. They don’t have that sugary aftertaste to them. Not necessary.”

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Shmolives is a mix of black oil-cured, Gaetta, Cerignola Green, Cerignola Red, Cerignola Black, Kalamata, Castelvetrano Green, French Green Provincial and Green Cracked olives in balsamic vinegar, garlic, olive oil, herbs, spices and sea salt. There again, Shamah includes love on the ingredients list.

Shnuts, seasoned mixed roasted nuts, are doing well in minibars across the country and come in four varieties: Sweet & Savory, Creole, Ghost Pepper and Curry. Shpreads include Hot Pepper Jam, Cherry Jalapeno Jam, Apple Butter and Jalapeno Jam as well as Peppery Peach, Rockin Raspberry and Blazing Blueberry Shpreads.

A Family at Work

The company started three years ago when Rachel was getting bored with retirement from her social services career as an educational advocate for disabled children, and her son Abe, now 30, was looking for his career niche. “I just thought, how hard could it be to be in business?” she says. “Little did I know that it’s really difficult. But I wanted to build something for my son. There was nothing I could leave him in the social service world.”

Today, she and her son are partners in the business, which is very much a woman-owned business, and Eddie, her husband, pitches in as well. Rachel takes care of the back-end business and does some of the selling. Abe handles the warehousing and shipping, and Rachel says that building the business together has enhanced their mother-son relationship, “with respect…. When products go in; products go out – he’s the guy.”

Eddie does sales. “We’re married coming up on 40 years in December. Now we work together. We’re learning how to do that,” Rachel says. “We’ve become a very, very good team. He’s a seasoned, seasoned salesman – been doing it his whole life. Wonderful guy.”

“It’s a fun little company we have going on here. I never thought I’d have so much fun,” she adds. “It’s really hard work, but to watch somebody take one of our products and put it in their mouth and watch their eyes light up – there’s nothing like it.”