Does anyone remember "Jama Jola?" / Did Detroit invent sliced pickles?

[christos]

Its been a long time since I posted in here- and its great to be back! This is kind of a long post, but worth it.

So I was home recently [[I moved to Washington DC a few years ago), and I was talking to my great uncle who was telling my cousin and I some great stories about my great grandfather.

Apparently when he moved here from Greece, he brought his jam-making skills with him and would make jams to sell to all of the restaurants that were owned/run by Greeks.

Over time, he would ask the restaurant owners what other condiments and things they needed, and ended up supplying places with things like pop, pickles, I think ketchup and mustard, as well as his signature jams. His company was called "Jama Jola".

Has anyone ever heard of this company before? Does anyone remember any of their products?

Also- he went on to tell us this funny story about this one restaurant owner who would buy pickles from him, and count how many were in each jar. He confronted my great grandfather and said, "Last week your jar had 37, this week its only 36!"

My grandfather tried to explain to him that he sells by weight not by pickle, but the restaurateur would have none of it. So the next week, he thought, "I'll show him," and sliced all of the pickles before delivering them, thinking, "lets see him count THAT".

The restaurant owner, rather than be annoyed, like the pre-sliced pickles, and insisted on ordering them like that from then on.

My uncle says that he might have been the first to sell pickles that way. Is there any way to verify something like that?

Regardless- I thought it was a fun story you all would appreciate.

[archfan]

There's a Jama Jola Enterprises, LLC registered in Royal Oak to Nicholas Fakaros, but that's all the information I could find. Could that be some remnant of the company?

[Meddle]

My grandfather tried to explain to him that he sells by weight not by pickle, but the restaurateur would have none of it. So the next week, he thought, "I'll show him," and sliced all of the pickles before delivering them, thinking, "lets see him count THAT".

The restaurant owner, rather than be annoyed, like the pre-sliced pickles, and insisted on ordering them like that from then on.

My uncle says that he might have been the first to sell pickles that way. Is there any way to verify something like that?

There are two references to 'sliced' here, and neither is local:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickled_cucumber

I guess it's all about which way you slice it, lengthwise or crossways, but I would imagine the long slices came out of either New York or Chicago due to all the varieties of restaurants and lunch counters in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

[christos]

There's a Jama Jola Enterprises, LLC registered in Royal Oak to Nicholas Fakaros, but that's all the information I could find. Could that be some remnant of the company?

Yeah- that's my great uncle.

[christos]

Ooooh- good call. I believe the sliced pickles he was talking about were the pickle "chips". The restaurant owners liked them because they were ready to put on a sandwich.