Dip it or spread it, Pimento Cheese is North Carolina Made and there's even a festival
CARY, N.C. (WTVD) -- It's a dip. It's a spread and some even call it "Southern Caviar." Regardless, we're talking about pimento cheese.
The iconic southern treat is big business for a North Carolina company. In fact, the first Pimento Cheese Festival in the nation started in the Wake County town of Cary.
This week in our ABC11 News series, "North Carolina Made (NC Made)," which highlights local businesses building our community, we want you to meet a Fayetteville man who quit his day job to sell his own recipe.
Danny Barnes says he quit his job at Food Lion to sell his own version of pimento cheese. Barnes named his version after himself, it's called Danny B's Pimento Cheese.
"Pimento cheese is nectar from the gods," Barnes says.
From Employee to Business Owner
In 2017, while working at Food Lion, Barnes got a basic recipe from a customer who was looking for pimento's mild red peppers and not the red things you see in olives.
"I said, 'What are you making?' and he said, 'homemade pimento cheese.' And I said, 'Ok.' I'd never really been a fan."
Not a fan. Until he created his own recipe.
"Everybody that tried it said, "You could sell this."
A butcher shop in Dunn picked it up first, and the rest, as they say, is history.
"From one store to roughly 250 Food Lions. It's been a pretty amazing ride," Barnes tells ABC11.
Pimento Cheese Festival
The Town of Cary is the first in the country to have a Pimento Cheese Festival. It's now in its seventh year.
This year's Pimento Cheese Festival is in Cary on Saturday, April 12, from 11 am to 4 pm in Downtown Cary Park.
"We have 35 food trucks and they have to sell at least three items with pimento cheese." "We have pimento cheese beer, pimento cheese brownies." "I've eaten one, it's delicious. Trust me, you should go and get one."
Even though not everyone knows what pimento cheese is, "No idea.. I'm sure it's some kind of cheese with pimento in it."
Eileen Lader is a fan of pimento cheese, "I love it. "I like spicy, regular and all kinds."
Joy Ennis breaks it down how she likes hers, "Cheese, all kinds of cheese, mayonnaise, pimentos, and then any sort of add-ins you want."
And whether you love it or not, this centuries-old southern staple. Still relevant, reinvented, and NC Made.
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