At Slater’s 50/50, pimiento cheese adorns a sandwich (pictured) with crispy pork belly, jalepeno-bacon jam and picked red onions on sourdough.
Whether you spell it with or without that extra “I,” pimiento cheese has broken out of the South, where it has been a staple for generations. According to Datassential, the spread is up 65% in U.S. menu mentions over the last four years.
Southerners will debate how proper pimiento cheese should be made until they’re blue in the face. Some swear by Hellman’s mayonnaise, while others fall in the Duke’s mayo camp.
Winning sandwich The Kentucky Inn Cuban gave the spread a Denver spin with the addition of roasted hatch green chiles and Monterey jack, and then had the nerve to also spike it with Sriracha, red onions and jalapenos and serve it on house-braised pork with bacon and pickles.
Among other submissions, we also saw it as a condiment on sandwiches with cornmeal-encrusted soft-shell crab; fried chicken; and even pork belly as well as paired more simply with thick-cut peppered bacon and fried green tomatoes.