Courtesy Mac's Local Eats
Double Pimento Cheese (2 Beef Patties, House Pimento Cheese, Pickled & Fried Green Tomato, Onion, Hot Sauce Aioli), one of 10 burgers available at Mac's Local Eats in Dogtown.
Where are the best places to get pimento cheese in St. Louis? —Barry P., St. Louis
For the next few days, people will be eating, making, or discussing pimento cheese while paying tribute to the annual Masters Tournament, where the menu's almost as famous as the event itself. This weekend, thousands of pimento cheese sandwiches will be sold there—a special concoction slathered onto Wonder Bread and sold in green recyclable baggies for $1.50 apiece—as they have been for decades. They’re as much a Masters tradition as the blessed lack of TV commercials during the telecast.
Pimento cheese (spelled pimiento by purists) is a fascinating dish. Unlike the lobster, which somehow meandered from being prison food to becoming a delicacy, pimento cheese (a.k.a. “the pate of the South,” where many folks claim it originated) has always been both high-brow and low-brow, as comfortable in a brown paper lunch bag as it is on a silver platter at a swanky garden party (served crustless, of course).
The base recipe is amazingly simple—grated cheese, mayo, and pimiento—but the interpretations are endless: cheese options, extra ingredients, spice add ins... The one near constant, however, seems to be the mayo; most devotee cooks say, "It’s Duke’s or nothing.”
Naturally, options abound at St. Louis restaurants:
58hundred sells Nashville's Pimento Cheese Toast (“thick slices of grilled country bread slathered with a fiery orange spread”).
Courtesy Chicken Salad Chick
Chicken Salad Chick, a national chain (with a second metro location opening April 23), offers two options (standard and spicy), as well as a Pimento Cheese BLT (pictured at right).
Grace Meat + Three serves its rendition warm or on a fried country style bologna sandwich (pictured below), with house mustard and a sunny up duck egg. (Chef-owner Rick Lewis’ secret: “We make ours packed with Calabrian chilis, garlic, white cheddar, and, of course, paprika and Duke’s.”)
Courtesy Grace Meat + Three
Juniper offers a baked version, served with flatbread and pickles. (Chef-owner John Perkins’ secret: “Pickle juice. It’s a must.”)
At Mac’s Local Eats, a recommended burger is the Double Pimento Cheese, with pickled fried green tomatoes, onion, and hot sauce aioli. (Owner-chef Chris “Mac” McKenzie’s secret: “Use good cheddar, Crystal hot sauce, and a touch of Worcestershire”).
The Southerner food truck offers a griddled pimiento cheeseburger with a healthy ration of bacon.
Two of the sandwiches at The Wood Shack include pimento cheese slaw. (Owner-chef Chris Degado's secret: "Add a little Maggi sauce for a little funk and some roasted jalapeños for a little kick.”)
In three weeks, at Union 30, look for a grilled cheese sandwich made with pimiento cheese. (Chef Matt Birkenmeier’s secret: “A few slices of extra crispy crunchy maple-cured bacon to add a touch of sweet to the subtle spiciness of the sandwich.”)
Courtesy of Goldbelly
For the home cook, recipes abound. (And some can be made in 30 seconds.) For the gotta-have-the-Masters-version purist, Goldbelly will even ship authentic pimento cheese to your door.
If you have a question for George, email him at gmahe@stlmag.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @stlmag_dining. For more from SLM, subscribe or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
