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55 ACL Trail • Pawleys Island, SC 29585phone: 1-888-406-9823 l fax: (803) 753-9402 l
[email protected] web: www.palmettocheese.com
About UsThe perfect pimento cheese was born in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and you have never had pimento cheese like this! The recipe originated with Sassy Henry. She would whip up batches of her delightful, southern style pimento cheese while living in Atlanta and tailgating at Braves games. Sassy, her husband Brian, and their two children moved to Pawleys Island, SC in 2002 where they took over the historic Sea View Inn. It is there that Palmetto Cheese was featured as an ap-petizer each week during the summer lowcountry shrimp boils. Needless to say, it was a guest favorite. Pawleys is known for its shoeless, laid-back life style which includes crabbing in the marsh, fishing, rope hammocks, and unspoiled beaches and waterways. This was the perfect place for the birth of Palmetto Cheese.
A family friend and cook at Sea View inn for 25 years, Ver-trella Brown of Pawleys Island, is pictured on the container lid. Vertrella is credited with adding the “soulful” touch to Sassy’s recipe. The result, Palmetto Cheese™ – The Pimento Cheese with Soul”. One of the reasons Palmetto Cheese™ is so popular is that it’s made with real sharp cheddar cheese, whereas most pimento cheeses are made with processed or American cheese. During visits to the Lowcountry, tourists make sure to purchase enough Palmetto Cheese™ to take home to share
with family and friends. Palmetto Cheese was first introduced in local market outlets in Pawleys Island and Georgetown, SC. Now, Palmetto Cheese™ is available at many grocery store chains throughout the Southeast.
Company InformationGet Carried Away
Pawleys Island Specialty Foods
Founded
Management info
Annual Sales
Sassy and Brian Henry
Vertrella Brown
Product Line
Product Information
Product Availability
Palmetto Cheese - OriginalThe one and only homestyle pimento cheese with real, sharp ched-dar cheese and downhome southern charm. It has authentic taste and homemade texture. Serve it on crackers, burgers, hot dogs, and much more. Look for Palmetto Cheese in the deli or dairy department (de-pending on which store you visit).
Palmetto Cheese - JalapenoThe one and only homestyle pimento cheese with real, sharp ched-dar cheese and downhome southern charm. It has authentic taste and homemade texture. Serve it on crackers, burgers, hot dogs, and much more. Look for Palmetto Cheese in the deli or dairy department (de-pending on which store you visit).
• Made with premium sharp cheddar cheese• Hand packed with homemade texture• Served as an appetizer, topping or spread• Manufactured with 60 day shelf life• Established customer base and brand loyalty
200 Harris Teeter locations in SC, NC, etc.xxx Bi-Lo locationsxxx Costco Warehouse locationsxxx Publix locationsxxx Piggly Wiggly locationsxxx Food Lion locationsxxx Lowes Foods locationsxxx Central Market locationsxx Rouse’sxxx Calandro’s Supermarket locations
Product Description Pimento Cheese Gourmet SpreadPack Size 6/12oz.Case Weight 5.4 lbs.Case Dimensions 14” D x 4 7/8” W x 4 1/4” H Unit Dimensions 4 5/8” D x 2 1/4” H
Manufacturing
Distribution
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum sit amet elit magna, sed male-suada sem. Mauris sollicitudin tristique lectus, eu consequat purus elementum in. Fusce dictum placerat nunc, eget mattis turpis porttitor a. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Donec fermentum varius varius. Curabitur a nunc sit amet enim euismod accumsan. Proin nibh lorem, iaculis et eleifend vitae, lacinia sed dolor. Donec nulla justo, auctor ultricies posuere quis, gravida non nulla. Sed cursus ante eu nibh convallis volut-pat. Nunc id odio ligula. In hac habitasse platea dictumst.Contact informationAddress details
Website: http://www.palmettocheese.comOnline Store: http://palmettocheese.myshopify.comBlog: http://palmettocheese.wordpress.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Palmetto-CheeseTwitter: http://twitter.com/palmettocheese
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Cheese
Leslie Balliette - Myrtle Beach, SCI have never felt the need to write a company about their product, until I bought and tried Palmetto Cheese. My family just moved to Myrtle Beach and I bought a container (with Jalapenos), at Bi-Lo. I can honestly say I am addicted to it. I am trying all of the recipes on your website and slathering it on everything. Love it! Oprah should should try this!!!
Ivan Posada - Lantana, TXWell, I can tell you that I am extremely pleased that the great state of Texas now has Palmetto Cheese. I tried it at a friends house in Atlanta and just had to get this stuff here as quickly as pos-sible. Central Market now carries it and I have found a new craving in life. Thanks for adding SOUL to it. Great stuff.
Brenda Price - Greer, SCOur family discovered Palmetto Cheese while on vacation this summer at Surfside Beach. We were delighted to find Palmetto Cheese at our local Publix. What a great find for us!!!
Robin Downing - Augusta, GAMy husband has been after me to look your company up on the computer. He thinks we should order your “Palmetto Cheese with Jalapenos” by the gallon. We have three growing boys in our house, and we can never keep enough of your product in the house. We eat it with celery, lettuce leaves, Wheat Thins, etc.I first tried your product in Edisto, and then noticed our local Bi-Lo carrying it. I have now officially con-verted my family from Fresh Market Pimento Cheese to your Palmetto Cheese. I am quickly introduc-ing it to our friends!! Great Product!!
Monique MixsonI feel like an “un-official” spokesperson for Palmetto Cheese. Every time I’m in the store and I see someone looking at it, I tell them to buy it and they will NEVER buy another brand. Recently I was in a Publics in the Perimeter area of Atlanta. I went to buy snacks and some finger foods for a class I was in for Marriott. I came across Palmetto Cheese and bought the last 3 they had. A customer was watching me and saw how excited I was to find the Palmetto Cheese. She asked me about it and I told her how good it was and that she should try it. She said that she would, but I had gotten the last one. I kindly offered her one of the three I had and she accepted. I even told her that I’d give her my cell # and that if it wasn’t the best Pimento Cheese she’s ever eaten to call me and I’d send her money to cover the cost. Several isles later in the store I ran into her again….she had a box of Ritz crackers and was eating her Palmetto Cheese right in the store. When she saw me she quickly told me that she wanted the other 2 containers I had in my buggy. Also she could not thank me enough for telling her about it.Y’all keep up the good work and I’ll keep spreading the word about the best pimento cheese ever, Palmetto Cheese!!!
Customer Comments
In the PressPrint:Southern Living Magazine, Grand Strand Magazine, Coastal Observer, Charleston Magazine, Coastal Journal Magazine, Spartanburg Journal, and South Carolina Living Magazine.
Television (click title to view): WMBF News “Local businesses ship products beyond the Grand Strand.” News 13 “Pawleys Island company uses secret weapon to make southern classic a tasty hit”Palmetto People with Richard Green “Brian Henry Interview”
Online (click title to view): Food Lovers Gift GuideSouthern Living Magazine Website
Grand Strand MagazineFOOD AND WINE: Taste Makers - Cheese MongersWRITTEN BY PAUL GRIMSHAW
Which pimento cheese rules?KATHLEEN PURVIS, Charlotte Observer
Pawleys Island company uses secret weaponRusty Ray -WBTW Anchor/Producer WBTW
Readers have own ideas about best pimentoKATHLEEN PURVIS, Charlotte Observer
BRIAN AND SASSY HENRY started small with their big tasting pimento cheese, Palme� o Cheese. Brian grew up loving his mom’s homemade recipe.
Around 1995, Brian’s wife Sassy took over making pimento cheese for him and concocted her own mixture. It became a staple for tailgating parties at Braves games.
It wasn’t until they moved to Pawleys Island and purchased Sea View Inn that the blend of cheeses, mayo and spices got its o� cial name and gained notoriety.
Sassy admits Palme� o Cheese is a bit of a tongue twister with pimento cheese, but the name honors the state where it originated and she said, “It seems to work.”
Palme� o Cheese’s container has on it a picture of Vertrella Brown. She cooks her Gullah and Low Country cuisine at Sea View Inn.
Brown took Sassy’s original pimento cheese recipe and tweaked the seasoning mixture to enhance its Southern soulful taste. � e cheese is served to guests on the porch of Sea View Inn on Wednesday evenings as an appetizer for the Low Country shrimp boil.
“Even though pimento cheese is thought of as a southern food, this product � ts the whole country because of its ingredients,” said Andrew Smart, president of Duke Sandwich Productions which in the last two years has taken over as manufacturer and distributor.
Southerners are familiar with it as an appetizer and sandwich spread. It appeals to Northerners because it’s made with sharp cheddar cheese rather than the usual processed and American cheeses.
Other ingredients include Hellmann’s Mayonnaise and just the right combination of spices that Brian said puts its taste “over the top.” Recipes are plentiful on their Web site (www.palme� ocheese.com) and Facebook Fan Page. Customers are � nding new ways to eat Palme� o Cheese daily: with oysters and crackers, spread on pizza crust and smothered on chicken before baking.
When production increased at Sea View Inn, the Henrys, Brown and some of the sta� would mix and hand pack the pimento cheese assembly-line style. � ey called on George Easterling, family friend and former boxer, to step in and stir.
Last year, Easterling mixed by hand about 600 containers a week to serve to guests at the inn, to sell at mom and pop stores like Independent Seafood in Georgetown, S.C., and to donate for charity events in the area. Sassy said about bringing Easterling on board, “We needed someone with a strong arm to mix it.”
For nearly two years Brian distributed Palme� o Cheese to cities including Greenville, Columbia, Charleston and Atlanta. He would leave Pawleys Island just before midnight so he could make deliveries by 4 a.m. One of the � rst chain grocery stores to handle the product was the Publix on Pelham Road in Greenville.
Eleven more Publix stores in and around the area, like Simpsonville and Mauldin, started buying the product. Brian said, “� e Greenville area is really where we got started on a grander scale.”
When he found himself at a Columbia exit one December around four in the morning, delivering to an individual who placed an order to give as Christmas presents, he and his wife realized the cheese’s “fan potential.” � ey knew they needed a manufacturer and distributor.
Duke Sandwich Productions, whose plant is in Simpsonville, S.C., contacted Brian. John Mack, vice president of operations, bought the product in an Upstate store, liked it and called
the number on the container. Brian happened to be making deliveries in Greenville when he received the call in March of 2008. Since the manufacturing plant was nearby, Brian checked it out that day. � ree hours later a partnership began.
� e company has perfected the for-mula for mass production. Duke Sand-wich Productions uses a proprietary mixer that mimics hand stirring. A� er it is mixed, each container is hand packed to maintain Palme� o Cheese’s texture. � ey produce two versions: Original and Jalapeno.
Nathan Kirk Designs designed the truck wrap to advertise Palme� o Cheese. As of April, two of Duke Sandwich Productions’ trucks are on the road and showing o� the product. � e company is also launching a Web site within the next few weeks so the cheese can be ordered online by individuals.
Sales are gaining momentum as friends tell friends and grocers are being hounded to carry Palme� o Cheese in their stores. Smart said in two years time they’ve gone from scooping Hellmann’s Mayonnaise from a 30 pound container to pumping it from a 2,000 pound one.
Last year 550,000 containers were sold throughout eight Southeastern states. Palme� o Cheese is now being sold in more than 1,000 stores in 10 states, mostly in the Southeast, however it is as far-reaching as Maryland and Texas. Sassy said, “� e sky is the limit!”
Low Country staple makes big play in Upstate market
SPARTANBURG, S.C. • FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 2010 • VOL.6, NO.24
5 5 0 ,0 0 0 containers of Palmetto
Cheese sold throughout eight Southeastern states
BY S. KIM HENSON | CONTRIBUTING
SAYSAY CHEESE
Spartanburg Journal
Thursday Pawleys Island,June 4, 2009 COASTAL OBSERVER South Carolina
Hash Brown Potato Casserole
INGREDIENTS1 32-oz package of frozen
hash browns1 10 and 1/2 oz can of
chicken soup1 12-oz container of Pal-
metto Cheese1 cup crushed Ritz crack-
ersPREPARATIONCombine hashbrowns,
soup, Palmetto Cheese.Mix well.Spread into ungreased 7
by 11 inch baking dish.Cover with crushed Ritz
crackers.Bake at 350 degrees for
30 minutes or until crack-ers are brown and mixture is bubbly.
Palmetto Cheese Biscuits
INGREDIENTS1 cup Palmetto Cheese2-1/4 cups self-rising
soft-wheat flour1/2 cup cold butter1 cup buttermilk self-ris-
ing soft-wheat flour2 tablespoons melted
butterPREPARATIONPlace flour in a large
bowl.Cut butter into 1/4-inch-
thick slices. Sprinkle butter slices over flour. Cut but-ter into flour with a pastry blender until crumbly and mixture resembles small peas. Cover and chill 10 minutes.
Add buttermilk and Pal-metto Cheese to flour mix-ture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead three or four times, gradually adding addition-al flour as needed. With floured hands, press or pat dough into a 3/4-inch-thick rectangle (about 9 by 5 inches). Sprinkle top of dough with additional flour. Fold dough over onto itself in three sections, starting with one short end. (Fold dough rectangle as if fold-ing a letter-size piece of pa-per.) Repeat entire process two more times, beginning with pressing into a 3/4-inch-thick dough rectangle (about 9 x 5 inches).
Press or pat dough to 1/2-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface; cut with a two-inch round cut-ter, and place, side by side, on a parchment paper-lined or lightly greased jelly-roll pan. (Dough rounds should touch.)
Bake at 450 degrees for 13 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven; brush with 2 tbsp. melted butter.
Baked Palmetto Cheese
INGREDIENTS1 12-oz container of any
flavor Palmetto CheeseRitz crackersPREPARATIONPlace the Palmetto
Cheese in an oven safe cas-serole dish.
Top with crushed Ritz crackers.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Serve with chips.
Recipes from www.palmettocheese.com
Recipes
Photos by Tanya Ackerman/Coastal Observer
Sassy Henry, with her husband, Brian, started making homemade pimento cheese for tailgating parties at Atlanta Braves games. After moving to Pawleys Island, the couple took that recipe and started Palmetto Cheese.
BY JACKIE R. BROACHCOASTAL OBSERVER
JUST TWO YEARS AGO, Brian and Sassy Henry were ec-static to be selling 25,000 packages of Palmetto
Cheese a year.That was a big step up from
when they launched the product in 2006 with permission to put 20 packages of the pimento cheese in a cooler at Independent Seafood in Georgetown.
They were proud of their suc-cess.
Today, the couple easily sells 25,000 packages in a three-week period through stores all over the South, from North Carolina to Texas.
The Henrys, who own and op-erate the Sea View Inn on Paw-leys Island, remain proud of their success. But mostly what they say they feel is overwhelmed.
“It’s overwhelmed in a good way, though,” Sassy explained.
“We’re overwhelmed with appreci-ation and gratitude for the support we’ve received.”
When they started the business in a small facility on Highway 17 with Sassy’s recipe and two em-ployees, they hoped their product would become a local favorite. But they never imagined it would grow as much as it has.
They still have that facility and those same two employees making Palmetto Cheese in small amounts for distribution to a handful of lo-cal stores, but most of their pro-duction is now done at a facility in Simpsonville. The product made there goes out to grocery chains, including Food Lion, Bi-Lo, Piggly Wiggly, Harris Teeter and Publix.
“We’re just floored,” Sassy said. “It’s been the most amazing grass-roots kind of thing. It’s been all word of mouth.”
The Henrys didn’t do any mass marketing. And it was their cus-tomers who got Palmetto Cheese on the shelves in many of the stores where it’s now found.
“People came here, had it and loved it and asked how to get it in their local grocery stores,” Sassy said. “Brian told them to call the stores and ask for it. With that many people calling the Pig or Publix, or wherever, they lis-
tened.”When it came time to signifi-
cantly increase the amount of Pal-metto Cheese being made every month, the Henrys were nervous about the reaction they would get from their manufacturing compa-ny, Duke Sandwich Productions. But as it turned out, Duke was more than happy to up the quan-tities.
“The production manager over there said, ‘Awesome! We’ll be able to hire more people,’ ” Sassy recalled. “Our relationship with them is so amazing, it’s almost di-vine. We work so well together and they’ve made this so easy for us.”
According to Brian, there are a lot of things that make Palmet-to Cheese special. It’s made with real sharp cheddar cheese and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, and even though it’s being made in larger quantities now, it’s still packaged by hand.
But the most important thing is the taste. It has that “just right mix” that’s hard to find in pimento cheese, he said.
“A lot of it’s too creamy or too mayonnaisey, or they put too many pimentos in it and it has a bad aftertaste,” Brian said. “Ours is spicy, but it doesn’t have that aftertaste and the texture is just
right. A lot of people love pimento cheese, but people tell me they sit down with a 12-ounce package of our’s, and they’ve eaten the whole thing before they know it.”
Sassy, who worked as an ex-ecutive chef’s assistant when she lived in Atlanta, said she started making pimento cheese as a treat for Brian. Brian’s mother made pi-mento cheese and the couple used to pack it for tailgating. Sassy de-cided to try making her own ver-sion.
From the first time she made it, Sassy said she knew she had something. Brian loved it and friends and family raved about it.
But it was Vertrella Brown who helped refine the recipe to what Palmetto Cheese fans have come to crave. Brown’s is the face that graces the labels.
Palmetto Cheese is known as “the pimento cheese with soul” and, according to Sassy, it was Brown who gave it the soul. She’s one of the cooks at the Sea View Inn.
Brown took over the making of Palmetto Cheese before it hit the market when Sassy started serv-ing it at cookouts and other events at the inn.
“She used the same ingredients,“SEE “CHEESE,” PAGE 19
Couple’s flavorful business venture has spread outacross the South
In Pawleys Island, local orders of Palmetto Cheese are packaged by hand by workers like Joe Gibbs.
In Simpsonville, Duke Sandwich Productions fills large orders. From left, John F. Mack, Jerane Mote, and Andrew Smart, company president.
Say CHEESE!
