in their STEP “pep” FROM PEACHTREE TO PAWLEY'S ISLAND, THE FOUNDERS OF PIMIENTO
STORY AND PHOTOS BY KATY RUTH CAMP If
18 COBB LIFE | APRIL 2019
A little
CHEESE GIANTS PALMETTO CHEESE PROVE THAT THE RECIPE FOR
SUCCESS IS A GOOD IDEA, HARD WORK AND A LOT OF LOVE.
you like pimiento cheese and have ever stepped foot in a
Southern grocery store, you likely have seen tubs of Palmetto
Cheese lining the shelves. “The pimiento cheese with soul!” is
inscribed on its side, alongside a tribute to Pawley’s Island,
S.C. and a a grayscale photo of an older woman in apron who
looks as though she knows what she’s doing in the kitchen adorns the tubs’ lids.
But while that woman, Vertrella Brown, has indeed made her fair share of
Palmetto Cheese and other soulful foods, Palmetto Cheese belongs to the
husband-and-wife team of Brian and Sassy Henry.
The Henrys spoke before a sold-out crowd of Marietta Garden Club
members in March at the Marietta Educational Garden Center as a benefit for
MEGC’s kitchen renovations and shared the story of how they developed one of
the South’s favorite brands of pimiento cheese.
The early days
In the early 1990s, during the heyday of Atlanta Braves baseball, the Henrys
were dating and Sassy was putting the old saying “the way to a man’s heart is
through his stomach” to work.