If you don’t know already, Papa’s pimento cheese is one of your old friends. And it’s also a friend of Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson, who just announced his endorsement.
It’s the old Holiday Deli & Ham Co. — “Holiday Ham” for short — pimento cheese, says Trey Jordan, founder, president, and CEO of Pimentos Brands, which makes the cheese.
“Papa” is his dad, Don Jordan, his Holiday Ham co-founder. “Dad and I started it together in 1993. … We had four sandwiches on the menu to start with: mom’s tuna fish salad, dad’s pimento cheese, a ham sandwich, and a turkey sandwich. And we sold spiral sliced hams.”
Their first store was located at Poplar Avenue and Perkins Road, but the business quickly grew. “At one time I had as many as 10 stores.” That included the since-closed Pimento Burgers Bar & Grill.
They chose the name “Holiday” because they celebrated a lot “around the Jordan house,” Trey says. “We used to say, ‘Make everyday be a holiday.’”
Holiday Ham became a Memphis institution. It was “around for a long time and had good success and a great run until Covid hit.”
Their customer base had been “people going to the office and going to lunch. Moms would come by, back in the day. We were the first fast-casual restaurant in Memphis.”
Customers still came by after they locked their doors during the pandemic. “We had people banging on our doors [for pimento cheese]. So we figured it out and slid it through the window.”
Everything changed after Covid. “Office workers didn’t return,” he says. “We had to close all our stores down and close the business after a 30-year run.”
But they soon discovered Holiday Ham pimento cheese wasn’t going down without a fight. A group of local business people told him, “You’re a Memphis legacy we don’t want to see stopped.”
Papa’s pimento cheese evolved from the simple type of pimento cheese his dad knew as a child. “My dad grew up in rural Kosciusko, Mississippi. He grew up with pimento cheese, but he was born in 1929. Pimento cheese back then was a poor man’s food.”
People made it out of “some cheese in the fridge, some mayonnaise.” The idea back then was, “Let’s extend the food we had on the shelves.” But he and his dad thought, “There might be a better way to make pimento cheese.”
They now use two premier aged cheddar cheeses along with their secret spices. Kroger added Papa’s pimento cheese in 2020. They’re now in about 100 Krogers as well as other grocery store chains, including Albertsons, Tom Thumb, and Central Market. “We’re in eight states and growing. We’ve had some huge meetings. People are really excited about us.”
They currently sell three types of pimento cheese: Original, Jalapeño, Fiesta, and the soon-to-be released Smokehouse.
Jordan wanted Robertson to endorse Papa’s pimento cheese. “I think Willie has a tongue-in-cheek way about him. But Willie is all about family, all about his faith. And they’re always sitting around eating together. … When he tasted our product, he loved it.”
In a press release, Robertson is quoted as saying, “I tasted their pimento cheese, and I was sold on it immediately. This has that perfect Southern kick with every bite.”
Trey’s dad is 95 years old. “Still doing great. But, of course, he’s not in the business anymore.”
As for branching out into other products, Trey says, “We’re going to go in the ‘Dips, Spreads, and Sauces’ category, so a chicken salad spread potentially is down the road. Anything that fits in that bucket as we expand.”
Trey has no intention of opening a Papa’s pimento cheese restaurant. But he might partner with an existing chain. “I’ll sell it to Chick-fil-A and let them put it on their sandwich.”
For now, Trey really wants everyone to try Papa’s pimento cheese. “I think it’s the best cheese out there,” he says. “Most people say, ‘What do you put in this stuff? It’s an addiction.’ … People just love it. After you eat it the first time, you generally stick with us.”