MIchael Donahue
The Sippi at Clancy’s Cafe in Red Banks, Mississippi.
While I recently was on vacation, I tried a fabulous Southern culinary item.
Barbecue? Fried dill pickles? Pimento cheese?
Yes.
The Sippi is all of that. And it’s delicious. But you have to travel about 20 minutes from Memphis to try one. Tyler Clancy put this sandwich together at his restaurant, Clancy’s Cafe in Red Banks, Mississippi.
They run The Sippi as a special, but it’s going on the menu in September, Clancy says.
He describes The Sippi as “everything that is Mississippi in a bun, basically. Pimento cheese — the unofficial state dish. Fried dill pickles, being created at The Hollywood in Robinsonville, Mississippi. Pulled pork barbecue.”
These were all items Clancy already had on hand. “We’ve always done barbecue. We had fried dill pickles on the menu since day one. Pimento cheese from catering events.”
He originally made The Sippi as a special two years ago. “The flavors all worked well. It took off,” Clancy says.
Clancy smokes his own pork, he says: “We smoke all our meats on site.”
He uses extra sharp white and extra sharp yellow in his pimento cheese. He grates his own cheese. “We get 10 pound blocks,” Clancy says.
And, he says, “Instead of pimentos, we use roasted red peppers.”
Also, “Our blackening season for our fish. We put that in there.”
And Clancy adds, “Texas Pete hot sauce. It’s the best hot sauce you can get.”
Clancy uses Clausen pickles for his fried dill pickles, which are hand battered in house.
To top off the sandwich, Clancy uses his “sweet Sippi” barbecue sauce, which is tomato-based and includes brown sugar.
Everything just comes together. “The saltiness of the pickles, the sweetness of the sauce, the smokiness from the meat, and the crispy texture of the fried pickles,” Clancy says.
The only thing missing in The Sippi is fried chicken.
Clancy’s Cafe is at 4078 MS-178, Red Banks, Mississippi; (662)-252-7502