The Pimento Cheeseburger
A classic burger topped with bacon and the chain’s own pimento cheese, the Southern spread of grated cheese, mayonnaise and sweet red peppers. Warmed on the patty it melts into something between a cheese sauce and a spread, richer and tangier than a slice of American. A good first order for anyone from outside the South.
The story
Pimento cheese is now thought of as Southern, but it started in the North. A 1908 Good Housekeeping recipe mixed soft cream cheese with minced pimentos, a 1909 sandwich book used Neufchâtel, and by 1910 it was sold commercially. Canned Spanish pimentos were expensive, so Southern farmers began growing their own, and Southern cooks rebuilt the recipe with hoop cheese and mayonnaise. After the Second World War it faded elsewhere but stayed popular in the South, where it earned nicknames like Carolina caviar, and from the early 2000s Southern chefs began putting it back on restaurant menus.
What’s inside
- hand-pattied beef burger
- bacon
- pimento cheese
- steamed bun
Make it at home
There is no copycat of the The Pimento Cheeseburger yet. Until there is, these recipes on the site come closest to it, judged by what goes into the bun.
- Shares beef, bacon and cheese
Cheeseburger Wellington - Shares beef, bacon and cheeseJelly Doughnut Burger
- Shares beef, bacon and cheese
Elvis Luther Burger - Shares beef, bacon and cheese
Easy Bacon, Onion, and Cheese-Stuffed Burgers
Similar burgers at other chains
Built around the same things as the The Pimento Cheeseburger.- Burger Heroes · beef, bacon and cheese
SignatureBlack Mamba - Five Guys · beef, bacon and cheese
Little Bacon Cheeseburger - BurgerFi · beef, bacon and cheese
Bacon Cheeseburger - Bobby's Burgers · beef, bacon and cheese
Bacon Crunchburger
More from Hwy 55 Burgers Shakes & Fries
About Hwy 55 Burgers Shakes & Fries
Kenney Moore opened the first restaurant in 1991 in the Berkeley Mall in Goldsboro, North Carolina, under the name Andy’s Cheesesteaks and Cheeseburgers. He started with $500 and equipment financed by its owners, took over three more closed restaurants and was soon $30,000 in debt to his food supplier, before switching to franchising and spreading across eastern North Carolina.
About a hundred restaurants, most of them in North Carolina, with others across the Southeast.
The full Hwy 55 Burgers Shakes & Fries burger menu and story →
Not affiliated with Hwy 55 Burgers Shakes & Fries. Trademarks belong to their owners.