South Carolina.  My home state, and a place you can readily find fresh seafood, boiled peanuts, Cheerwine, mustard based bbq, Krispy Kreme, and pimento cheese.  According to my friends raised in other part of the country pimento cheese isn’t something that is common knowledge.

Pimento cheese is a common food in the Southern United States. The basic recipe for most pimento cheese spreads has few ingredients: sharp cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, pimentos, salt and pepper, blended to either a smooth or chunky paste (via)

So simple and delicious, but almost completely absent in other parts of the country.  Of course there are variations, but you basically get the idea.

Another restaurant that I’ve been going to, long before my foray into carnivorism, is Sesame Burgers and Beer in North Charleston, South Carolina.

At Sesame you pick your type of burger (beef, chicken, turkey, or black bean), and an unbelievable amount of toppings, both for you to choose from, or to try one of their carefully thought out combination, that can make pretty much everyone happy (including my grandparents, who are a tough sell at a restaurant).

The South Carolina Burger is simple.  Just pimento cheese thickly slathered on the bun and a burger cooked to your liking.   Sesame say it in their name…burgers and beer…and they do those things well.  The burger was delicious (not to salty, and cooked perfectly), and with a topping like pimento cheese you don’t need much else.  The meat is ground in house daily, and it’s served with bread and butter pickles…a steal for $6.50 (and a side of fries will only cost you $1.50 extra, or $2.50 if you want the sweet potato variety).  While you are there get a pint of the local, and wonderful, beer from Coast Brewing…the 32/50 Kolsch was the perfect accompaniment for my lunch.

This burger was an amazing first meal for me when I landed in Charleston, and I’ve been thinking about it since.   There were so many sandwiches here that looked amazing that it was really hard for me to decide…I wish I could have eaten here a couple of times, but sadly my trip was only for a couple days.

Luckily I’m in Brooklyn where there are no shortage of wonderful burgers…I just haven’t found one yet that has pimento cheese on it…yet (I know someone has to be listening).

If you are in Charleston, or visiting…check out Sesame:

Sesame Burgers and Beer
is located at
4726 Spruill Ave
North Charleston, SC

Sesame has also opened a second location
in the Citadel Mall
2070 Same Rittenburg Blvd
Charleston, SC

Follow Sesame on Twitter and Facebook!

Check out their full menu here.

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• this post is part of This Week In Sandwiches
  • all my food posts can be found here.
• as well as my Going to Charleston series.
  • the rest of my going to… series can be found here.