Meet The Big Cheese – John Brady
“…stocking the store’s shelves with his own product”
John Brady is a part-time cashier at the IGA in Cheraw, but he’s also an entrepreneur, working at stocking the store’s shelves with his own product: John Brady’s Pimento Cheese.
The former superintendent retired from the textile industry and now is an essential worker at the IGA – with a side hustle in homemade pimento cheese production.
“The way I got started in pimento cheese is that I had a party for my 65th birthday and this lady brought some to try, and I liked it,” says Brady. “Then I got thinking about how I can make my own.”
He experimented with various recipes and had his friends taste test some samples until he found the perfect pimento cheese formula in January 2015. Since then, he’s grown his business to sell the cheese in 10 area stores in both 6 and 12-ounce containers.
“I make it all from my home and hand-deliver them myself,” says Brady. “My cheese is made from about five, all-natural ingredients – no artificial flavors. There’s a regular recipe and one that’s hot with jalapenos stirred in.”
Originally from Greensboro, N.C., the father and grandfather has called the Cheraw area home since the late 1970s and likes to go to the beach on his days off, when he’s not making his pimento cheese, of course.
“I had more sales in April than I did in January and February together,” says Brady. “I’m hoping that will continue once this is all over.”
“John’s Pimento Cheese has been featured at the Taste of Cheraw, Taste of Patrick, and Taste of Society Hill.” Pick up a container of locally made John Brady’s Pimento Cheese at 10 area grocery locations, including L&L Discount Foods, the IGA in Cheraw and Wadesboro, the Piggly Wiggly in Chesterfield, and Breeden Grocery in Bennettsville.
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