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Host Melissa interviews Frank Yarborough, creator of Frankie B’s pimento cheese, just days before the Pimento Cheese Festival in Downtown Cary Park. Frank shares how he grew up with his mother’s pimento cheese, learned the family recipe after she passed, and refined it into three flavors with a focus on traditional Southern taste, Duke’s mayonnaise, and a spreadable, dense consistency. He describes early public tastings outside his Academy Street home, the strong festival response, and moving into an inspected commercial kitchen before selling officially. Frank discusses festival sales goals, local retailers and restaurants now carrying the product, ideas for serving pimento cheese, and future plans that may expand into Southern baked goods like chocolate and lemon meringue pies.
00:00 Meet Frankie B
02:08 Family Recipe Roots
03:57 From Sharing to Flavors
04:39 Festival Buzz Takes Off
07:26 Branding and What Makes It Different
09:25 Selling Out and Scaling Up
14:33 Going Legit Commercial Kitchen
16:16 Why Cary Owns Pimento Cheese
17:11 Downtown Cary Life Changes
19:16 Fencing In Privacy
20:02 Roots in Downtown Cary
21:04 Festival Crowds and Traffic
21:36 Judging Pimento Cheese
23:00 Duke's and Family Legacy
24:17 Best Ways to Eat It
27:33 Beyond Pimento Cheese
29:22 Growing Frankie B's
32:13 Where to Buy and Ship
33:29 Wrap Up and Thanks
Creators and Guests
What is What’s Up, Wake?
What’s Up, Wake covers the people, places, restaurants, and events of Wake County, North Carolina. Through conversations with local personalities from business owners to town staff and influencers to volunteers, we’ll take a closer look at what makes Wake County an outstanding place to live. Presented by Cherokee Media Group, the publishers of local lifestyle magazines Cary Magazine, Wake Living, and Main & Broad, What’s Up, Wake covers news and happenings in Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and Wake Forest.
Today's guest is here to spread some joy. I'm joined by Frank Yarborough, the man behind Frankie B's pimento cheese, whose recipe has been winning hearts, creating long lines, and is to blame for serious cravings. The timing for our talk couldn't be better.
[00:01:30] Speaker: We're chatting just days before the Pimento Cheese Festival in downtown Carey Park, so this kind of feels like interviewing a rockstar right before the tour kicks off. That is if the tour involved cheddar cheese and Southern Pride. Today we'll dig into how Frank turned a comfort food classic into a growing brand.
What makes the perfect batch and why Frankie Bees keeps people coming back for one more bite. So grab a cracker, clear some fridge space, and get ready because this conversation is about to get deliciously cheesy. Welcome, Frank.
[00:02:05] Default_2026-03-05_1: , . I am here with the big cheese, Frankie B himself.
I, I have to start with first why pimento cheese and how you even got into the pimento cheese life to begin with. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great question. So I grew up with it. Um, my mother made it for most of my life. And it was interesting because like, you know, funerals and weddings, you know, she'd do the little sandwich squares where she'd cut the bread and quarters.
Oh yeah. That's my favorite. Yeah. Yeah. Cut the edges off of it. And people loved it. The original Uncrustable. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And people would often say, this is the best she's ever had. You need to sell it, you know, and I, I don't think I, I never, I never even thought of. You know, anything, taking a PME cheese to market or making it even.
Probably a little over five years ago. My mother passed away in 2015, so, um, then my sister who lives in Georgia now, she started making it and she'd come visit every now and then and make it for me, and I got tired of waiting for her. But I also got to a place where I wanted to learn how to. Make food.
I got tired of eating out a lot, the food quality in the area, I just, just was like, man, I'm, you know, I've eaten out a lot. Yeah. And so I, it was like something in me said, well, look, start making the pi of cheese. And so I asked my sister about the recipe. And the funny thing growing up is the ladies would always say, well, you know Frankie tried this and see if it needs a little more this, a little more that.
And I'm like, why don't you just make it the same way every time? You know? And that they don't do it that way. That's hard to do that way, especially when you're not measuring things, you know? Yeah. And they didn't, our parents and grandparents didn't never measure it anything. Hundred percent. A hundred percent.
And you know, and, and they were great cooks great southern cooks from this area. That's the way they did it. And so I was like, I'm, I'm, I've gotta make it the same way every time. 'cause I want the consistency and the quality, but again, never doing it to think that it would ever become a brand or anything like that.
But when I started making it, I started giving it away to people and sharing it because I was so excited that I actually made food. And so I would give it away and people would go, man, this is, this is awesome. And they, one thing led to another and I was like, well, okay, I'll take the family recipe and, you know, which was basically just kind of a regular nons spice ment of cheese.
So, well, I'll, I'll add a spice to it. And then it was, okay. Well I add spicy bacon and I kind of went through a couple of different iterations of spice and I had different people say, I want more spice or less spice. So at, at the end of the day I said, well, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna have three flavors for right now.
'cause if I'm gonna go to market, I'm not gonna overcomplicate it. Mm-hmm. I've got three people. Loved it. I kept getting great feedback and lo and behold, I, I did the PI cheese Festival 2023. 2024. I just sat in front of my house 2023 because the festival is right there on Academy Street. Yeah. And I did tastings.
'cause people would tell me, they'd say, this is the best lemon of cheese I've ever had. And I was like, you, you're my friend. You're my neighbor, whatever it may be. I'm gonna see general market responses to it. So I sat in front of my house, I. All day people coming up. And I didn't prepare a lot of cheese, but probably within about three hours or so, I fed over 350 people a bite outta my hand, right?
Mm-hmm. And so 2024, I prepared a little better, made 20 pounds of cheese, sat in front of my house, the festival that year moved to the park because they opened up the park that year. And, um, so. From that point set up in front of my house, I wasn't, you know, official. I didn't have it certified, didn't have a commercial kitchen.
I just did tastings again, free tastings. All day. I, I had over probably 1,011 hundred people come to my house. . Many were leaving the park where the festival was and coming up saying, Hey, we were told you've got the best ft of cheese out here. And I just was like, I was blown away that it could be really get that kind of response and be that good to people.
And so, you know, I have a marketing guy and, and tell me if I'm getting too long-winded on this, but my marketing guy for my technology company that I own for almost 28 years here in the area I said, Hey, you'd like PO cheese. And he said no. And so I said, well, I said, I'm, I'm gonna bring, that's Steve McCullough winnow creative.
He sold that business, but they're still in operation. Great guy. And I, I said, well, I'm gonna bring you some pied cheese. I actually. I was by that time making my grandmother's chocolate meringue pies and lemon meringue pies. So I was starting to get into more of her recipes. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I, I would love to try those as well.
So I made, I made him one for his birthday, but then I brought some cheese over. He said, this is awesome. Here's a guy that didn't like pied cheese. I think that pi of cheese kind of gets a bad rap like I do too. Yeah. My my husband says he does not like pied cheese, and I'm like, yeah, but have you even tried it?
Yeah. You know? Yeah. It looks a little, it looks a little funny, I guess. Yeah. I mean, I, I've grown up eating it, like you were saying, but it, um, I, I feel like the people that don't like it have never tried it. You know, I, I think there's some of that. I, I'm just, to be honest with you, I, I haven't met a lot of pied cheese out in the market in general that I really liked.
Mm-hmm. It's a different texture than mine, but I have met a lot of people, and especially at the festivals and whatnot who didn't like pied cheese, but when they try mine, they go, Hey, I like your pi of cheese. Yeah, yeah. Um, so, and some people are funky with texture. So it, it is that too. But I, I agree with you.
I, I think the same thing. So what is. Different about your pimento cheese? Yep. So what would you say? I'm gonna go back for just a second. Okay. So, Steve, my marketing guy? Yes. He said, I'm gonna help you take it to market. So he helped me create the brand. Oh, okay. And he created the logo? Yeah, we had, you brought me some.
Yep. You're my favorite type of guest. Yeah. You, you brought some samples And this is going to be my lunch today. Yeah. So he helped you come up with the He did. With all the, the labels and everything. He did put, he put my website together. He helped me come up with the brand. Nice. And he's like, you gotta take this to market.
Very nice. He's, we're there. He's a, a great type of friend to have. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So again going back to your question about mm-hmm. The difference between mine again, I I, I, I tell people this is as traditional southern as you're gonna get. It was born and bred right here in this area. Mm-hmm. By some beautiful ladies.
And it, it's just simple pied cheese. When you look out in the marketplace, there's a lot of pied cheeses that people call it pied cheese that's got 15 different flavors in it. It's got pimento in it, but it isn't like just classic pimento cheese. From my perspective, and again, this goes back because I'm conditioned and biased because this is something I grew up with and it's a family recipe.
But ours is more of a spread. A lot of pied cheeses you should find on the marketplace are more graded or chunky. They're more liquidy or a mayonnaise z this is a nice consistency. People love the consistency. I call it more of a spread and know it's just great on by itself or with, with multitudes and myriads of types of foods to make it with.
But it's, I love that. I love the creaminess of it without it being. Overly wet, if you will. It is more of a dense. Um, I did have a little taste before our Yeah. Episode started. Um, it is more of a, a dense, like you said, spread versus like a, a chunkier one that you might get at the grocery store, you know, mass market type of pimento cheese.
Um, one question that I'm, that's coming to mind as you're talking though, you, you started out just kind of making it for friends. Yep. And then last year was your first time at the Pimento Cheese Right. Festival. That's right. You sold, this is what I read anyway, that you sold a whopping 1500 containers of pimento cheese at the festival last year and you're planning to make 2000 this year.
Yeah. So correction there we were probably having a conversation, so last year we sold over 600 containers. Okay. Okay. We, I made over 900, I made somewhere in 900. That's plus that's still a remarkable amount of containers. Awesome. Of mento sheets. Oh, that's awesome. Look Melissa, it was amazing. We set up a booth at my house because that's what people were used to coming to my house.
Yeah. So we set up a booth there. We had the booth and the festival for the first time and um, the house sold out in two hours. I sold out an hour and a half early. And I, I'm telling you, this year, this year, I'm, I'm working towards having, and that's where the number 1500 came from. Oh, okay. Gotcha. I'm working towards 1500 to 2000 containers this year, and I have no doubt that we're gonna move a, a lot of cheese.
I mean, we had so much energy, but, you know, you think about, you know, you, you had 17,000 to 20,000 people in downtown Cary. So it doesn't take a lot of the, you know, a small percentage of that crowd to come get your cheese to, to sell a lot of it. But, you know, by the end of the festival, I mean, people were clamoring for it.
I remember towards the end, um, matter of fact, we had cleared away the crowd that was in front of our booth, which we had so much energy and excitement there the whole day. And I look over and I'm, I'm looking at this cooler and I go, eh, what's, what's in that cooler? You know? And we open it up and it's full of cheese.
Somebody had been sitting on it, we didn't think about it. We thought we'd cleared all the coolers out. Oh yes, you had more than you realized. Yes. Good. Yeah. So, you know, so next thing I know you know, we're pulling cheese out, putting it on the table. We had almost taken down the booth by that time and we just yelled out to people, Hey, we got more cheese.
And people were just Oh, yeah. Coming out of other lines and Oh, that's a very good problem to have. Yeah, it was awesome. It was awesome. So I, I expect a great turnout this year, but, you know, for me it, I, I love it. What, matter of fact, my motto for the years that I've been kind of going through sharing it with people has been loving people through pimento cheese.
Mm-hmm. And I love that. And I love the fact that it's got the heritage. It comes from, you know, special people in my life. So, you know, however much we sell to me, it, it isn't about that. It's about, you know, people tell me they love it. People say it's the best ment of cheese they've ever had. I just want to have fun with it.
Mm-hmm. And it, it has become a family thing. Matter of fact, I probably had 15 people between family members, other people that are associated with the Miracle League with me and friends that knew me, just show up at my house last year and I'll, I'll tell you, I'd had no idea what to expect last year. Because I'd never done it before.
Yeah. I'd never even been to one of the booths where they were doing it. I needed every person that showed up to be able to manage the two booths, the inventory, going back and forth to the house, getting things that we needed to be able to do tastings and sell the product. And so now, you know, this year I've got family members coming in from different parts of the country.
I've got friends coming over and we're gonna, we, it is become a big party around my house and around downtown Carey, for us to bring Frankie bees to the market. Let's talk logistics. Okay. Um, because going from selling, you know, smaller batches to large amounts. Yeah. Did you have to move out of your home kitchen to a, a bigger space to, to cook?
No, I never did a home kitchen stuff. The only thing. Oh, okay. Yeah, no, I never, you know, because you can't do that to be an official product bring to market. Gotcha. Yeah. So it has to be certified. You gotta have a, a, a, you know, an inspected kitchen and all that kind of stuff. Okay. You gotta have the insurance, so.
I never sold a container of it until I had everything lined up with all my ingredients certified. I had the kitchen inspected. I have insurance. So one day I was there's a commercial kitchen in downtown Kerry across the street from my grandmother's old house where this came from. And I knew it was there and I went and knocked on the door one day and just asked the guy, I said, you know, when you're not using it, would you sub rent it to me?
And he said, yes. And so that's where I make my kitchen. It's all been inspected and everything's official. So that was when I brought it to market last year and came to the festival. 'cause I had everything that I needed and we were ready to go. And, and for anybody that's listening who has not been to the Pimento Cheese Festival, it is.
It's a big deal. This is unbelievable. Like you've said, thousands and thousands of people come every year. Yeah. It, it's such a random sounding theme, right. Um, but it's, I mean, it, it, it's, it's really fun. I highly encourage everybody to come. It's not all pimento cheese. You don't have to eat pimento cheese.
Right. There's a lot of food. You don't it, but I, I do, um, definitely encourage you to at least try it. I'm speaking to my husband right now, at least try it once. Yeah. Then you can say you don't like it. For sure. Let him try to Frankie Bees and see, you know, start him out with the top shelf. I'm gonna be bringing this, this one home today, so he's, I'm gonna force him.
I'm gonna force feed him. Well, you know, we, we are the only town in the country 'cause we've done Google searches on it. We're the only town in the country that has a pimento cheese festival. Yeah. This is, this is, yeah, this is it. The, the one and only. Yeah. Yes. Um, and it, so it makes it unique and, and really fun.
Yeah. Too. What I'd like to see happen. I know you got another question there, and forgive me for interrupting this. I would like to see the identity of pimento cheese to move from South Carolina to North Carolina and to be in C actually, right? Oh, with the Frankie B's brand. So is that Pimento cheese is known for South Carolina?
Well, Polly's Island, you've got a brand there. I won't mention the name. Oh, they, they're mass distributed Costco and everywhere else. Okay. And you know, a lot of people, it's like they, they kind of equate, they ment a cheese from mm-hmm. The mass distribution side of things mm-hmm. With that brand. And I'm like, man, I, we, we need to get, you know, Carrie needs to become identified as the Yeah.
Ed Cheese Capital of the South. Yeah. We need to work on that. Carrie. Yeah. Come on guys. Yep. Okay. You've mentioned that you live in downtown. That's right. Carrie, you're right on Academy Street, and I can imagine that your life has changed significantly in recent years. Yeah. With the, with the new park opening, with all the, all the changes that have come to downtown C.
Right. Tell me about life. Now that the park has opened, is it just, yeah. You know, it's, has it truly changed as, as much as I imagine? Yeah, in a lot of ways it has. Especially, you know, they started the Scree Street scrap project probably maybe five to eight years ago. And the park was part of that, but the park was the latter part of it.
The whole construction and apartments. Condos and houses that have been developed down there. Mm-hmm. It's, it's become, to me, it, it's a small city. It's going from a small town to a big town to now we've got a small city. Mm-hmm. The park, to me, really defined downtown Kerry as a, as a small city. Because you would expect a park like that to be in a, in a more of a larger city environment.
It's a beautiful park, but it's really fantastic because I think, you know, we've got the whole world coming to downtown C. Um, it represents the world, it represents our country in terms of the melting pot, if you will. I love it because again, when I'm ready and as I venture outside my house, there's a lot of people that I can expose to Pi Cheese, right.
So I've got a sound, a sign on my fence downtown and my son Jack, who I was telling you about with down Syndrome, he is a great salesman of Frankie Bees. Mm-hmm. And you know, when we're out in the yard doing yard work or just hanging out, you know, we're looking for people who are, look, if you look at our sign long enough, we're engaging with you.
Yes. Yeah. And we're gonna come do a tasting and you might walk away with some containers of cheese. So I love that. The biggest thing for me, Melissa, that we did that transformed our living experience was when they did the streetscape and built the hotel and all of that. I didn't have a fence in front of my house and I was like, we gotta create a separation because when the town would have events downtown, people would use my yard.
I mean, people would sit up on my porch and, you know, drink and eat and have fun. My yard, I don't even know why I am, I am. Acting like I'm surprised about that. Yeah. I mean, but, but, but people treated a lot of dogs. People treated like a pub, like a, a, a public space, you know? Yeah, yeah. But once I put the fence off, which we completed that project, the first of 2020, the fence and the sprinklers and the Yeah, yeah.
And the guard. The guard dogs. The guard dog. Yeah. I mean, it, it just, to me. When I get inside my house, and even when I'm my yard, I don't feel like I'm in this busy downtown area. I feel like we've got privacy. I love the separation, but we love being down there. We love the amenities, the restaurants being able to walk to different things.
The park's really fantastic, so. We really love it. But my, you know, my family's been there since 1895. The house that I live in, my granddad built in 1937. So with the family heritage, we just, we just love it. Yeah. Being a part of the town. And I, and I love that you have stayed, you know? Yeah. I, I, a lot of people, I think, um, well, not a lot.
I don't know, I'm just kind of saying that, but have. Would maybe not like the change. Yeah. And move to, to find, you know, solitude somewhere else. That's right. Yeah. I'm sure a lot of people have done that. So I'm glad that you have, I'm glad that you have, have stayed, um, to lead, you know, still be a part of the history that's, that's down there.
And I love, I think one of the things that I'm encouraged about is, is everything that they're doing down there is really good quality. Right? Yeah. It's, it's nice. It's really well done. Very good point. Yes. Yeah. So it, it, it, it, you, you love the vibe of it. Mm-hmm. You know? Mm-hmm. But yeah, we, we love it.
And again, we were there like, I moved back from Atlanta in 1985 to my granddad's old home that he built. And, um, you know, it was a sleepy, slow town and we loved it then. Yeah. So, you know, I've never had a negative view of any of what's going on down there, other than like, especially you get, get around Christmas time, December time, you get some traffic.
Not just cars, but foot traffic. It's crazy trying to just get outta my street and get back and forth to my house. And a day like the Pimento Cheese Festival, you might as well park your car and not go anywhere. That's right. But you're gonna be there anyway, so it doesn't matter. Well then the good thing is I can wheel my wagon down from my house Oh.
To the festival right's. Right? That's true. Yeah. You don't have to find parking. I don't have to drive anywhere. Yeah, that is a, that is also a good point. Okay, so you're used to being judged. Let's turn the tables. Okay. If you are judging the pimento cheese competition, what are you looking for? I, I think the traditional pimento cheese.
Right. So you don't like, you don't want to try the, the, the different options? I would, I would, I have no problem with that. I, I am a quality snob, first of all. Yeah. And I have a certain palette. I'm, I'm a, you know, I'm a meat and potatoes guy. Some people tell me that I ought to write articles about food and, and express my opinion on it because I've got a great opinion.
But I, I'm a. You could say I'm a medium fair to low fair. 'cause I love hot dogs, hamburgers, pizzas. I like simple foods, but I'm meat and potatoes. So I don't know how much people want to hear about that. But for me it, it's the simplicity of it with great flavor. I just love great flavor and food, but I've got a certain palette, right?
So some people would maybe enjoy one brand versus the other for whatever reason. But I, I, I think it'd be the simplicity of really. A traditional pimento cheese first and then beyond that. Okay, let's, let's spice it up. Let's flavor it up. Let's see what, how creative we can get with it. But if I'm gonna, if I'm gonna judge a pimento cheese festival, I'm looking for real good, you know, southern, traditional pimento, cheese, whatever, however you define that.
Yeah. Um, I also read that you use Duke's mayonnaise. I do. Yeah. And I feel like that is also a must because as Dukes or nothing, I grew up Yeah, that's what I mean. Don't, don't bring me the other stuff. Matter of fact, I have a plastic yellow Duke's mayonnaise cup at my house Yeah. That I drink out of on a frequent basis.
That's my favorite cup. Yeah. It's just, it just, I think a lot of it it's meaningful because it represents my family. Mm-hmm. And the people that I love that aren't here anymore. And they were very special because they, you know, these ladies were the nucleus and the core of our family as I grew up.
And, and so those things just, they, they, they're special to me from that perspective. Yeah. You're carrying on their legacy for sure. Yeah, a hundred percent. And I'm sure you think about them often too when you're making the pimento cheese. I do. Yeah. I do. And forgive me, but I often tell people I think I'm doing better than they did.
Oh, I think mine's better. Even, even like with my chocolate meringue pies. I make a killer chocolate meringue cow. That's the one, that's what I want next for you. Yes, with my grandmother, with my grandmother's recipe. Now it's her recipe. But people have often said, oh, meringue's, hard to do from day one.
I've made a beautiful meringue. I'll show you some pictures when we get wrapped up of seminars. I want pictures and I want the real thing. Okay, please and thank you. You, you got it. Yeah. Okay. So you, you brought us some pimento cheese today. Yep. You brought it with, um. Pretzels. Yep. Little pretzels. I'm wondering, and, and you, you, you can think of any creative way under the sun to add pimento cheese to anything.
I love it on. Cheeseburgers. Yep. Um, but really I love it just with regular old bread. Yeah. Just standard white bread. What is your favorite pairing with pimento cheese? Yeah, that, that's, that's a great question. I, I've, you know, I grew up with you know, you'd oftentimes go to functions. They may have it on celery, right.
But the real traditional way that my mother would make its own just regular white bread. She loves sun beam. I happen to go towards Wonder Bread, but either one of them. Mm-hmm. But a lot of times my simplicity is I'll take just one piece of bread put, put cheese on half folded over. And I don't.
Oh, gotcha. Okay. I just, I just love the simplicity of taking a half a half. I might make six of those and eat 'em for dinner. Mm-hmm. But they're gonna be one piece of bread folded over Fold. Yeah. Fold. Okay. Um, the, I, I'll tell you though, it, I will say it does taste different if you, if you slice it vertically or, or diagonally.
Isn't that crazy? Can't explain it. Isn't that crazy? But it is true. Yeah. I haven't tried to fold it though. I'm gonna have to try it. It, because it, it will taste different. Yeah. It, it, it's funny because another way that we always loved making it growing up is we would take the bread and put it in the oven on broil and do open face.
Mm. And let the cheese melt. And then, you know, you toast the bread a little bit. Put the cheese on it, then let the cheese melt. And it's just a, a, a, a yummy mess, right? Yes. Yeah. Um, one thing that I've been doing also recently is I'll take the bread toast it, put mayonnaise and some organic slight, like just standard Turkey sandwich meat on there.
And put, put many cheese on the other piece. And I'll put them back in the oven on broil and let the cheese get melted. Kind of dries out the Turkey a little bit, put 'em together. It's been delicious. Wow. That does sound very good. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give a, give a plug to LA Farm because.
Another way that I've, that a lot of people I've, I've turned onto it, really love it, is I'll take their sourdough bread. So really anybody's sourdough. Mm-hmm. But I like their sourdough. You're right around the corner from the farm. Yeah. So you gotta use that. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. So, and you put butter on it.
Get a griddle. Put the cheese in the middle, make a grilled cheese sandwich out of it. It is fantastic. But again, I've, I've eaten my spicy bacon with a filet mignon is money. My wife, Hey, that actually sounds amazing. I'm just telling hot dog. I used to I haven't in a while, but I used to go down here and get did a city barbecue and I get their sausage and cut it up in little slices and literally for dinner, I just take a, a little scoop of the pi of cheese.
With my fork pope, the sausage, and that would be my dinner. So hot dogs, hamburgers ch best cheeseburger you ever had. Mm-hmm. But I've got people that eat it with eggs and you know, on different breads and crackers and stuff. But it's really just, I, I, I tell people anything that you would use a sour cream with chilies, soups, you name it.
Oh, I never thought about chilies. Oh yeah. You put, you put that on there. It's fantastic. Okay. Well, you've given me a lot of great ideas and now I'm starving, so thank you. Okay. Let's say you have to stop making pimento cheese today. Yep. I might already know the answer to this. Based on what you already said, you have to stop making pimento cheese.
But you're gonna start making another recipe. What are you gonna turn your focus to? Yeah. If I were gonna do that, I'd, I'd go to the baked goods. I was gonna say the C chocolate meringue pie. Oh, yeah, yeah. The chocolate, lemon meringue pies. You know, there, there's some, again, traditional southern things that I, I call 'em southern because it's what I grew up with.
My grandmother was a miracle worker. She could, she could go to church on Sunday morning and have a feast ready. By the time we all got there at lunchtime with multitudes of desserts. Her pound cakes, her pies, her cakes, everything were just so delicious. So it boiled custard. You don't see boiled custard around like that.
That was kind of the forerunner to the good berries, custards and stuff like that. Um, but I would take her, her recipes and start making those and share it with people. And then my sister, my oldest sister's getting ready to move from Georgia after being there since 1970. 'cause we moved there in 1970.
She's moving back and she loves what I'm doing with all this and she wants to bake with me. Right. And she's really, really fantastic. So I think the two of us would probably put together something and have I, I'll, I'll tell you this, if you don't mind me adding this to it. I've, I've bought the URL for two, two names right now.
One is the Southern Treaty. And the other is the Frankie B Southern Treaty. That's based on the possibility that I would migrate inevitably into an a format where I would create a just yummy southern, traditional southern themed foods for people. Well, I, I offer myself as your taste tester anytime.
Thank you. Okay. I will, I will dive on that. You deal forward for everyone deal. Yes. And that was actually my next question. What's next for Frankie Bees? So you are, yeah. You really are thinking about maybe expanding. Yeah. I, I think it, it'll be a while, Melissa, because again, I, I'm, I'm early out the gate with this, um, I'm getting some traction Again, thank you for having me here and giving me this opportunity.
Um, the New York Butcher shop here in Kerry just started stocking it. We had a wonderful launch event there where amazing amounts of people showed up to support us. The new Vino and tap downtown Cario have it pastrami. Toms is carrying it. They featured it on a burger there. And then I've been wanting to go there.
I've heard, yeah, it's good. They make a great things about them. Yeah, they make a great Philly cheese steak, but their burgers, everything there is really fantastic. And then the DR and draft over at Fenton also serves it with their foods and or their drinks and stuff. So I think, you know, just I think right now is determining what, where do we, where do we go next?
What's the next place? What's the best next thing to do? Um, I've got some amazing people working with me that are brilliant minds in business and strategy and you know, logistics. And so, you know, we're, we're thinking about, you know, if we want to take it further and, and really grow this as a brand, how to do it well, how to do it wisely.
Um, my, my older two sons live in Texas. One's Fort Worth, one's Austin. And we just got back from there and people there were just clamoring for it because they've had it and they're like, man, you gotta bring Frankie Bees here. I'm like, well, we, we gotta, we gotta get a good market development and carry before I, you know, get out the Texas Yeah, because I do hear that sometimes you grow too fast.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I, I'm, I don't, I'm not interested in that. Mm-hmm. I just, I, I just semi-retired, if you will, from a company that I built for almost 28 years, ACON Incorporated AV systems integration company here in the area, and been down that path. And you know, I'm, now, I'm in a, in a time of my life where I can, you know, step back a little bit.
I don't have to drive it hard every day. And really enjoy it. And that's, that's what I'm trying to learn to do because I come from a driving, you know uh, mentality, and that's my spirit, right? Mm-hmm. Get out and just drive the market and, and, and, you know, put, you know, create opportunities. And now I'm, I'm s stepping back and saying, how do I do this?
And, and still, you know, it's gotta have the love in it, right? I tell people the secret ingredient with Frankie Bees is the love. And I really believe that, and I think that really it comes from the spirit of my, the ladies before me, my mom, my grandma, my great grandma. They're beautiful lovers of us.
And so I, I think it's, you know, taking a step at a time, working with smart minded people to come up with a good business strategy. That if there's a way to build this as a, a, a, a core brand and carry even just, just here where it's the pre premier brand, if you will, for just carry fine. If we get beyond that fine too, we'll, we'll take it a day at a time.
Okay, so everyone, to find out more about Frankie B's Pimento Cheese, read our April issue of Carrie magazine. David McCreary, which is our fantastic food writer came and interviewed you for this story for the April issue. Where can everyone find out? More about your pimento cheese and um, did we just show up at your house and ring the doorbell to come by it?
You really can. You really can. I mean, I, I've got a sign out there. People can stop by and people do Just avoid the sprinklers. Yeah. And the barking dog. The bark dog. Yeah. Yep. Thank you. And but they can go to frankie bees please.com And that's Frankie with an IEBS please.com. And check us out there.
They can go to the New York Butcher shop and, and purchase it today. They can order it online. I do deliver. I've shipped as far as California and to Texas and Michigan and Min, Minneapolis and Atlanta and all around we do ship it within the continental United States and it's fantastic. But they can come by my house and stop and knock on the door, ring the doorbell.
They can text me, call me. They can order online, like I said and, and come pick it up or I can deliver it. They can go to one of these other establishments that I've mentioned and enjoy it there. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you again for bringing us some samples. Welcome.
I'm gonna find You're welcome Joe, my, my producer over this Memento cheese. We're gonna go to blows, Joe. Okay. Thank you Frank. Well, before you give him a black eye, I'll be glad to bring more. Okay. Alright, well, I guess we won't go to blows. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for coming. You're welcome. Thank you for having me here.