If everything goes according to plan, over the next month or so, hot slaw will become an official state food of Tennessee, and Cleveland will be its capital.
“This was brought to me by Rep. Kevin Raper, who represents the city of Cleveland. In order for the city to be the official hot slaw capital, we first have to make hot slaw an official state food of Tennessee,” bill sponsor Sen. Adam Lowe, R-Calhoun, said from his office in Nashville.
When I think of food that represents Tennessee, I think of dill-pickle-studded hot chicken that sparked in Nashville’s Hell’s Half Acre before catching wildfire around the globe. (You can even get it in Singapore.) Memphis-style ribs also come to mind, like the ones from Cozy Corner. I’m glad it’s not barbecue spaghetti, another Memphis-born monstrosity, but hot slaw has never been on the radar.
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We’ll never truly know the history of this apparently beloved slaw. Inquiry about it’s origins involves a bunch of family secrets, he said/she said, folklore and shaky recollections. After doing a hefty share of research, most of my sources led me to the Star Vue, a popular Cleveland drive-in theater opened in the 1950s by Cletus Benton and Hoyt Fair. I heard that Mr. Fair got the original recipe from Paul Avery Scoggins and his wife, Daisy, who ran a trio of restaurants on Keith Street near the drive-in, including the Pan-Am Grill Cafe, but I can’t confirm that story.