Slows Detroit creates 'Plaid Pig' sandwich to honor pit master who died at 28

Slows Detroit has rolled out a new sandwich in honor of a former employee. 

John Osborne worked at Slows for 7 years, adding great value to the restaurant as the lead pit master. He smoked hundreds of pounds of meat for Slows and their operation at Ford Field. 

Sadly, last summer, John died of an undiagnosed heart condition, dilated cardiomyopathy. He was only 28. 

John was well known for  his gentle spirit, unmistakable afro and signature plaid shirts.  

Slows is honoring his memory with a new sandwich, The Plaid Pig. It's a massive stack ham and cheese sandwich, with the restaurant's bar cheese. It also has their mustard and bacon.

The sandwiches are available now at both the Corktown and Midtown Slows To Go locations, and $1 from the proceeds of each sandwich will be donated to the John Osborne Plaid Pig Endowment at Schoolcraft College.

The endowment was founded by John's family to award scholarship money to two students every year who are interested in a culinary career. John had taken his preliminary culinary classes at Schoolcraft. 

His mother, Marie Osborne, a anchor-reporter at WJR radio who's been in the Detroit radio news for nearly 40 years, joined us on The Nine to tell us more about her son and the scholarship fund. You can hear from her in the video player above. 

She was also joined by Brian Perone, chef and co-founder of Slows, to tell us more about the sandwich. 

If you'd like to read more about John, or donate directly to the John Osborne Plaid Pig Endowment at Schoolcraft College fund, click here