The two best known cheesesteak places in Philly give you a choice of 4 different types of cheeses to put on it. Picking one of their 4 choices isn’t customizing. There is no default. All 4 are equally valid choices. Cheese Whiz, provolone, American, Cooper Sharp. Chose one. That’s what will be on it. If they didn’t want you to chose one they wouldn’t put it on the menu. That’s true of both Pat’s and Geno’s.
My favorite is Dalesanndro’s. American cheese is standard. For $1 more you can get either whiz or provolone. You can get all three for $4. You will get the cheese you ordered.
Further, Pat’s, Geno’s, Jim’s & their ilk are assembly line type places. You order at a window (for Pat’s & Geno’s, inside for Jim’s) where the cashier repeats your order to the guy inside who is making them. If you say “provolone” & he somehow states, “whiz” then you say, “Nope, I wanted provolone”. If you’re not paying attention to what he repeats, you’re waiting literally seconds after you pay to get your steak. If you get handed yours & find out it’s the wrong thing, they can make you another in < 1 minute, probably < 30 seconds. I don’t believe I’ve ever gotten a steak that’s not what I’ve ordered.
Think of it like a very simplified Chinese restaurant menu; while Chinese menus look big the majority of it is one of four proteins (chicken, beef, pork, shrimp) with one of six(?) vegetable options (broccoli, Chinese/mixed vegetables, snow peas, string beans, peanuts/cashews).
The majority of their menu is bread & meat (usually beef but can be chicken or roast pork) & then your toppings, a cheese, onions, sauce, mushrooms, &/or peppers
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve asked for a hamburger instead of a cheeseburger and had it come coated with cheese. I actually like cheeseburgers, but I can’t abide American cheese, and once that has melted, there’s no removing it.
I didn’t realize the famous cheesesteak places were assemly-line-in-front-of-you: where I’ve seen it on menus, it just comes from a kitchen. But those places do not include Philadelphia.
You must have very bad luck with food. And American cheese is the best for a hamburger precisely because of how it melts. But that’s besides the point.
You don’t go to a deli and say, “ give me a sandwich” and expect them to be able to make the sandwich you want. Same with a cheesesteak. You can’t just say, “give me a cheesesteak.” They need to know what kind of cheese. All of the more well known places I’m aware of give you several choices. They also need to know if you want onions. Some offer peppers and onions. Depending on the place there are often other options. Pretty much like any other sandwich place. I don’t think you would say you won’t go to a deli because they make your sandwich to order and they might get it wrong.
I’m familiar with ordering food. I’m a fussy eater, to my chagrin, so I’ve learned. Some places are great about customization, some are not; some places have it built into the menu, as you describe. That hasn’t been my experience with cheesesteak, but said experience is quite limited.
Have I had a car broken into? Yes, once. They didn’t take anything, though. They apparently jimmied the lock (nothing was actually broken), pulled everything out of the glove box and center console, opened the trunk, and left when they realized I had nothing valuable in the car.
I’ve had a Vespa stolen at a time when it was my sole source of transportation. That was gut-wrenching. I also had my first in-dash CD player stolen two weeks after it was installed. Losing the player was bad enough, but they broke the stick shift to get it out.
A former coworker of mine did have his car stolen. The police eventually found it at an impound lot in San Francisco, but by that point his insurance company had declared it totaled and he’d bought a new car, so it was the insurance company’s car at that point.
I had my car stolen last night. There was a police surveillance video that showed it happening. Fortunately it was a dream. My search for a functioning bathroom turned out to be a bigger element in the dream than the stolen car.
I’ve had a car broken into and contents stolen on two occasions (which were not dreams).
I answered Other in the car stolen poll, so I should explain.
Many years ago I lived in a not-really-nice apartment complex where all parking was in a big lot next to the buildings. One morning I went down and saw that thieves had removed one of the doors of my car. They had also smashed a different door’s lock to get access to the car. Why go to the effort of steal one door from a car ? Hell if I know.
It was an expensive model of car, and getting a replacement door was so costly that it wasn’t worth fixing, so it was declared a total loss.
I’ve also had cars broken into and the audio equipment stolen, and once someone tried to take the catalytic converter from a car while it was in my driveway.
I’ve learned my lesson and always park in a locked garage.
I’ve never had a car stolen, but once my car was broken into by breaking a window. The glass breaking woke me up, I went to the room window, and when the thief saw me watching, he pointed down the street like “it was that other guy that did this thing I’m standing in front of”, and then he ambled off empty-handed.
When I was in college, someone stole my car from the college parking lot- fortunately for me the police had th eplace staked out and the first I heard of it was the police telling me they had brought my car back.
I have had the front window broken into a couple of times, never lost anything valuable, except I guess a cup of change. But the pain of getting the window fixed, etc annoyed me. This is now why I have 0 deductible comprehensive insurance- it is not expensive.