Who knows about Philadelphia cheesesteaks?

Cafe Society
41

Some locals dislike Pat’s and call it a tourist trap. Other locals love it and trap tourists and bring them there to try it out. I was born and raised in Philadelphia. I love Pat’s. I have friends who live within walking distance in South Philly and I often walk over there with them and we see plenty of other Philadelphians there. I agree that tourists often go there, but I don’t think it is a majority of their customers. In fact, after a Phillies game you will see long lines, but not many of them are tourists most of them are fans coming home from the game.

But, yeah, parking is difficult in the area.

I am surprised Jim’s on South Street tasted so bad to you, Chronos. It’s a place that often shows up on best of lists. I thought it was pretty good. Apparently, it tastes better around 1 am after a night of drinking. But, I enjoyed it at noon.

I don’t think the people who work at Pat’s or Geno’s or Tony Luke’s are especially rude. They are just abrupt, and want to get you served as quickly as possible. As I said before, I never saw someone charged extra for ordering wrong, or sent to the back of the line. But, I have also never seen anyone get into a long conversation about “What kind of sandwich do you suggest”. I guess they have people frightened enough to make their order and move on.
And, yeah, as mentioned, the signage is a fun put on. You know what else is fun (But is probably another thing that puts the place in tourist trap territory for a lot of people) all of the celebrity pictures lining the walls and ceiling of the place. I think that’s cool and fun and gives the place a neat sense of history.

Mean Mister Mustard if you are going to have dining companions I think it is a great idea to go to all three places and try all of them out. If you go to all three on your own be prepared not to be at your ideal weight when you get home. I have taste tested Pat’s versus Geno’s in the same night and it wasn’t even a contest. I guess to give a true test I will have to do Pat’s vs. Tony Luke’s in the same night and see how they stack up against each other.

42

Pat’s, wit whiz.

  • That’s a philly cheese-steak from Pat’s King of Steaks, with grilled onions and cheese whiz.
43

A number of years ago my husband was with a group of guys for a bachelor party. They went to Geno’s. These are your typical upper middle class, suburban, guys in their 30’s. My husband was wearing a pink polo shirt and the staff at Geno’s asked him if he was a “fag”. Needless to say, I would never recommend Geno’s.

I would go to Tony Luke’s.

44

I know; I’ve seen those lists too. But I disagree with them.

45

And contrary to some beliefs, they do not put Philadelphia Cream Cheese on Philly cheesesteaks. Hell Philadelphia Cream Cheese was originally invented and produced in New York.

46

Dude, I don’t think anybody would take something like that seriously. Philadelphia cream cheese on a steak would be absolutely vile.

47

Apparently the English like it: Daily Record & Sunday Mail - Scottish News, Sport, Politics and Celeb gossip

48

Okay, I give up- what’s so objectionable about Geno’s “politics” that people don’t want to eat there?

Personally, as a right winger, I’d be doing myself a major disservice if I shunned every Austin restaurant run by a dippy liberal.

49

Do they post racist signs? Do they ask customers if they’re “faggots”? It wouldn’t matter what their “politics” were if they kept that shit to themselves.

50

If I let politics get in the way of good food, I’d have avoided eating in quite a few countries, many with great food.

51

I linked to it above.

In not so many words, he is reserving the right to be a douchebag to tourists and immigrants that may have wanted to try his food out of some misguided principle that English should be the only acceptable language spoken in the US. While I do agree that some sort of English skills should be necessary, that is just ignorant. Oh, well, it’s his loss. He’s cost himself business and money just to make a point that really didn’t have to be made, especially not like that.

52

It’s more than just a sign posted at Geno’s. Owner Joey Vento runs radio advertisements that highlight his political views more than his restaurant. It’s inappropriate, IMO, and makes me not want to patronize his business.

53

I figure Vento has a right to express his beliefs and I have a right to find his beliefs offensive and choose to eat elsewhere.

54

I, too, had a sub-par experience at Jim’s (on South Street), so it ain’t just you. Pat’s was fine. Tony Luke’s was exceptional. Jim’s sucked. Granted, everybody has an off day, so next time I swing through town I should give them another shot.

55

What kind of people believe that? I’ve never heard of this.

56

When I order a cheese wid, I want shaved, aged rib-eye on an Amoroso roll dripping with smoked provolone and caramelized onions.

I haven’t lived in Philly for many years, but when there, I did enjoy Jim’s on South Street and Pat’s (mainly for the hauteur ambiance. Note: when ordering from Pat’s be sure to speak Kings English, raise you pinky in the air, ask a lot of tangential questions and take a long time ordering…they will appreciate your enthusiasm and treat you accordingly), but the very finest cheesesteaks were to be found in a scattering of mom & pop grill shops along Philadelphia’s Main Line—they know how to make a proper Philly style sandwich and they use the best ingredients (I can ask family still living there which ones are currently best, if you plan venturing to suburbia).

It’s exceedingly difficult to find a decent cheesesteak here in Florida (or hoagie, or pizza for that matter…by the way, the best pizza isn’t from Chicago, or New York, it’s from South Jersey). But, the best I’ve found is from a begrimed, broken down fish market in a seedy beach town north of where I live. They have a grill in the back of the market with a few picnic tables outside. When I ventured back there for the first time, I read the chalkboard menu which listed a small variety of grilled sandwiches, mainly whatever fresh-caught fish was being sold up front. The place looked like they must have paid off the health inspectors since the 70’s, so I wasn’t planning on ordering anything…but…as I was about to turn and leave, something caught my eye. “Cheesesteak”. No adornments like, “Philly Style” or “World’s Best”…just “cheesesteak”. Hmm.

So, I thought, what the hell, it’s 9:45 am, that’s close enough to lunchtime, so I ordered their cheesesteak. When the fat, sweaty grill master asked, "you want dat wid or wid-out”, my hopes soared. Turns out the chef-owner was born and raised in Philly, has Amoroso rolls shipped down to his shop (it’s the Philly water in the rolls that give it that extra kick), and takes great effort locating well marbled ribeye to shave. He had me at “Amoroso”. I didn’t even mind the stream of sweat droplets falling from his nose onto my shaved steak and onions as they seared—they added a pleasing “hiss” sound as they hit the grill.

Despite the distinct secondary flavor-notes of mackerel mixed with sweat, it was the best steak sandwich I’ve tasted in many years, and I’ve been back there many times. I’m now emboldened to tell the chef to scrape off the fish debris from the grill and wipe his sweaty brow once in a while.

I thought good fortune may have struck twice when I recently sidled up to a farmers market vendor advertising, “Philly Cheesesteaks”. He suckered me in when he said he uses Amoroso rolls…and he too was a fat sweaty guy (that’s the preferred morphology for a griller of cheesesteaks). I noticed he used cheese whiz, a bit of a disappointment, perhaps, but not necessarily a deal breaker, so I ordered one “wid”, and commenced to split it with my daughters (ages 8 and 10, going on 18 and 39), “now, girls, you get to taste something wonderful…something daddy used to eat all the time, long, long ago, in a place far, far away…something he deprived you both of by moving to Florida before you were born”.
*
And so, we ate; and it was crap. I lost all credibility with my girls (not that I had much to begin with). As we were about to leave, I asked the grill chef where he was from—“California”*. Yeah, that explains everything. Why don’t I ask these vital questions before committing taste-buds and reputation to a course of action?

57

ummm… can you imagine the look on my face as i read your post? there may be certain food preparations that are too difficult to do from a home kitchen. one would think of maybe cooking 1 hundred pounds of beef within 1 hour and assuring uniform taste and quality for each mouthful. of maybe preparing 20 porterhouse steaks of variable level of doneness (depending on the orders) within 20 minutes. but preparing a small batch of fried beef strips with onions isn’t one of them.

  1. to slice beef thinly, you go to a deli and ask them to put your meat through a salami slicer. if you want to do it yourself at home, just freeze the meat and use a sharp knife to get thin slices. i use this method when i make either beef or tuna carpaccio and i make far thinner slices than needed for cheesesteak.

  2. for bread, i have no problem using baguettes or anything long, brown and crusty. admittedly, i’m not a good baker (my mom is.)

  3. a flat griddle same as the one used to make teppanyaki steak or misono works fine. funny thing is i can do it using a 12" frying pan. a cheeseteak is only as good as the frying and seasoning. you can rarely go wrong with ribeye, that’s why it’s the meat of choice.

58

I’ve also only found one place outside the Delaware Valley that makes a good cheesesteak, but the circumstances are totally different. There’s a sandwich shop just off campus here, and they advertise theirs as just a “cheesesteak”, no mention of Philadelphia. It comes with barbecue sauce by default, but if you tell them to leave that off, it’s almost identical… Despite nobody in the shop ever having been to Philadelphia. I commented to the manager once that despite being the one place that doesn’t call it a Philly cheesesteak, they were the one place that gets it right, and she immediately objected “Oh, we don’t make Philly cheesesteaks; we leave off the lettuce and tomato”. To which I said “Precisely”.

They default to Monterey Jack instead of American or Provolone, but it turns out that’s pretty darned good, too. And their rolls aren’t quite right, but it’d cost an arm and a leg to ship fresh Amoroso’s rolls out here, so I can’t complain about that. But other than that, they seem to have independently discovered the proper cheesesteak.

59

Not that it matters at all. But, I realized after I posted that I have never been to Jim’s. I had confused Sonny’s in Old City with Jim’s. I have some petty complaint against Jim’s (I don’t remember what that complaint is. But, it’s probably as scathing as “South Street gets too crowded I don’t want to go there for a cheesesteak.”), so I have never tried it out. (Now, I can add “Someone on the internet says it tastes like cardboard, let’s not go there.” to my list of grievances.)

60

There used to be restaurant here in San Fran called “Wiz Wit,” that delivered a pretty reasonable facsimile of a Philly cheesesteak, close to what I remember from growing up. Other menu items were also very good. They went out of business at least 7 or 8 years ago…

Joe