So I can't take all the credit for this, several years ago Doug, showed me a youtube video of a guy who ate 16 cheesesteaks in 12 hours so it was always in the back of my mind as something I would want to do but I am not that crazy to try to eat whole ones so to steal the idea from cheesesteak fest I brought friends and cut it up into pieces. One of the things I remembered about that video was it started at Tony Lukes and actually Tony Luke's was the winner of his best cheesesteak. So with that in mind Tony Lukes was the starting point for this one as well.
(How did I determine the rest of the cheesesteak places on the list well that is a bit of trade secret but I can tell you I definitely didn't spend hours researching the places with a focus on clustering them together to make it as walkable as possible while sitting in my office waiting for a combination of my computer to restart and pages to print in the printer. I did though type the page for the directions during and after the Sixers-Nets game, that went to overtime. What a mistake, trying to get those stupid maps to show up was such a pain and I didn't even pull it off. Next time I am waiting for my tech support to get back from Brazil)
Now to the Original Tony Luke's where Doug is waiting for us, as we were three minutes late for the start. I was planning to leave as soon as Rich arrived at my house because he is always late and I built in 15 minute buffer and he was on time so I lost track of time in the confusion of the man who is always late being on time, hence being 3 minutes late, sorry Doug. I made the mistake of parking under the bridge which lead to the first of about 600 always Sunny reference made in the first 4 hours of the cheesesteak crawl.
Now to the cheesesteak: Look at that thing what a great breakfast. I want to clear something up that people knew but did join couldn't seem to get through their heads we where cutting the cheesesteaks up so into thirds or 5ths for the most part. So no we were not each eating a whole cheesesteak at each place. So there where no heart attacks today.
So what I liked about this one was the way the cheese and the steak mixed together. Each bite had a good combination some of the places it seems like you get cheese or steak and I like when the flavors combined instead of overpowering it. That being said I also felt the meat left a bit to be desired but that could have also just been horrible cutting of the cheesesteak, well that's why everyone filled out a score card. Don't worry that info will be at the end or at least the averages for each place will be that the end.
The next stop was a about a mile walk down Oregon Ave to one of my favorite places to grab a steak after a Sixers game, it far enough from the stadium the crowd is not overwhelming but close enough that it is only like a 10 minute detour. That would be Oregon steaks. I will say this in my opinion it is a solid choice and a mid level steak. It doesn't hit anything out of the park but it hits all my cheesesteak needs. Also look at the artwork on the inside of the buildings. Credit to Rich for the pictures of the buildings, great photographer.
Alright time to rewalk all that space we just walked and get into the car to drive to John's Roast Pork. Also I have to say sometimes I hate driving in Philly, despite knowing exactly where I had to go I had no clue how to get there because the first road I thought I could take was a one way, I guess I could have done a u-turn but with the Jersey Plates that is just asking for trouble. Alright navigation problems to the side lets talk about the cheesesteak at the Roast Pork place. Well, it is good, I would say an early front runner for the best cheesesteak. What makes it so good. A combination of the meat, and cheese. I think they hit the balance right and the roll is exactly what I want from my cheesesteak roll. Hard enough that it does not fall apart but soft that it doesn't cut up your mouth or leave you searching for water.
The next stop was Gooey Looies. Now this deli is hidden between two residential streets so it could be hard to find. A true hole in the wall I had high expectations for this one. It's not that it wasn't good it was just not one of the elite cheesesteaks on the day in my opinion. The issue with it was simple, it was on the drier side of things. There is a ton of meat but a bit short on the cheese. That being said it was a good sandwich but not one of my favorites.
The next stop on the trip was the tourist traps that are Pat's and Geno's. Now what they do great is they get the line to move quickly, some of the later places didn't really care about that so this is a big plus when you are trying to get a bunch into one day. Well, as the sandwiches I mean both are okay. I prefer Geno's slightly to Pats but neither is the best Steak in the City.
At this point, Doug who was going to Grandmom's birthday dinner that night was debating if he should abondan the journy but some how we convinced him to go to one more. I think he wanted to end it on a good one but who knows.
That place we talked Doug into was Shank's on the water front it was kinda in the direction of his car. Now at this point the other group that was going to be joining reached out to figure where to meet as they had just got on the train. So figured Ishkabibbles and dove into the cheesesteak in front of us. Now this cheesesteak was good, really I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it as it was the 7th place that day and I thought I would start to get cheesesteak fatigue at this point but I think the walking really helped.
Now walking back to the cars to drive to the next set because we had the time since we were meeting up with next group Rich almost abandoned the tour to go antiquing. Yes we walked by an antique sale but Rich stayed strong and probably feared I wouldn't let his stuff get into the car. It was right about here Rich realized he forgot to take a picture of Shank's so when we reached the car instead of driving straight to South Street we took the detail to take the picture.
Ishkabibbles, another whole in the wall on South Street. (There is actually another location like 3 blocks down that has actual seating, well more than 10 spots). Joined by 3 new eaters (I didn't ask if I could use their names and they might want to protect their identity so for now no names), really got me ready to eat some more cheesesteaks. I once read a reddit post that says Ishkabibbles was Ben Simmons favorite cheesesteak and the couple times I had been there it was great. This time was not an exception to those prior experiences. The steak is good, the cheese is the right amount and the roll is solid.
The next stop on the journey was Woodrow's, because one of the places only had pizza on the menu so over to the artisan cheesesteak. They make their whiz in house and it is a truffle cheese. It also comes with a cherry pepper mayo on it. It is an interesting experience, and not at all like the number cheesesteak. I think overall it was good, and in some ways it is not fair to compare to the others but who said this was fair. I felt the meat was on the poorer side but the cheese and mayo were both solid touches. I liked it, but that also might have been because it was different.
Off to Sonny's next. Alright quick aside but after eating at Sonny's I started noticing that there were a bunch of or at least 1 bus that was driving at lot, that had an ad for Sonny's on it. I had never seen that bus that before. It might be the situation that because I was aware of it I noticed it more. It's like when you get a new car you start seeing it all over the place because it is in your conciseness. There are not more of those cars, you are just more aware of them. Alright the Sonny steak was good. Interestingly they offer a 5% discount for cash. Those credit card fees must really be getting high. I guess that is the only way to be able to offer all that cash back and rewards.
Well it is right around this point where I start to question my life decisions and why I decided such an ambitious amount of places. Why such an outragous amount, well you see I stumbled upon the youtube videos of Ali Spagnola who does super off things on the internet as well as creating music video of songs in new styles so that made me want to do something that might appear on her channel. It was that and a question I have been thinking about a lot that made me want to make sure this actually happened. That question is: If you walked into a movie about another person's life what song would they play as you walked in the first time? While I don't have an answer. I did and changed my mind a couple times one of the options which is overused for these situations, (See Casino) is Sympathy for the Devil. The beginning of that song is great for this type of question, actually I am going to save this for a post at some other time.
The thing is through if you think you want that song as your song you can't go and do 5 places you have to go all out. There is probably a point where it is to many but 5 is way to low to hit that interesting and wow did you really do that, response which is what I was gunning for when I came up with the idea. Well that and lot's of hits on the blog but I will settle for one or the other.
Alright sorry for that tangent but the next stop was only 250 feet away is Campos which is the cheesesteak in Citizens Bank Park. Being the cheesesteak of the Phillies, I was not expecting much as I have learned the Philles only go halfway. If they planned this trip it would have stopped at 5 and than 5 next year. just to make you think that you have a chance. Hey Middleton, spend the money and get some more starting pitching, maybe a lefty but I'll take anyone that consistently gets people out and can go 6 plus innings. Okay sorry but this cheesesteak was small, lacked meat and flavor. Maybe I am just over exposed to cheesesteaks at this point but I think this one is near the bottom of the list so far.
The next steak is at Steve's Prince of Steaks. Okay they went with the sliced not chopped like most of the places on the list and I think being different made it stand out here. That or having to walk 20 minutes instead of being right there made me miss cheesesteaks again inflating the score. Who knows. That does lead me to a major point of discussion through. I read an article on the Ringer about Arron Gordon getting robbed again in the slam dunk contest again. The problem is score inflation and that there are no standards. Here, the grading was better but it could be influenced by outside forces. The judges in the dunk contest give everything a 10 and when an amazing dunk gets thrown down there is no where to go but give it a 10 as well. There is nothing higher. So I wonder how much of impact comparison bias played a roll. Did Steve's get a better score because Campos was bad so by not being Campos it did well, maybe.
After Steve's, one of the brave eaters had to leave and we were down to 4 with little time for two of them. Since one promised his girlfriend Dalesandros we drove up to Roxbury going out of order to get Dalesandros and Chubby's. Now the line at Dalesandros took about 45 minutes. As I was waiting I was thinking this is probably the last stop in the trip. End of the line, its going on 9 hours at this point and the sixers start in about an hour an a half. Well Dalesandros was worth the wait, actually both Dalesandros and Chubbys were solid steaks I liked them both but was getting tired.
Well, we decided to get one more at Max's which was a mistake. Why was it a mistake because if the line at Dalesandros was bad Max's was much worse. It took about an hour to get the steak at Max's. I was thinking to myself wow I am going to miss the sixers game. While thinking they would lose, it was a road game after all I wanted to watch to see Ben Simmons and Joel defend Giannas and watch the Sixers brick threes. Well Ben got hurt so that didn't happen and even through the game was close at half this is the road Sixers we are talking about. So all that hurt my score for Max's. Oh they have a dinning room where you can sit to eat it just doesn't seem like it so that hurt as we drove to my house to eat the steak and watch the rest of the game.
Rich also realized he forgot to take a picture of Max's and want to turn around again to complete the set. Well at this time the Sixers were only down 7 and Ben Simmons had just left the game. The extent of his injury unknown so had to get home for that as the possibility of good game was looking strong. Well it was a Sixer's road game so we know how it ended. The one thing that I am disappointed in is that we never grabbed a group photo. Normally my thoughts are that the staged group photo is dumb and serves no real purpose. The better pictures are the candid ones that demonstrate emotion. Like biting into a steak for the first bit is much better than 6 people standing in front of the restaurant. It would have been a good cover picture so I guess there is a purpose for those pictures. I won't continue my rambling on group photos because I have listened to way to much Demi, and Halsey over the past several hours writing this.
Well that was the trip, oh yeah the score cards well let's just go overall winners and you can take a look at everyone's scores for yourself.
As you can see Dalesandros was the winner of the best cheesesteak. Also it is clear I am an easy grader. Well the last part anybody I was for a TA for already knew. Check back in for more food adventures and fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment