Wit or Witout
Undertaking a “cheesesteak crawl” takes planning and preparation. A rookie mistake is to go hungry in advance, thinking it will make it easier to sample numerous cheesesteaks.
Day-Tripping to Philly in Search of the Perfect Cheesesteak
By Chuck Boteler
In early 2018, I asked Jay Gomberg, a former Philadelphia resident and poker buddy of mine, “Who has the best cheesesteak in Philadelphia, Pat’s or Geno’s?” His response, “Neither.”
While Pat’s claims to be the original “King of Steaks,” and Geno’s, (a stone’s throw across Passayunk Avenue) have maintained a friendly rivalry for years, cheesesteak lovers have plenty of great choices in and around the City of Brotherly Love.
This year, eight of us took I-95 north for our seventh annual “cheesesteak crawl.” The stops and participants vary every year. Wherever possible, we try to plan our route by grouping stops within easy walk or drive of another to make our journey more efficient. This year, each stop was no more than 15 minutes apart for a very efficient tour.
The stops included four in Philadelphia (Skinny Joey’s Cheesesteaks, Angelo’s Pizzeria, John’s Roast Pork, and Del Rossi’s Cheesesteaks & Pizza) and three in New Jersey (Donkey’s Place, Gouldsburger’s, and Cheessteaks). We’ve visited the highly rated Angelo’s and Johns’s during previous crawls and looked forward to how the new stops would measure up, especially Donkey’s, which enjoyed favorable mentions on the TV show The Goldbergs.
Forget Pat’s or Geno’s. The search for a great cheesesteak should cover a wide swath of Philadelphia and even parts of South Jersey, to find various, tasty interpretations of the classic.
Part of the fun includes a rating system we employ to come up with a consensus of our favorite stops. Each of us judged a sample of each cheesesteak, basing our ratings on four categories: meat-to-cheese ratio; quality of bread; overall taste; and the Philly Experience—that street food, everyman appeal (no white cloth dining and food courts for us!). We use a simple 1-to-10 rating in each category, which are then compiled, providing one overall score for each. This year’s ratings, in order of our stops:
• Skinny Joey’s (7.8)—A very good start with a sturdy, but absorptive seeded roll and ample filling with my new favorite Cooper Sharp cheese.
• John’s Roast Pork (8.1)—Lots of creamy, meaty flavor, a consistent top-10 in other Philly-area rankings. Heavy and delicious.
• Del Rossi’s (8.1)—Another great neighborhood stop, similar roll to Angelo’s and Skinny Joey’s, good flavor with a little less filling than the John’s sample.
• Donkey’s (8.1)—High marks for the “Philly Experience” party atmosphere, uniquely soft, round kaiser roll. I wasn’t a huge fan of the onions piled directly on top.
• Cheessteaks (6.0)—Very similar bread to others, but more cheese in this mixture made it a little gummy; combined with the pull of the bread, the bite seemed a chore.
• Gouldsburger’s (6.5)—Bread described as something like an “everything bagel” was a plus, although mine was a bit overcooked. Great meat-to-cheese ratio.
Ultimately, we had to skip Angelo’s this year due to an hour-long wait time to order.
While I declared John’s Roast Pork my slight favorite of this trip, the consensus score ultimately showed a three-way tie at 8.1. After expanding the tabulation by an additional decimal point, John’s Roast Pork came out as a very slight group favorite (8.15), compared to Donkey’s (8.14) and Del Rossi’s (8.07). It was that close, and every cheesesteak on this trip was above average.
Here are my overall Top-10 stops for all our tours:
• Sonny’s Famous Steaks (9.0)
• By George! (8.5)
• Tony Luke/Tony and Nick’s (8.4)
• John’s Roast Pork (8.1)
• Brynn Bradley (8.0)
• Max’s Steaks (8.0)
• Donkey’s (8.0)
• Del Rossi’s (8.0)
• Campo’s Philly Cheesesteaks (7.8)
• Skinny Joey’s (7.8)
Make no mistake, undertaking a culinary journey of this type takes some preparation and planning. Going hungry in advance is not a great strategy and sometimes the experience will cause an early tap out. I’ve prepped and survived several of these day-trippers now and it’s a journey worth duplicating. Make mine Cooper Sharp “wit.”