There are many reasons to visit the City of Brotherly Love. Like, well.. hmm, I cant think of any right now. Give me a minute.. Oh ok, so there’s this bell that tourists are queuing up to see, but I hear its broken. There are also these famous steps where tourists run up and down. Such fun! And how can I forget the prison, Easter State something. See, plenty of things to do and see, but perhaps most importantly, to eat.
Philly gave birth to two of my favorite mini empires.. Han Dynasty, and Michael Solomonov’s. Hummus is not exactly the first or 10th thing that comes to mind when you think Philly. But between Zahav, Dizengoff, and Laser Wolf you will be hard pressed finding better Israeli food or hummus anywhere else. I’ve yet to set foot inside a Vetri place because good Italian is just too easy to find in NYC, but thats another big part of the local food puzzle.
But to me, first and foremost, its the Philly Cheesesteak. I met enough people who raised eyebrows at the notion of going to Philly for a greasy sandwich, but thats most likely because they simply havent had a good one. I can probably find a decent Philly Cheesesteak in NYC (Shorty’s is one). But everything I tried paled in comparison to my long time fave… John’s Roast Pork.
While tourists flock to the more accessibly popular 70’s boy names, Geno’s, Pats, Jim’s, we settled on the more local, remote John’s. But love can also be blind. At some point I woke up in cold sweat realizing that I liked John’s more than my family and friends. While my taste was more in tune with the local John’s fanatics, the cheese, or lack of wiz, and the overall flavor just wasnt appreciated nearly as much by my closest, namely Mrs Z.
Enter another boy’s name, Angelo. As in angels singing when you take your first bite of this beast. As a New Yorker, I dont know if I’ll ever try their pizza, also much hyped about, especially after a Barstool review a few years back. While many go for the great looking pies, the vast majority of the 30 or so last Saturday were waiting for the crown jewel sandwich.
The scene at Angelo’s is part of the experience. A doorman helps with the traffic, and directs you straight to a cashier. Inside the kitchen area is what looks like a dozen strong, factory like operation. The only problem is, and its not a small one, there’s nowhere to eat it. At least at John’s you have the outdoor space. We took a walk along the block, and after 30 minutes our sandwiches were ready.
We ate ours in the car across the street. Tight parking in that part of Philly. The first thing we noticed is the bread. A seeded roll, somewhat remarkably also baked in-house. I got mine with the suggested Cooper Sharp cheese and fried onions, while adding mushrooms to the mix. She got it naked with sweet peppers on the side. She liked hers a lot.
I cant help but use the “best I ever had” cliché every chance I have. But in this case I have very little doubt about that. The ribeye/cheese balance and quality, the bread, and the rest of the ingredients produced a very satisfying, rich bite. The bread especially made the bulk of the difference. I wasnt planning to write about this, hence took a few poor shots of this, but you can see it better in this most excellent post. Generally these sandwiches are not very photogenic, but once you have it, you start drooling over them pics.
As someone wrote on my Insta page, “Angelo’s will do that”. My loyalty to the fantastic John’s is in serious jeopardy. I cant speak for consistency, but this was just about perfect. A destination sandwich that will give the rocky steps you’ll need to do after, a little bit more meaning.
Eating With Ziggy 