St. Louis Blog

I've received several comments on Friday's review of the cheesesteak at East Coast Pizza in Chesterfield. A few readers have offered excellent suggestions for where else to find a good cheesesteak in St. Louis. How do I know their suggestions are excellent? Because Cheesesteak Quest has already visited both Penn Station and 9th Street Deli!

In fact, in 2008, the RFT honored 9th Street Deli with the award for Best Cheesesteak. (That's co-owner Mike Risk pictured to the above right.) However, because I wrote about 9th Street Deli's cheesesteak in a formal review rather than a blog post, I never awarded it a Cheez Whiz rating. So on the official Cheesesteak Quest Scale, in which 0 is a tuna-salad sandwich and 5 is the Platonic ideal of a cheesesteak, I rate 9th Street Deli's a 4:



Check out the current Cheesesteak Quest standings after the jump...

Last week's poll, inspired by Cheesesteak Quest and my review of 9th Street Deli, is now closed. The final results...

A new poll will be posted shortly.

-Ian Froeb

Bumped: Don't forget to vote!

For the inaugural Gut Check poll, a question close to our hearts. This week's review made my preference clear. Now share yours. Feel free to leave comments explaining your choice.

-Ian Froeb

My review of 9th Street Deli is now available online. Click here to read. Also in this week's issue: Malcolm spends his stimulus check on McDonald's southern-style chicken sandwich.

-Ian Froeb

Photo: Jennifer Silverberg

The first thing you notice about 9th Street Deli's cheesesteak is the cheese. It's a nuclear shade of orange, a color that sticks a knife in the heart of cheesemongers and Slow Food acolytes, but that yours truly -- who is paid to be a snob about such things, after all -- still finds irresistible. The cheese is not merely melting but a luscious liquid ooze.

This week I visit 9th Street Deli in Soulard. Check back here tomorrow to see what inspired the return of Cheesesteak Quest.

-Ian Froeb

Photo: www.library.upenn.edu

What could lure me back to Cheesesteak Quest after I've been fitted for my wedding suit? One word: Bacon. For a limited time only, Sonic is offering what it calls the "Extra-Long Bacon Cheddar Cheesesteak," which I'll henceforth refer to as the ELBCC.

Here. Have a look:

There's so much wrong with the ELBCC that I don't really know where to begin. I'll take it one acronym component at a time.

EL: The ELBCC is about a foot long. Not small, I'll concede. But cheesesteaks are as much about girth as width, and the ELBCC ain't packing. The meat, etc., barely fills the (puny) bun. Note in the picture above how the stuffing tapers off from the middle on one end.

B: The ELBCC does, in fact, have bacon. Which is fortunate, because that bacon is its only saving grace. The two strips are crisp and on the thick side. And they actually have flavor.

C: Sonic promises smoky cheddar cheese. It might be cheddar -- there's not enough to taste, the ultimate cheesesteak sin -- but it certainly isn't smoky, unless you mean "smoky" in the sense that the ELBCC encountered heat at some point in its cooking process, and smoke is sometimes a byproduct of heat.

C: And so we get to the fact that the ELBCC dares call itself a cheesesteak. Apostasy, says I! The ELBCC is an unholy combination of ho-hum meat, not enough cheese, a puny bun, onions and -- gack! -- mayo. And it wastes perfectly acceptable bacon.

The rating, which is entirely dependent on that bacon:

Here's a more appropriate response:

Will the quest continue? A very good question.

-Ian Froeb

Aaron Proctor may have left St. Louis, but the quest he inspired continues.

A commenter on a previous post suggested Jersey Mike's Subs (8567 Watson Road) in Webster Groves. This is the only St. Louis -- or Missouri, for that matter -- outpost of a New Jersey-based chain. According to its official Web site, Jersey Mike's started in 1956 as a single sandwich shop on the Jersey Shore.

I had "Jersey Mike's Famous Philly." You can order this with beef or chicken. Since we're on a purist's quest, I didn't have a choice. (Not that I would have selected chicken, anyway.) Now that Cheesesteak Quest is nearly two months old and I've seen the damage it's caused to my waistline, I opted for the regular size, which costs $5.95. (The giant size costs $3 more.) The cook grilled it on a flattop behind the main sandwich assembly line.

The roll was on the soft side and unremarkable. The meat, sliced appropriately thin, was tasty, but I wished there had been more. The cheese -- Provolone, I believe, though it wouldn't surprise me to discover a little American was mixed in there -- had melted to just the right consistency and had a nice tang.

The "Famous Philly" comes with both onions and bell peppers, and I think these accounted for the definite note of sweetness the sandwich had. With more meat, I think this sweetness would have been an excellent accent; as it was, I got tired of it.

Still, not a bad cheesesteak at all. On the 0-to-5 scale, I rate it

In case you're wondering, these are the standings right now:

1. Penn Station
2. Natural Fact Deli*
3. Jersey Mike's
4. Lenny's

(* - More a steak-and-cheese sandwich than a cheesesteak, but awesome.)

The quest continues.

-Ian Froeb