Blogs

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.

www.jerseymikes.com

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

www.penn-station.com

Not pictured actual size.

Cheesesteak Quest rolled into Penn Station East Coast Subs today. (The only train-related pun in this dispatch, I promise.) I've always been a little wary of this place. What is an "East Coast sub," anyway? If you drive north from Baltimore on I-95, what you call a sub seems to change every 100 miles or so: hoagies, heros, grinders, Italians. And then I learned that Penn Station was founded in Cincinnati. (It's the official cheesesteak of the Cincinnati Reds!)

Still, as soon as Cheesesteak Quest began, I knew I'd have to visit the place. And the same reader who tipped me off to the cheesesteak at Natural Fact Deli vouched for it. So while I walked into the location at 3824 Hampton Avenue expecting to find some kind of generic Philly-New Jersey-New York attitude without the goods to back it up, I didn't entirely give up hope.

The first good sign was on the menu: Penn Station makes its cheesteak with Provolone. Another good sign: I could watch the cook grilling and chopping my steak on the flattop. I've probably mentioned this in one of my reviews already, but I love that sound of meat sizzling on a flattop grill.

The final product didn't look much like the picture above, which I took from the Penn Station Web site. (I wouldn't trust any cheesesteak that could hold its form in that position, anyway.) Mine was served properly, with the roll split down the middle lengthwise, but not all the way through, and then filled with steak, cheese and grilled onions.

Everything was almost exactly right. The roll was on the thin side, but it was freshly baked and very tasty. The onions had been sliced thin and long, so while they were and properly grilled they were also stringy. I wished there had been a tad fewer onions or a bit more meat, though; a mouthful of too much onion felt stringy. The meat was very thin, the flavor good, though not exceptionally so.

As I mentioned, the cheese was Provolone, and it had melted to a fine goo atop the steak and onion. Here's my concern: I prefer the cook to give the steak a final toss or two on the grill after the cheese has melted, so that everything blends together. In this case, the cheese was left to melt atop the steak. Is my preference legitimate? Apostasy? Neither? I didn't really factor this last part into my score. Just wondering what other cheesesteak aficianados think.

On the 0-to-5 scale, with 0 being a tuna-salad sandwich and 5 being the Platonic ideal of a cheesesteak, I rate this one a strong

The quest continues, now with a definite frontrunner.

EDIT: Revised onion description for purposes of clarification.

-Ian Froeb

www.channel4.com

We need an official ruling.

Technically, I should disqualify Natural Fact Deli (20 Allen Avenue) from Cheesesteak Quest. The Philly cheesesteak on the Webster Groves restaurant's menu isn't a Philly cheesesteak.

I hesitate for two reasons. First, Natural Fact Deli's cheesesteak was highly recommended to me by a reader who had recently undertaken his own cheesesteak quest and clearly knows his cheesesteaks. Second, it's a pretty awesome sandwich.

If you've never visited Natural Fact Deli, imagine the food co-op in your college's student union, but with much better food -- mostly sandwiches and wraps. Prices are reasonable, too. My cheesesteak was $5.99, which includes a side of the restaurant's excellent homemade sweet-potato chips.

The menu clearly states "Philly" cheesesteak, but even before I tasted mine, I knew it wasn't exactly what I was seeking. Rather than sitting open on the plate, its meat, cheese, etc., etc., spilling out, it was arranged in orderly fashion: hoagie top; meat, cheese, onions and peppers; hoagie bottom.

The meat had been sliced too thick -- closer to fajita-size -- and there wasn't that much of it. The cheese was jack cheese. (Perish the thought!) But none of this mattered once I took a bite. The hoagie was fantastic: wonderfully fresh, not too soft, not too firm. The steak was delicious, if a little chewy. The cheese had a satisfying piquant note.

Call it a steak-and-cheese sandwich rather than a true cheesesteak. I'll split the difference on the 0-to-5 scale:

The quest continues. Though, for the sake of my waistline and arteries, maybe after a week's break.

Update: I suppose splitting the difference on a 0-to-5 scale would be 2.5 Cheese Whizzes (Cheese Whizzi?). But this sandwich was better than that. This is why I was an English major.

-Ian Froeb

www.foodfacts.info

Cheesesteak Quest begins here.

The only reason why our quest for a decent, relatively authentic cheesesteak began at a chain restaurant was convenience. I needed to run a few errands near Webster Groves, and I knew there was a Lenny's Sub Shop on Big Bend.

Still, it makes a certain sense: Since St. Louis isn't known for cheesesteaks, maybe some out-of-town know-how is necessary. Lenny's may not seem a likely candidate -- it was founded in Bartlett, Tennessee, in 1998 -- but according to their official biograpy, Len and Shelia Moore first started selling sandwiches in Wildwood, New Jersey. That's a lot closer to Philly than St. Louis is.

Lenny's moved into our area only recently. This was my first visit. Nothing fancy: booths, the sandwich-assembly line, a soda fountain. Sadly, you can't really see the grill from the dining room.

I ordered a "regular" cheesesteak ($5.75). A large cheesesteak is $9.25. (The regular is seven and a half inches long, a large 15 inches.) For $1.75 more, I added a bag of Lenny's-brand salt-and-vinegar chips and a fountain soda.

The wait was reasonable -- maybe five minutes. The sandwich was straightforward: meat, onions and cheese. According to Lenny's Wikipedia entry, the cheese is a blend of swiss and American. I couldn't really tell for sure, but it had that generic tang of processed cheese.

Cheese Whiz, it was not.

There was a decent amount of beef on the unremarkable bread -- but when it comes to cheesesteaks, "decent amount" ain't a compliment. The bread was somewhat sodden with grease, but not in imminent danger of meltdown. Again, not a compliment.

The meat was just OK. The cut was decent, but the flavor didn't quite stand up to the cheese and onions.

The Lenny's cheesesteak is serviceable, but I'm still hungry for more. On a scale of 0 to 5, I rate it:

The quest continues.

-Ian Froeb

source: answer.com

Wit' whiz

Commenter Aaron Proctor has a question:

What's the best Philly cheesesteak in town? Being born in Philly, I found the best steaks in the West were at a place aptly named South Street in Burbank, CA.

Who is the STL champion of cheesesteaks? I'm talking a place that may have other Philly goodies like Herr's Potato Chips & Tastykakes. A place where I can order 'wit' out onions' and 'wit' wiz' and they'll know what I'm sayin'.

Aaron, I'm drawing a blank. I haven't had a good, true cheesesteak in years. (I haven't been to Philly since high school, when on a school trip my teenager's metabolism was thrilled to find Larry's, "Home of the Belly Filler," near St. Joe's University.)

I haven't thought about Herr's chips in, like, forever. And while we're in this general area: Any other Yuengling fans out there?

At any rate, I'm on the case. Anyone have suggestions? Cheesesteaks involving Provel need not apply.

-Ian Froeb