Everything you want to know about the sandwich we can’t live without.
National Cheesesteak Day may be March 24, but this is Philadelphia, where each and every day is cheesesteak day. That said, we thought it would be a good time to take a look back at Philly Mag’s great undertaking of 2008: The Oral History of the Cheesesteak.
You might think you know who has the best cheesesteak, but do you know the real history of cheesesteak?Our retelling of the history of cheesesteak in Philadelphia delved into the origins and criticisms surrounding the sandwich.
It’s worth noting that some of the other people we interviewed at the time are no longer with us, a fact we’ll assume has nothing to do with the health of a smart cheesesteak. In addition, some resources have been moved to new jobs. But for the sake of ancient integrity, we’ve left the original content intact.
And now, more preamble. . .
Of all the contributions Philadelphia has made to the world (such as, for example, democracy), none has known our city better than the delicious concoction invented by Pat Olivieri in 1930. Cheesesteak has our iconic icon, the Philadelphia ultimate of all. Symbols of Philadelphia, identified (and consumed) all over the world. Here, an oral history of the sandwich we can’t live without.
Frank Olivieri, owner of Pat’s King of Steaks: My great-uncle Pat, who was my grandfather’s older brother, had opened a hot dog stand around 1930. The community was busy, with one of the first hot dog stands open in the country. The air markets, i. e. the Italian market, are a block away.
Celeste Morello, historian of South Philly and Philadelphia’s Italian Foods: When Pat’s arrived, the entire domain was largely an Italian neighborhood.
Frank Olivieri: The staff was queuing. He sold them hot dogs out of his little cart. And then, one day, Pat looked for something else for lunch; He was sick of hot dogs, so he asked my grandfather to go to the butcher and get some leftover meat. When my grandfather returned, Pat made it on a hot dog roll. There was a taxi driver who saw the sandwich and said, “Wow, that looks great. Make me one. Pat told her he only had enough meat for a sandwich, so they split it up. The taxi driver said, “That’s fantastic. You deserve to avoid promoting hot dogs and selling that stuff. And that was the invention of the steak sandwich.
Celeste Morello: Actually, in the 19th century there were cookbooks that included recipes for the steak sandwich. It was called a “beef steak sandwich. ” But the Olivieri of the 1930s did it a little differently. A different kind of bread. Different seasonings.
Frank Olivieri: Across the street from Pat’s hot dog cart, a guy named Joe Butch owned an apartment building. At that time the land was a kitchen and downstairs there was a tavern. When it starts to get cold, Joe Butch comes up to Pat and says, “Listen, winter is coming. Why don’t you make your sandwiches here? Eventually, there were more people dining than drinking, so the bar owners drilled a hole in the wall and started serving sandwiches through it. Finally, Pat took over the entire building.
Bill Proetto, owner, Jim’s Steaks: You had Pat’s in South Philly, then Jim’s in West Philly in 1939, at 62nd and Noble. The space around the corner was Jim’s, and he sat in the front window. The boys were in the corner. Then Jim started selling coffee out the window. Eventually, he came up with the idea of making steak sandwiches.
Frank Olivieri: The original Jim is miles away from Pat’s, so it didn’t help us much. And Pat started employing celebrity photographs to grow his business, and other people came from far and wide to see them. Pat would go to the movie theaters where the celebrities were (movie premieres, that kind of thing) and bring them steaks. He once met Humphrey Bogart, and Uncle Pat pulled out his . 38-caliber Array revolver and asked Bogey to point the gun at him as he raised his hands. Uncle Pat was crazy.
Bill Proetto: At first, Jim never liked celebrity photographs. It wasn’t a priority. Jim has eaten and has higher quality meat. Cheese didn’t appear until the 1950s.
Frank Olivieri: Cheese became famous in the ’40s at Pat’s on Ridge Avenue. The first cheese was a provolone cheese. We had a manager named Joe Lorenza, or Cocky Joe. He was still drunk, absolutely drunk. A waste of time. But he was the first to put cheese on the sandwich.
Celeste Morello: There doesn’t seem to be any hint of cheese in the sandwich until Pat’s made it, thus inventing the cheesesteak.
Frank Olivieri: In the early ’60s, Uncle Pat had moved to Los Angeles. My father, my grandfather, and my cousin Herb, Pat’s son, ran the business. When Geno came along, it was in 1966, my grandfather and my father bought this position [at 9th and Passyunk] from Pat. And then it became a Pat/Geno thing.
An advertisement for Geno’s Steaks (courtesy of Geno Vento/Geno’s Steaks)
Joey Vento, owner of Geno’s Steaks: That guy across the street. He claims to have invented the steak sandwich. I’m going to grant it to you. He claims to have invented the Whizz. I’m going to give you that. All I’ve done is come and the best. Before Geno’s, my dad made steaks in this neighborhood, where the playground is close to Passyunk and Wharton. It used to be a cemetery. He had a little wagon there. And then he opened a shop and I worked for him. But then in 1957 I volunteered for military service and then unfortunately my father had a problem, so I went home, tried to help. family, but we lost everything.
Celeste Morello: Joey Vento’s family has fallen on hard times. I don’t know if that’s something he’ll have to address, but it probably doesn’t hurt to ask.
Joey Vento: A guy owed my dad money, and my dad went out and killed him, he was criminally prosecuted for life. My father was criminally prosecuted at the age of 36 and died in prison at the age of 46. I never saw my father again after I turned 36. My brother was a gangster, probably doing every single illegal activity imaginable in the city. So my wife’s father, who was a bookie, gave me the $2,000 to open Geno’s.
Frank Olivieri: It was originally written by Gino’s. But Gino’s already existed through Gino Marchetti, the footballer, the hamburger restaurant. He was then persuaded to replace the so-called one with Geno. La construction in which it is located was condemned at the time. Las Vegas did that.
Joey Vento: I never replaced my sandwich. So even with that guy on the other side, I’m more original than him. It has replaced. His flesh is different now. He likes minced meat. But the Philly steak has to be a very thinly sliced ribeye. That’s how it started.
From left to right: Joey Vento, Geno Vento and Bill Clinton at Geno’s Steaks in 1996 (Photo courtesy of Geno Vento).
Frank Olivieri: I think the genuine rivalry between Pat and Geno started with whatever the media did. I’d say probably as early as 1970, 1973, over there. We started receiving advertising. And other people were coming here, and it was exciting. And then the whole Rocky story started in 1976, and the media said, “Well, Pat does that. What does Geno do? You know, I’m looking to start a fire.
Bill Proetto: I bought Jim’s around 1965 and then, just as cheesesteaks were taking off, we opened South Street on July 4, 1976, for the bicentennial. South Street was very harmful back then, not as it is today. We did well, but then your magazine named us, in 1977 or 1978, the most productive cheesesteak in town. And the business took off.
Pat’s Steaks operator Frank Olivieri with his father in the early ’80s. (Photo courtesy of Frank Olivieri/Pat’s Steaks)
Maury Z. Levy, editor-in-chief of Philadelphia magazine from 1970 to 1980: When we introduced Best of Philly, at that time, there weren’t a lot of publications available, at least not a lot of wonderful ones, so the debate was Pat’s or Geno’s, and they all caved in to that. So we looked at other options, downtown and in some neighborhoods, and one of the first options we gave away was Jim’s in South. We tried it and enjoyed it. I think it helped them a lot. Over the years, the cheesesteak award has been one of the things that has disappointed other people the most. Rarely has it been heard, “It was a wonderful choice. “Have you heard, “Are you crazy, guys?”
Craig LaBan, food critic, Philadelphia Inquirer: It’s one of those foods that touches each and every elegance and each and every generation. When you write about cheesesteaks, you listen to about 500,000 people. It’s one of those “moments” of food. People don’t forget the cheesesteak they ate with their boyfriend. It represents other things besides lunch. You’ve been in a position where the characters are part of the story and the experience.
Celeste Morello: In the ’70s and ’80s, fast food started to catch on. Frankie says they never need him to advertise. Geno is another matter.
Sylvester Stallone came here and talked to my dad and said, “You know, I’m interested in shooting this movie here,” and my dad said, “Okay. “And Stallone said, “Well, we’re going to shut down. ” Then my father said, “Well, if you need to shut us down, you have to pay us what we make regularly. “I guess they gave them to a number. . . . Stallone was nobody at the time.
Joey Vento: At that time everything was Italian. In fact, only in the last 4 or five years have I noticed some significant changes, with the arrival of other immigrants and other languages. My orders began to fall apart. We hired other people who didn’t understand the language. And then came the big political factor. But we just want to serve a sandwich here.
Frank Olivieri: Joe is arrogant, but not ignorant. In reality, competition pushes us forward. Joe Vento is like Plankton, and we’re like the Krusty Krab. And he’s looking to borrow our recipe. He lays off employees, and then they come to us and work here for a few weeks and they find out. what to do and how much we sell, and then they quit. And we play with that, because it’s really no secret. And we sell 10 for one. For every sandwich he sells, I sell 10 more. Our baker was until recently the same baker, so I know how many he sold.
Joey Vento: Oh, is that true? I say put your cash where it says. When you started it was a hot dog cart, and 70 years later, it still looks like a hot dog cart.
Holly Moore, Food Blogger: Some other people have a knee-jerk reaction that Pat’s is awful. At Pat’s, that’s where it all started. You’re online, and that’s two-thirds to three-quarters of the other people in South Philly. They may not be the best. But they serve a wonderful sandwich. People like to skip the smart stuff. But there’s no more laugh than the status at 9th and Passyunk to prepare the meal between Geno and Pat and for you. Around 4 years ago, PBS had a special sandwich and I was the host of the Philadelphia component. We were filming at Pat’s and discovered that it’s the same as team spirit, when you tell other people about their favorite cheesesteaks. being a Phillies fan or graduating from Cardinal Which High School. It’s actually part of being a Philadelphian.
Bill Clinton at Pat’s Steaks in 1996. (AP Photo/Greg Gibson)
Congressman Bob Brady: When Clinton was campaigning in 1996, he came here for fundraisers and had an hour to spare. So Clinton, Rendell and I went to Pat’s house. I picked up the steaks and took them to the president.
He begins to pull it into his mouth. I said, “Wait, you can’t go down. You have to get up. Then he gets up and puts it in his mouth, and I said, “Wow, wait, they’ve given you to lean forward on the ledge. “Then he leans forward on the shelf and brings it to his mouth. And I said, “Wait a minute, they’ve given you something to tuck your tie in. “Then he tucks his tie in, takes a bite, and is sure to be fully charged spilling from behind onto the shelf. I said, “I told you so. “
That night, at the fundraiser, he told everyone that the most productive thing he had learned today was eating a cheesesteak: “You have to get up, bend down, and tie your tie. I taught him that. Rendell likes to take credit for that. But that was. . . I was the one who taught him Lean South Philly.
Joseph Torsella, President and CEO of the National Constitution Center: When the U. S. Olympic Committee decided to take a decision on the Constitution’s decision. When the U. S. government arrived on site for its official visit in 2006, they turned down our offer of lunch at one of Philadelphia’s most productive restaurants. They said, “Thank you, but no, thank you. We’re going to call the cabs so we can get some real Philly cheesesteaks. “
Meryl Levitz, President and CEO of Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation: Everyone feels like they need to have one when they come here. It’s like the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. It combines an interest in quality with true courage of place; It’s anything that everyone can participate in. Of course, you want to get it right. You can’t ask someone like Senator Kerry to come and bring you a windsurfing or parasailing type cheese.
Washington Post, August 13, 2003:
[T]he Massachusetts Democrat went to Pat’s Steaks and ordered a cheesesteak, with Swiss cheese. As if that wasn’t enough, the contestant asked photographers not to take pictures of him while he ate his sandwich; the shutters closed anyway and Kerry was caught delicately chewing on his sandwich, another serious feigned step. “He’ll doom his bet on Philadelphia,” predicted Craig LaBan, food critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, which blew the lid on the sandwich scandal. After all, Philly cheese steaks come with Cheez Whiz, American, or Provolone. But Swiss cheese?” In Hiladelphia, it’s a select way of life,” LaBan explained.
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John Kerry, his outstanding stopover at the cheesesteak (Getty Images)
Michael Smerconish, Radio Host: Kerry has produced a lot of phone answers. People wondered, “How can you govern if you don’t know how to order a cheesesteak?At that moment I came up with a snapshot of who KerryArray was erasing Kerry.
Maury Z. Levy: People here are horrified by the idea of Cheez Whiz: “What?People don’t really eat that! Some think it’s worse than spam. We ate original junk food.
Basil Maglaris, Kraft Foods Spokesperson: The Philadelphia/South Jersey market accounts for about a quarter of our total Cheez Whiz sales in the U. S. foodservice sector. U. S. And the same market accounts for 50% of our American cottage cheese slices, because that’s another popular item in Philly cheesesteak.
Holly Moore: Every time you say “Philly” in front of the name, I don’t get it. I’ve stopped searching for cheesesteaks all over the country when, at a California farmer’s market, he presented a choice of toppings: bean sprouts or avocado.
Maury Z. Levy: The first time I was in L. A. , the menu at this place to eat said “cheesesteak,” so I said, “Oh, great, I’m going to take that. “It’s literally a sirloin steak with a dollop of cheese. the most sensible thing and a great meat roll. It’s curious to see them in other cities. But if you were born or raised here, you know the secret formula.
Dave London, owner of The Philly Way, Milwaukee: I was working on radio in the Philadelphia domain: ‘YSP,’ MMR, WIFI 92. And then I was given an assignment that sent me to Milwaukee in 1990 to run a station. I was bored and had culinary experience. I even worked at Pat’s in the ’70s.
For a while, I worked as an excursion manager for Dustin Diamond – Screech from Saved By the Bell – and we were in the city of Temple. I went downstairs to eat a steak and that’s when I made the decision to go back to Milwaukee to show you what a cheesesteak looked like. When I opened six years ago, there was only one other place to eat cheesesteak here. The guy had just eaten Jersey. So I went in and tried it – I had a lot of other dishes. a huge menu, and I asked him for a Whiz wit’, and he said, “We don’t have that. “And I thought: that’s it. This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
From day one, I blew up, and then a few years ago your magazine ran this article about cheesesteaks across the country and named mine as the most productive. And it gave us a whole new way. The Milwaukee sandwich is the kid. When the Phillies were in town a few years ago, there was a contest in the park where my cheesesteak was pitted against the guy who is said to make the most productive kids in town. I won.
Patrons and interns at Jim’s Steaks on South Street in 1977. (Photo courtesy of Jim’s Steaks)
Maury Z. Levy: In every city in the world, when someone asks you what school you went to, they tell you about college. In Hiladelphia, when someone asks you this, they’re telling you about the best school. Sometimes, from college. It’s the workers’ food. It’s what you ate growing up. It’s that good. No matter how successful or stylish you are, you’ve never forgotten your roots. We are faithful. And you can’t dishonor us by not eating those things. We don’t care who you are.
Chuck Peruto Jr. , Criminal Defense Attorney: I represented (I guess you can call him a mob boss) Harry Riccobene when he got into an argument with Nicky Scaro in the 1980s. It was highly publicized. They were killing each other. At the height of those mob wars, I stopped at Harry’s detention center. It’s an incredibly high point of security installation. And while we’re talking, a guard arrives with a bag of a Geno cheesesteak. Harry shared it with me.
Holly Moore: In each and every city I go through, I can very easily locate a wonderful burger stand or a wonderful hot dog stand. But in Philadelphia, the cheesesteak is so dominant that they haven’t squeezed the cheeseburger or hot dog anymore. Maybe I’ll open one on 9th Street and Passyunk and I would be bankrupt. People will just eat their cheesesteaks.
Maury Z. Levy: You see the loyalty to the cheesesteak when you go to a football game. If you don’t get to Ashburn Alley early enough, you can stay there for the first 3 innings waiting for your steak. There are plenty of stadiums that offer smart food, however, that kind of devoted loyalty doesn’t exist anywhere else in Philadelphia. When the park opened, we would hang out there with our friends and our circle of family and say which steak to choose: “Wait a minute, I’ll eat this one. You love that one. It gets very scientific: the steak is smart, but the bread sucks. ” It deserves to be a smart bun, not squished with grease. The cheese is also a component of it: the way it melts. People will argue about your cheesesteaks.
Craig LaBan: It’s very difficult to think at a mass production level. It requires skills, knowledge, an overriding wisdom of your DNA about how the flavor is intended to taste. There’s anything that’s going to stay local, and I think that’s going to go to the core of its greatness, because it’s a sandwich that speaks to this place, and regional foods are very scarce right now in America. That’s why you have local pride. This doesn’t explain why other people eat thousands of spoiled cheesesteaks each and every day, but it does explain why other people consider this game to be a local game.
On a more national scale, there are still some of the wonderful cheesesteak artisans. They are proud of their ingredients and the way they are cooked. There is a transparent hierarchy. When you hear that clink of frozen meat hitting the griddle and there’s a standout student from the school, you know there’s going to be a difference, because it’s an art.
Holly Moore: I think if Tony Luke or John had come to Pat’s space first and made the red meat sandwich, then the sandwich in town probably would have been red meat. I’m more looking for a red meat sandwich than a cheesesteak. Tommy DiNic is at Reading Terminal, I’d eat it at all times. But if I think of the soul of Philadelphia, I think of cheesesteaks.
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