What’s the Fastest Way To Get to Pat’s???

We’ve talked about the 1 Cheesesteak per month rule before here.  There’s a good reason to have it.  I live 6 blocks from Pat’s And Geno’s.  I live 7 blocks from Jim’s Steaks.  I live just over a mile from John’s Roast Pork.  And it’s Just 2 miles to Tony Luke’s.  If I was Artie Lange I’d be dead by now. 

So with that plethora of great sandwich places, placing a 1 cheesesteak per month rule is a necessity.  Even if that makes it difficult for the Cheesesteak Guru!  How much content can I  put up here, if I’m only eating 12 steaks per year.

Well, last basketball season, I went to a Villanova basketball game with a few of my girlfriend’s friends.  (Yes, surrounded by Wildcats fans.)  Anyway, the plan after the game was to hit Pat’s steaks.  I gave everyone directions that would have prevented them from getting lost or getting killed.  Traffic was terrible, so it took the folks a little while to get to Pats. 

But the resident South Philadelphian, that I am, was able to bolt out of the Wachovia Center Parking lot, Make a right on to Pattison, quick Left onto 7th Street.  Shoot down 7th to Reed, make a left, then 2 blocks later, make a right on 9th.  Sometimes, I’ll switch it up to up to Passyunk to look for parking.  Or I’ll go down to Federal and loop around Capitolo Playground.


View Larger Map

The City Calls Joey Vento In For a Sitdown

Joey Vento, owner of Geno’s Steaks, was hauled into the Friends Meeting House to be grilled by the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, to discuss his sign, “This is America, When Ordering, Speak English!”  I’ve historically been a Free Speech.  I have no problem with Vento expressing his belief in a “Constitutionally protected political and personal views that English should be the official and adopted language of our nation.” If he wants this sign in the window in his home.  FINE.  But when you talk about commerce, that’s a different story. 

 Yes, you can discriminate against a person who refuses to wear shoes or a shirt.  But that’s more of a health code reason, to discriminate against the shoeless.  But this guy placed his sign, above another sign, “Management Reserves the Right to Refuse Service”, you are telling explicitly telling non-english speaking folks, don’t come here.  On the same block from Geno’s is a Vietnamese Hoagie shop, La Lupe (where they make my favorite Chorizo taco’s), and RIM (the owner is from France!).  Philadelphia is a melting pot.  The Italian Market area is much more diverse than ever before.  It’s a good thing America. 

Even if this guy has never REALLY refused anyone a steak, we all know what he’s saying.  *wink* *wink*

And we all know what Dom Giordano and his “half filled motorcoach” of racists retirees are nominees for HammRadio.com’s A$$-hole of the week.  Good Luck, Dom.

Silent Bob Chooses Geno’s

A new feature here on CheeesesteakGuru, will be to find any news from the celebrity world and determine their Cheesesteak preference.  Where do they go?  How do they order?

 In a recent blog posting on Kevin Smith’s MySpace page, itemizes his week including every time he showers, shaves, has sex, eats, meets and greets, writes, talks, spits, vomits, and watches TV.  This is OLD School blogging at it’s finest.  Here is my on-line diary.  NOW deal with it. 

 On his way to Cornell University for a speaking engagement, Smith finds himself at Philadelphia International Airport.   There after determining it was 80 degrees outside, he split a cheesesteak from a place in the terminal.  If I flew or randomly hung out in the airport terminal like Tom Hanks, I could tell you where he bought his cheesesteak.  (He calls it a cheese-steak). For argument’s sake and the proximity to the Bose store, I’m going to say he went to Philly Steak and Gyro.

 On his return trip from Cornell, he… well let’s Kevin Tell it:

Twenty minutes in, I talk to Bryan Johnson, who tells me the SModcast equipment he’d Fed-Exed to the Stash East arrived, but since nobody was around to sign for it, it’s being held in the sectional center in Eatontown. Since it’s Sunday, we won’t be able to pick it up ’til tomorrow morning, so my plans to do a Kev/Walt/Bry SModcast pre-poker tourney are shot. Since there’s no rush to get to Red Bank, Jim and I turn the car around and head back into Philly, to grab some Geno’s.

We wait in line for a few minutes, ’til we get up to the ordering window and the guy working it says “What’re you doing out there? Come inside.” They put us at the indoor “celebrity” table, where Jim and I indulge in some awesome, Whiz-covered steaks and fries. It’s about the furthest thing from my diet, but fuck it: I earned this shit.

So there you have it, Kevin Smith is man after my own heart. If you got the time… stop for some cheesesteaks.  I might not choose Geno’s for obvious reasons.  But I never really thought Cheesesteaks should be a political topic. 

 Coming soon, the October Cheesesteak.  Where oh where will it be???