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Shops at the Bellevue, 200 S. Broad St., Center City, Philadelphia, www.rickssteaks.com
The only thing Philadelphians love more than the Reading Terminal Market is cheesesteaks. So when Market management announced they would not be renewing Rick’s Steak stand’s lease there in 2007, the usual hue and cry that arises anytime a Market merchant is asked to leave was compounded in this case by Rick Olivieri’s royal cheesesteak pedigree as the grandson of cheesesteak inventor Pat Olivieri. For almost two years the local media chronicled the Rick lease story, including fellow merchants’ protest cancellation of the annual Amish Festival, a petition drive that yielded more than 3,000 signatures and the legal battle that resulted in Rick agreeing to leave by fall 2008.
But the great storm is over. Since mid June Philadelphians have been able to get a Rick’s cheesesteak wit’out rancor just three blocks away from his old Market home in the basement food court of the elegant Park Hyatt at the Bellevue hotel...read more
Welcome to the virtual home of the definitive guidebook to Philadelphia’s favorite food, including history, stand profiles (complete with detailed driving directions and hours), artistic and event tributes and recipes to re-create this great taste at home. “The Great Philly Cheesesteak Book” is everything about the cheesesteak that mind and mouth can digest!
The perfect guidebook and souvenir for visitors! The ideal handbook or gift for local steak fans!
The New Steak Style
A place need not resemble a bus station to serve a good cheesesteak as my City Paper story about the Wit or Witout mini-chain and the new Claymont Steak in Newark, Del. illustrates.
How to Choose a Great Steak Shop
So if looks aren’t that important, what is? Click here to read my four-point field guide to spotting a promising source of cheesesteaks.
World Series Cheesesteak Coverage
I literally “drop in” as the cheesesteak expert during the last minute of this LA Dodgers Web site...read more
Choice Review From Hamburger Fan
“One of my favorite food books so far this year. … An excellent read for those Philadelphia...read more
Can the Maestro of Le-Bec Fin Please a Cheesesteak Expert?
The Philadelphia Inquirer's Michael Klein gets a five-star chef to make me a cheesesteak. (Can life get any better?) Read the food page story, view photos and watch video.
3:15 a.m. SRO at Pat's
New York is the city that doesn’t sleep; Philadelphia does, except at Pat’s and Geno’s. These two 24/7 businesses are the literal and figurative crossroads of Philadelphia, and a window on it. Everyone goes there at one time or another and so it follows, if you stay there long enough, you will see everything and everyone. At least that was the idea. Here’s the reality of one recent summer Friday.
4:45 a.m. It’s still dark. The smell of fried onions and beef hangs in the air, along with the sound of some demented singing. A not-very-prosperous-looking elderly man in a green baseball cap sits at a table at Pat’s, not eating.
5 a.m. At Geno’s an employee with a cleaning machine has the sidewalk so thick with soap suds it looks like snow. Meanwhile over at Pat’s...read more
