99 Miles to Philly

In the great CheesesteakWars of Philadelphia, I say there is no real winner. First, no one even allows that there are other combatants than Pat's and Geno's. And there are, there truly are.

Ok, here it is about Pat's and Geno's, gotta shoot it straight from the hip--they both sorta suck!

Okay, start the ranting, start the condemnation of Ron for saying what has been on the minds of the cognoscenti for eons. Even you Philly Guys gotta know, in your heart-of-hearts, that those places do not sell first-rate sandwiches. First, what is up with the pile of grey meat on the flat top?? It looks and tastes like a pile of grey meat. With an unfortunate amount of, ahem, grizzle. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but here it comes--it's gross. Listen, getting me to say that about street food, any street food (a guy who loves when a place is filthy, cause that seems somehow to enhance flavor) takes some doing. And putting your sacred Cheez Whiz on (cause only Cheez Whiz is allowed to adorn an honest-to-god-cheesesteak) doesn't raise the thing up very much. Hey, you can put lipstick on that pig, but you can't teach it to tango.

Thats why when a former manager from Carl's, a direct pile-the-grey-meat-high New York knockoff of the grand South Philly tradition started to ply his trade in New York I was not that excited.

I was wrong. This guy just rejected the long-held belief that their's was the "only true path." Oh yes, he honored the fundaments of the sandwich. The grilling together of the thin-slice ribeye with the onions--to achieve maximum heat-retention and combination of flavor. He melts a proper amount of cheese--on the roll side of the sandwich for maximum meltage and proper sandwich integrity. Most of all, he flies his bread in from Philly, from the properly revered Amoroso Bakery.

I always get a good sandwich at 99 Miles to Philly. And the place feels like a sort of NYU offshoot, located on 3rd Ave between 12/13 streets. Lots of students, lots of grad students, ordering the $10.99 special cheesesteak/fries/soda. Hey, 99 Miles to Philly doesn't reach the ecstatic heights of the very best cheesesteaks--when the ribeye retains more steakly integrity, and develops more natural au jus--but I always get a really good sandwich.