The cheesesteaks we really really want | Let’s Eat

We tasted, we compared, we debated, and we made a list for you. Here are our 23 favorite cheesesteaks in the region.

Also in this edition:

— Mike Klein

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Think it’s easy taste-testing cheesesteaks? So much beef and cheese, so many rolls, so many onions, so many tired jaws, so much Lactaid. But now our Food team can tell you about 23 cheesesteaks that we‘d happily recommend.

Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores in Pennsylvania sell a lot of booze — $2.53 billion worth each year, from pints of whiskey and boxes of wine to cans of locally crafted vodka seltzers. Our data team sliced and diced a tranche of sales figures from the PLCB. Plug in your zip code to our “Pennsylvania Uncorked” web page, and find out what your neighbors drink.

M. Night Shyamalan, our home-grown horror auteur, dropped by Càphê Roasters in Kensington with his wife, Bhavna, chatted up the staff, and gave the experience a 10/10.

☕ The Jersey Shore espresso scene is thriving, writes Amy Rosenberg.

Indo Spice in South Philadelphia serves a rare taste of Sulawesi, one of Indonesia’s 17,000-plus islands. It’s drawing customers from all over the Mid-Atlantic region.

A two-fer of theater ideas this week:

After four years, Blanka Zizka makes his much-anticipated return as a director with the Wilma Theater’s production of Archduke.

Arden’s production of The Hobbit proves that the most enduring star has never been Bilbo Baggins, but Tolkien’s story itself.

Bomb Bomb BBQ Grill, which closed last December, is coming back, and Joey Baldino — the chef behind such institutions as Zeppoli and Palizzi Social Club — is the new guy in charge. Read on for his grand plan.

Jamaican Jerk Hut, now operating in the Comcast Center’s food hall (17th Street and JFK Boulevard), is preparing a second location: 3131 Walnut St. in University City, previously Misconduct Tavern, Tipsy Tavern, Tria Wine Room, and the Fat Ham. The Hut’s Lisa Wilson has applied for a liquor license; no timeline.

WellFed, Adrianna Hecht and Laurenza Giosa’s Northern Liberties cafe/healthy-meal prep service is expanding this summer with a second retail shop and kitchen at 735 N. York Rd. in Willow Grove; it previously was the truck commissary for Nick’s Roast Beef. Like the original, which the sisters opened five years ago at 444 N. Fourth St., the new spot will have a full coffee menu, smoothies, and grab-and-go options with prepped meals and healthy groceries. Veronica Blum of MPN represented WellFed, while Pat McCabe from Equity repped the landlord in the real estate deal.

Soon you’ll be seeing a more fleshed-out vision of Corio, the contemporary Italian joint coming very soon to uCity Square (3675 Market St.) backed by Vernick Food & Drink alums: chef David Feola (ex-Ember & Ash); general manager/beverage director James Smith; and Ryan Mulholland, currently director of operations at CookNSolo. The menu is Italian American — pizzas, pastas, sandwiches, small plates, entrees — for lunch and dinner daily, and there will be a full bar (plus takeaway wines). Entrance will be on 37th Street, next to Two Locals Brewing.

♦

We really are in a high season of openings and reopenings:

Ramen chain Kyuramen is soft-opening a location at 44 N. 12th St., across from Reading Terminal Market in the former BurgerFi space.

Kismet Bagel’s Collingswood cafe (749 Haddon Ave.) will open officially at 7 a.m. Friday.

Café Click, Stephen Starr’s seasonal outdoor spot on the Comcast Center Plaza (17th Street and JFK Boulevard), reopens Monday, serving weekday lunch and dinner from 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m.

La Grange, the 220-seat French brasserie in a restored barn in Yardley from the owners of La Stalla Italian in Newtown with executive chef Peter Woolsey (ex-Bistrot La Minette), will debut Monday.

Percy — the 1970s-inspired restaurant with a bar, lounge, and listening room at 1700 N. Front St. in Fishtown/Kensington border, from BIKCG Hospitality Group (Forîn Cafe) — has a target opening of May 9.

Flight Club, the syndicated darts parlor, is getting close to opening at 1417 Walnut St., across from the Bellevue. In addition to high-tech darts in a British pub-like setting, there’s a bar and scratch kitchen.

On the closing side:

Tela’s Market (1833 Fairmount Ave.), which brought groceries, a cafe, and a bar to Fairmount and Francisville 11 years ago, will close after business Sunday, as it announced on Instagram. Dan Greenberg, who owns the building with his wife, Alex, says he is negotiating with a perspective new tenant.

Woolly Mammoth is facing extinction after two decades at 430 South St., at Passyunk Avenue, as it has acknowledged on social media. The lively bar is selling off memorabilia and plans a blow-out at Saturday’s South Street Live Festival. Closing date has not yet been set, says owner Chris McNichol.

Rudee’s Thai in Wynnewood has wrapped its six-year run with the retirement of chef Rudee Leevongcharoen, who, with husband Heng Lee, formerly owned Heng’s Thai Cuisine in Springfield, Delaware County.

Blair Mountain Biscuit Co. in Blackwood, known for breakfast sandwiches (especially the over-the-top Whole Cogan), closed earlier this month after nearly four years, citing economics.

Hongtang Mala. Entrepreneur Youngnam Kwon has tweaked the Sichuanese style of hot pot known as malatang into a DIY experience called Hongtang Mala, which opened last month in the food court at the H Mart in the city’s Olney section.

Using tongs, you select your ingredients from a counter (see below) — about three dozen refrigerated options, including mungbean, corn, and rice noodles, shrimp, Spam, rice cake, vegetable dumplings, oyster mushrooms, bok choy, and baby Napa.

Then you weigh your bowl, and tell the counter person about your spice level and specify the preparation.

In the back, a cook will convert your selections into one of four dishes. Two are soups — the spicy bone broth malatang ($13.95 a pound) and a vegetarian sukiyaki ($15.95). Two are stir-fries — the spicy mala xiang guo ($15.95) and the creamy rosé mala xiang guo ($16.95). All but the malatang come with a bowl of rice, and it’s $3.50 additional for chadolbaegi (thin-sliced brisket) or sliced pork belly.

The rosé mala xiang guo I ordered (shown above) came to $13.90 (for about three-quarters of a pound), plus $3.50 for beef, for a total of $17.40 — a true bargain, given that I finished it the next day for lunch.

Fried mantou ($7.95) is your dessert option.

N.B. Kwon owns the Mari Mari sushi shops; one is next door in the food court, while the other is at 13th and Chestnut Streets in Center City.

Hongtang Mala, inside the H Mart food court, 6201 N. Front St. Hours: 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. daily.

The Roots Picnic’s organizers say they are putting as much effort into the food as they do the musical acts. See the rundown here.

Le Virtu will reopen its garden and patio with an Occhiali Rosa BBQ from 5-8 p.m. Wednesday. As “occhiali rosa” means “rose-colored glasses,” the focus is on Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo. Chef Andrew Wood’s Italian-style barbecue menu will feature hand-cut arrosticini (Abruzzese lamb skewers); house-made salsiccia (sausage) in Abruzzese, Lucanican, and Umbrian styles; shrimp and spring vegetable spiedini; and grilled spuds and spring salad. It’s open seating, pay as you go.

Yuhiro, Xiangyu “Sam” Lin’s omakase room in Fishtown, has added a 17-piece, $95 option to its regular offering of 12 courses for $68.

Chez Hansi — Hans and Samira Eggstein’s short-lived German-Moroccan BYOB in Graduate Hospital — will get a one-night reprise, May 12, at Winkel, 1119 Locust St. in Washington Square West. Hans Eggstein will cook with Winkel owner Joncarl Lachman. Sample dishes: zaanse mosterdsoep, konijn in het zuur, salmon waterzooi, and a traditional Alsatian onion tart. It’s $60pp plus tax/tip with open seating from 5:30-9 p.m. Email Lachman for a res.

There’s been a move to eliminate artificial dyes in foods. What might be used to replicate hot pink?

A) bismuth subsalicylate, found in Pepto-Bismol

B) crushed rose petals

C) cochineal, an insect

D) coral, the same thing that makes Patrick of SpongBob pink

Find out if you know the answer.

I was walking by the Rose Tattoo Cafe last week and it looked open. What?!? — Jeremy D.

Well, that is something I didn’t have on my 2025 bingo card. The Rose Tattoo Cafe at 19th and Callowhill Streets was one of Philly’s coziest bistros from 1983 to 2019, when it shut down after a sale. It popped back briefly in 2020 before closing during the pandemic. Owner Michael Maltepes just started evening bar service with a very limited menu as he sets up the kitchen. Stay tuned for the actual reopening. As for why it had been closed so long, he said he had been deliberating about whether to lease it out or run it himself.

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