Beth Blair

You can’t visit Philadelphia without indulging in a Philly cheesesteak. During our quick visit to the City of Brotherly Love we did better than that. We ate cheesesteaks twice!

We rolled into Philadelphia on a drizzly August evening. Our car’s navigation had sent us out of the way from NYC and we didn’t realize it until it was too late. We made the most of it and swung by Atlantic City for some saltwater taffy but by the time we arrived in Philly we had grumbling stomachs, overly-tired kids and there didn’t seem to be an end to the rain. However, we didn’t  let the precipitation stop us from heading over to Pat’s – King of Steaks: The First and The Originator of the Philly Steak and Cheesesteak on 9th Street. Pat’s is open 24/7 and offers covered outdoor seating. We went for it and had the classic Philly Cheesesteak. My cheesesteak was good, really good. Unfortunately, we started off so hungry we ended up too full. But it was worth the venture out.

That night I took this next photo of competitor Geno’s Steaks, located right across the street from Pat’s. Tagline: The Best Cheese Steak in South Philly since 1966.

The next day we went to Geno’s for lunch. The rain was long-gone but the customer line was very long. The cheesesteaks were good here, too. The biggest difference, compared to Pat’s, was more onions -  a lot more onions. Luckily, I love onions. And there wasn’t as much cheese as Pat’s. While I liked Geno’s a tad bit better, my husband voted for Pat’s.

We saw Geno working through the window which was cool. I have to give credit to  all of the employees, they work hard. Lunchtime is very busy and fast-paced and yet the wait from order to mouth was pretty quick.

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