More Philly

To our surprise (and luck) we were the only people on the tour! Nina was our guide and her son, Kamar, was our driver. She gave us goodie bags to get started and they had a scoring sheet for the five cheesesteaks we were about to try. They also had a bag of Herb’s chips and Tastee Kakes, both Philly products.

Our first stop was Sonny’s, where they do not use any extra oil when they grill the steaks. They also just use American cheese. Nina had pre-ordered at all our stops, so her son would just run in and grab our order. Seeing the long lines made us really appreciate the tour already!

Just down the street was Campo’s. They chopped their steaks and used “whiz” instead of American cheese. Although all cheesesteaks are made with bread, cheese and steak, you could start to taste the difference between restaurants.

Nina took us on a bit of a tour that included a stop at the Rocky statue. She explained that real estate is booming in Philadelphia right now because New Yorkers are moving in and just commuting to NYC for work. She also told us the history of William Penn and his design for Philadelphia, which was completed over the course of almost 200 years!

Our next stop was in South Philly where Pat’s and Gene’s face off on opposing corners. They both used onions and whiz, and both did the flat steak as opposed to chopped. Brad and I really liked Geno’s! Evan was still rooting for Campo’s.

Our last stop was Jim’s on South Street. Kamar got some pretty dirty looks from the people standing in line as he went in to grab our sandwich! This place used whiz as well, but their bread was much chewier than the other places. Nina said that their is no “best place” for cheesesteaks in Philly because people who grew up there always think their neighbourhood place is the best. She said she grew up eating Geno’s and nothing else!

The tour lasted just over two hours and was so great! We saw so much of Philly that we’d never be able to see on our own and trying all the cheesesteaks was a perfect way to understand why people love this sandwich!

We said goodbye to Nina and Kamar and walked to Second Story Brewing for a quick pint and to game plan.Read more