Cheesesteak of the Week: Stoli’s of Northeast Philly

I toyed with the idea of crossing the Delaware River to start exploring the top steak shops in South Jersey for lunch today, but instead opted to finish off Northeast Philly first. I only had one cheesesteak left to try in that section of the city; at Stoli’s, which is in a small shopping center on Bustleton Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares in the Northeast.

Overall, Stoli’s puts out a very good steak. The meat was plentiful and well seasoned. There was enough New Yorker American cheese blended in to give a nice texture to each bite. There was just one aspect of this sandwich that initially threw me a bit, but it turned out not to be a fatal flaw.

They use seeded rolls from Corropolese Italian Bakery. I’ve had their seedless rolls a couple times and wasn’t nuts about them. But I tend to prefer seeded steak rolls, which usually have crust with more body. However, that wasn’t the case with this one. The crust was soft, with not even a hint of crispiness.

In spite of that, the roll was so fresh and had such a nice, pure chew to it, that I quickly got past my initial negative reaction to the crust and decided I liked it; certainly much more than Corropolese’ seedless rolls. I still would have to say I prefer a good, crusty seeded roll, like the ones at Da Vinci’s, Joey’s Pizza and a couple other places I’ve written about.

But the various components of this cheesesteak came together very nicely. And learning I can like a soft, seeded steak roll was an interesting discovery for me

I expect to start that exploration of South Jersey’s top steaks very soon; at least within the next two or three weeks, if not next week.