First Bite Leads to Unfortunate Surprise

For this week’s cheesesteak I visited a corner deli that has been on my radar for a while. Mi-Pals sits at 16th and Wolf Streets in South Philly and is better known for their hoagies, which often pop up on local best-of lists. But online photos I had seen of their steaks also appeared promising. 

I arrived early Tuesday and was able to grab a spot on the same row house-filled block as the deli. 

Mi-Pals has a large array of both hot and cold sandwiches on their menu. Yet my order was the usual – a steak with Cooper Sharp cheese and fried onions. It came on a seeded roll by default.

As is the case with many of the delis in South Philadelphia, there is no seating at Mi-Pals. I took the steak back to my car to eat on an overcast morning.

One of the things that jumped out at me when viewing photos of Mi-Pals’ cheesesteaks was how good the roll looked. One can never be sure until touching and tasting it, but this one appeared to be excellent and also at least somewhat crusty. It reminded me of the seeded Carangi Bakery rolls I’ve written about several time, although I wasn’t sure about that and didn’t see any bread boxes while I was at the deli.

See what I mean? 

Yet I was in for an unpleasant surprise when I picked up half and took my first bite. The roll was much softer than I expected and also wasn’t the least bit crusty. It certainly was nothing like the Carangi rolls I’ve had. Rather the crust was extremely chewy, but not in a particularly appealing way. After a couple more bites, I concluded that it was either a day-old roll or just not a very good one. It kind of reminded me of the way high quality rolls get after sitting around for a day, although I didn’t ask and can’t be sure. In any case, it was a significant flaw.

And that was a shame because what was on the roll was quite good. Mi-Pals uses 10 ounces of chopped beef on their steaks and season it well. That may not be enough for some people, but it falls within my ideal range for a well-balanced sandwich of 10-12 ounces – or a bit more when the roll is unusually wide. The Cooper Sharp was also well-proportioned and blended in nicely with the meat.