Revisiting One of Last Year’s Best

Starting back in late February I began revisiting the steak shops that made my top ten last year in an effort to gauge whether they still deserve a spot when I revise that list in a few months. I’ve also been including the five honorable mentions in that process and it was one of those that I visited for my latest cheesesteak. 

Lorenzo’s Steaks and Hoagies of West Chester, PA, recently went through a rebranding, although they are either drawing out the process or keeping their old name along with the new one – Lorenzo’s Steaks on the East Side. The signs on their exterior emphasize the old name, while their website goes with the new one. 

Lorenzo’s has a fairly pleasant interior with a small dining room that I adjourned to after placing my order at the counter. Their signature steak is called the Town Talk, and it features my preferred mix of Cooper Sharp cheese and fried onions with chopped ribeye. I requested it on a seeded roll as usual.

The one problem I had with the first Lorenzo’s steak I ate almost exactly a year ago was that it came uncut and partially fell apart while I was eating it as a result. With that vision still seared in my memory banks, I made sure to request that the one I ordered Tuesday be cut in half. 

Although it wasn’t yet 11 a.m. when I arrived, I hadn’t eaten breakfast and was ready to go as soon as the steak was placed in front of me. But of course, photos came first.

At first glance, I was a little concerned about the globs of cheese that were visible on top of much of the steak. One of the things I look for when eating a cheesesteak is how well the cheese is melted and blended in with the meat. 

But the cheese on top thankfully turned out to be an illusion of sorts that may have been added for aesthetic impact. While the ribeye was front-and-center on this steak, it was very lightly coated with fully melted cheese throughout. In fact, the ratio of meat-to-cheese was close to my ideal. And the meat was extremely juicy and flavorful. The grill chef did a fantastic job of seasoning it.

Although the seeded roll was softer than I prefer, it was extremely fresh and had a pleasant chew. 

Overall, this was a great cheesesteak. It’s tough to say who is better between Lorenzo’s and Joey’s Pizza of Thorndale as far as which makes the best steak in Chester County. They’ll both be somewhere on my revised best-of list, which will be expanded to a top 20. 

There are now four steak shops left from last year’s list that I still need to revisit – a pair from the top ten and two more honorable mentions. I’m starting to feel the pressure of time, as I intend to finish this project before Thanksgiving and have a number of other places to get to in addition to those four. Last year, I wound up increasing my cheesesteak intake to a couple per week when time became a factor. I’d like to avoid that this year.