House-Baked Rolls Make the Difference

While I’m not specializing in posting on cheesesteaks any longer, I’m still keeping an eye on what’s happening with the Philly-region steak scene.

Del Rossi’s, which is a few blocks north of the city’s historic district, has been around for over a decade and on my list of places to try for a while. But doing so didn’t become a high priority until the past couple months, when I started reading online raves about their new house-baked rolls and the extent to which they have elevated their steaks to elite status.

The wait ended last Tuesday when I drove into the city to see if the hype was legit. 

Del Rossi’s has a full menu of sandwiches and pizza, among other things. While I was tempted to try a slice of pizza, my limited appetite and desire to finish the cheesesteak led me to decide that could wait for another visit. I ordered a steak with the usual Cooper Sharp cheese and fried onions. They come on their house-baked seeded rolls by default. 

After ordering, I grabbed a seat in their small dining area toward the shop’s rear and waited for my lunch to arrive. While waiting, I took a glance behind me and noticed the area in which their new rolls are baked. 

There aren’t a lot of steak shops that bake their own rolls. But all of the house-baked ones I’ve tried have been very good, including the ones at Angelo’s Pizzeria, my top-ranked cheesesteak. 

My wait was a blessedly short one. The first thing that jumped out at me was what turned out to be the only negative aspect of the steak. The meat wasn’t evenly divided between the two halves. But that concern was overshadowed by the sandwich’s quality. 

The second thing I noticed was how crusty the roll was when I picked up half and took a bite. I love crusty rolls and consider it to be a form of cheating when crustiness is achieved by toasting the roll. That wasn’t an issue in this case. It came that way out of the oven behind me without any need for toasting.

And this was one of the crustiest steak rolls I’ve ever sampled. There also wasn’t too much dough underneath the crust. At the risk of sounding corny, it was a joy to chew. 

For those steak-lovers who are wedded to the idea that more is better and that a pound – or at least close to it – is the proper amount of meat for a cheesesteak, this sandwich would have unquestionably been too light. But my regular readers know that I always prioritize proportion, and while the half with less meat could have used a bit more, overall, I was satisfied with the amount of meat – pasture-raised and hormone-free ribeye, to be precise. In fact, the half with more was just about ideal for me. 

And it was beautifully seasoned, while the Cooper Sharp was blended in with it nicely throughout in addition to being well-judged in terms of amount. The onions were also beautifully fried and added an extra dimension of flavor.

Overall, it was one of the two or three best steaks I’ve had since putting out my top 20 list late last year. In fact, I’ve added it to the list, which you can see by clicking here. 

I’m not putting in the amount of cheesesteak-eating hours that I did in 2022-2023, so there won’t be another new list. But I’ll continue to make adjustments to the one from last year whenever I try a new steak that deserves a spot on it – or when a shop that is already on there goes noticeably downhill.

I’ve also updated my Top Five Cheesesteak Rolls post. In addition to inserting Del Rossi’s, I’ve removed Mama’s Meatballs and Pizzeria of South Jersey after reading in the Facebook cheesesteak group I follow that they are no longer using house-baked rolls.