Big Changes at a Legendary Cheesesteak Stand

In an effort to keep my list of the Philadelphia region’s top 20 cheesesteaks up to date, I’ve begun what will likely be a long process of revisiting the steak shops on it. My latest stop was at the renowned South Philly stand that provided the cheesesteak in the cover shot at the top of that list – John’s Roast Pork. 

Among the most famous and long-standing steak shops in the region, John’s is arguably the only one that has avoided a decline in sandwich quality and becoming a tourist trap. Their cheesesteaks and roast pork sandwiches still fully live up to their vaunted reputation based on my last few visits. 

As is my custom, I avoided the usual line by arriving early – at 10:30 a.m., a half-hour after John’s opened for the day. There was a smattering of customers waiting for their number to be called, but only one ahead of me to place an order. 

I’ve only had cheesesteaks and a couple roast pork sandwiches from John’s, but they do offer a few other options, including chicken cheesesteaks and meatball sandwiches.

For those wishing to eat on sight, there is a handful of outdoor tables and a small semi-enclosed area with a few more. As it was the chilliest morning of the season until that point, I went for the latter option after receiving my order – a cheesesteak with American cheese and fried onions on a seeded roll.

There have been a couple significant changes made by John’s since my last visit. Its longtime roll provider – Carangi Bakery of South Philadelphia – suffered a fire that has kept them out of business since December of last year. They provided excellent rolls that had a nice bit of crustiness to some of the area’s more prominent steak shops, leaving them to turn to other bakeries for replacement rolls. 

John’s opted to go with Sarcone’s, a fifth generation Italian bakery that is also based in South Philly and happens to be my favorite of the major Italian bread bakeries in the area. Their rolls tend to be even crustier than those from Carangi’s and also are among the few I’ve tasted that have enough flavor to positively impact the steak’s overall taste. 

The other big change at John’s is the expansion of their cheese options. They had long limited the choices to American and Provolone for steaks. But they’ve finally bowed to popular demand and added Cooper Sharp. Based on John’s online comments, I didn’t get the sense that he was thrilled about it, but business is business.

Anyone who has followed my cheesesteak posts knows that Cooper Sharp has become the most popular cheese for cheesesteaks in the Philadelphia area over the past few years. I almost always choose it for my steaks, but instead opted for American in this case to keep it a classic John’s cheesesteak. 

In my first post on John’s, I wrote that American can be preferable to Cooper Sharp at least some of the time. It’s less flavorful, but the flavor of the meat on steaks with a lot of Cooper tends to get overshadowed by the cheese. That’s less of a concern with American. 

And in fact, the one issue with my steak was that the cheese wasn’t evenly distributed throughout. There were some parts of the sandwich that had a lot and some that had less. 

Yet that turned out to be a relatively minor issue both because of the less obtrusive flavor of American cheese and the phenomenal taste combination of the meat and onions. 

I’ve noticed a handful of times over the years when eating very good hamburgers that the meat almost seems to have a hint of sweetness to it. I had that same sensation with the beef on my cheesesteak at John’s. They use loin tail instead of ribeye, the choice of most elite steak purveyors. Perhaps some of the area’s other sandwich shops should look into using it too given how good John’s steaks taste. 

In addition to using high quality meat, the grill chefs do a great job of seasoning it and put three-quarters of a pound of beef on every cheesesteak – 12 ounces being my ideal amount of meat for a standard-sized steak roll.

On top of the great meat and roll, the onions were well fried, blended nicely with the beef and cheese, and added another layer to the cheesesteak’s sensational overall flavor. 

Although I can’t say this was a perfect cheesesteak because of the issue with cheese distribution, the combination of the great Sarcone’s roll and the fabulous overall flavor of the meat-cheese-onions combination made this – still – one of the area’s greatest cheesesteaks and certainly worthy of remaining near the top of my list.