Those of you who have followed my cheesesteak posts know that I nearly always order them with Cooper Sharp cheese – or American at the dwindling number of steak shops that don’t offer Cooper. But that wasn’t always the case.
Cooper Sharp has only become popular on cheesesteaks in recent years. Prior to then – and before I started this blog – I often ordered steaks with Cheez Whiz at the establishments that offered it. I have no doubt that’s a disgusting thought to at least some of the people reading this. But Whiz on cheesesteaks has been a thing in Philly for many years and is now offered at more steak shops than ever.
It seems to go well with the steaks at certain classic purveyors that have been around for generations, such as Pat’s, Geno’s, Steve’s and Jim’s.
Perhaps the only newer restaurant at which I’ve preferred their cheesesteaks with Whiz is Jaxx Steaks Taproom, which used to go by the name of Charlie’s Roast Pork. I’ve posted on them several times, most recently during the summer of 2023. And I returned there in late January as part of the process of revisiting all of the steak shops on my top 20 list in preparation for releasing a revised list.
I raved in those old posts about the way the grill chefs at Jaxx perfectly proportion the Whiz and blend it in with the beef on the grill before it goes on the roll. Most places that offer Whiz place it either on the roll or over top of the meat.
While browsing online photos of sandwiches at Jaxx a few months ago, I came across a few that led me to believe they may no longer be pre-mixing the Whiz with the meat. My hope was that the photos were misleading, but I intended to find out and ordered a steak with Whiz and fried onions.
One change that I was certain had taken place was Jaxx’s roll supplier. I’ve mentioned in a couple other posts that Carangi Bakery, which had been one of the best makers of sandwich rolls in the Philly area, suffered a fire a while back, leaving their customers to turn to other sources for rolls.
In the case of Jaxx, they opted to go with Liscio’s, which is probably the most popular bakery among area sandwich shops. While they’re quality rolls when fresh, as is generally the case at area steak shops, they are usually a bit softer and less crusty than I prefer. The one that my steak came on at Jaxx managed to get the job done nicely however, which was no small feat given the amount of chopped beef and Whiz that it held.
The meat wasn’t evenly distributed, with one half being a little on the light side and the other extremely hefty.
Upon first glance, it was immediately obvious that my suspicion was correct. The Whiz was clearly ladled on top of the meat rather than pre-mixed with it on the grill. And there was a whole lot of it – much more than was needed or desired.
In last week’s post on La Nova Pizza and Steak, I said that the Cooper Sharp overwhelmed the taste of the meat. In this case, the Whiz did that.
There was so much of it that the cheese managed to seep down and mix in with most of the meat. So in that sense, it didn’t matter so much that they weren’t mixed together on the grill. But as previously mentioned, when the Jaxx grill chefs were pre-mixing the meat and cheese, they did a much better job of proportioning the Whiz.
In the case of this sandwich, it started pouring out onto my hands and the paper on which the steak was served as soon as I picked it up and continued to do so with each subsequent bite. By the time I was finished with it, there was a huge puddle of Whiz on that paper.
I was only partially finished eating the steak when the above photo was taken. There was much more drippage to come by the time I was done.
If I’m giving the impression that I disliked this cheesesteak, that’s not my intention. It was enjoyable, albeit a bit too salty with all of that Whiz. But it wasn’t at the very high level where my previous cheesesteaks at Jaxx resided.
And I have to confess that I don’t like eating overly messy sandwiches – be it a cheesesteak with too much Whiz or an extra thick burger with too many toppings. By the time I was finished with this one, I had amassed a very large pile of dirty napkins.
I did once try a steak with American cheese at Jaxx and wasn’t that impressed. It’s possible I’ll return there at some point to give another shot to one of those given that they likely have different grill chefs now than they did then. If their steaks with Whiz have gone downhill, perhaps the ones with American have gotten better. We’ll see.
In the meantime, I’ve removed Jaxx from my top 20 list and made a couple other adjustments to it as well. Nipotina, which I raved about a few weeks ago, has moved up higher on that list, while I’ve inserted Gentili’s, another shop that I wrote about in very positive terms recently.
BZ Maestro Eats 