First Time I Ever…Cheesesteak Addition

This is by far my favorite food on earth.  If I was dying and I had to request a last meal, it would be a John's Roast Pork cheesesteak with American Cheese and fried onions.  Ahhh, death wouldn't be so bad with one of these things in the wings.

However my first foray into Philly cheesesteaks wasn't  JRP, I went down the path of so many other Philadelphians and tourists.  My first cheesesteak was at Pat Olivieri's.  Pat's King of Steaks.  I remember it being the best thing I've ever had.  Now mind you this wasn't my first cheesesteak ever, but my first Philly Cheesesteak ever, everything else was a Jerseyian steak, with American cheese and mushrooms.  However Pat's, everything was a process, where to park, ordering it, where to eat it, what can I get, do I order drinks or fries?  Everything was a process.  I remember my first approach at ordering, I made sure I had the lingo down, all I ever heard was, make sure you order it correctly don't fuck up the ordering process.  Just remember these two words, wiz wit, or if you don't like onions, wiz witout.

I always remember parking close to 10th and E. Passyunk, and then walking a block towards Federal to get there, not a far walk, but enough to get me to memorize those to words.  I remember standing there at 1 a.m. with my brother, still in middle school and watching all the drunk people stumbling and ordering their sandwiches.  My brother let me order it on my own, and I order my first wiz wit.  I remember asking him where did he want to eat, we were going to sit on those red benches, but someone took our seats, so we walked backed to our car and got ourselves ready for a meal.  This wasn't my brother's first, but I remember him waiting for my reaction.  I took my first bite, and everything burst out of it, cheese, onions, grease, steak.  It was a glorious greasy mess, a delicious greasy mess.  I remember the chopped up ribeye, those oh so tender chopped onions, and that luscious tasty tasty molten lava of cheese wiz.

When you have your first Philly steak, you're going to remember it, I sure did.  I've gone on to have many many many more cheesesteaks in Philly some great, some not so great, but I always remember my first, and boy was it mighty mighty tasty.