The Philadelphia cheesesteak is more than just a sandwich; it’s a cultural icon with a surprisingly accidental origin story. The invention traces back to a single hot dog stand in South Philadelphia in the 1930s.
Here is the true story of how the cheesesteak was born.
The Accidental Invention
In 1930, brothers Pat and Harry Olivieri operated a modest hot dog and pretzel stand near the Italian Market in South Philadelphia. One day, Pat grew tired of eating his own hot dogs for lunch. He gave his brother Harry some cash and sent him to a nearby butcher to pick up some chopped beef.
Pat threw the thinly sliced beef onto their hot dog grill, cooked it up with some chopped onions, and stuffed the mixture into an Italian roll.
The First Customer
Before the brothers could take a bite of their new creation, a local cab driver—who was a regular customer at their hot dog stand—pulled up. He smelled the sizzling beef and onions and asked if he could have that instead of a hot dog.
Pat sold him the sandwich for a nickel. The cab driver was so impressed that he told the brothers they needed to stop selling hot dogs and focus entirely on these new steak sandwiches. The word spread quickly among cabbies around the city, and the brothers soon found themselves swamped with orders. This success allowed them to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant: Pat’s King of Steaks at the intersection of 9th Street, Wharton Street, and Passyunk Avenue.
Where is the Cheese?
For the first decade of its existence, the “cheesesteak” did not actually have cheese on it. It was simply a “steak sandwich.”
It wasn’t until the 1940s that a manager at Pat’s named “Cocky” Joe Lorenza decided to experiment by melting sharp provolone cheese over the meat. The addition was a massive hit. In the 1950s, Cheez Whiz was introduced to the market, and Pat’s quickly adopted it because it melted instantly and perfectly coated the meat and roll. Today, Cheez Whiz, American, and provolone remain the holy trinity of cheesesteak cheeses.
The Great Rivalry
The history of the cheesesteak is incomplete without mentioning its most famous rivalry. In 1966, a man named Joey Vento opened up Geno’s Steaks directly across the street from Pat’s. Geno’s claimed to have perfected the sandwich, sparking a fierce, decades-long turf war at the 9th and Passyunk intersection.
Today, that neon-lit intersection remains the epicenter of cheesesteak culture, drawing massive crowds 24 hours a day to taste the original creation that started at a humble hot dog stand.
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