South Street Cheesesteaks

South Street Cheesesteaks, L.A.
Closest thing to Philly on the West Coast

There are a lot of places in California now that purport to offer "authentic Philadelphia cheesesteaks." We've tried most of the ones in the Bay Area, but some web browsing turned up an interesting place in West L.A., a shop called South Street Cheesesteaks that imports Amoroso Rolls from Philadelphia.

Amoroso are the rolls used by Jim's Steaks on South Street, one of Tim's favorite places. Unfortunately, they don't do chicken steaks--they're strictly old-school. South Street Cheesesteaks, being a California eatery, does chicken steaks, mushroom steaks, and so on. But we had to plan our trip out to hit them on the way to San Diego this last year, because we're not often in L.A. anymore.

We'd tried back in April, the last time we drove down, but were thwarted by road construction. This time, all went smoothly, landing us at their doorstep with nearly an hour to spare. The shop has the usual decor for a California cheesesteak place: Philly sports memorabilia, including old baseball and football cards; Philly newspaper replicas (covering the tabletops), and this one had a wall of famous Philadelphians (Tim isn't on it yet). The ambiance was somewhat tainted by the chrome and red naugahyde chairs and the black and white checkerboard floor that looked like they'd raided a fifties diner, but overall they did a pretty good job with it.

The girl at the counter wasn't too thrilled to sell us the cheesesteaks, even when Tim told her he was from Philly and had come all this way for the bread. Her comment was, "hope you like it. Some people do and some don't. There's a real difference of opinion." Under duress, she recommended the spicy fries as a side, though she worried they'd be too spicy for Tim. He assured her he's been practicing.

The fries were the weakest part of the meal, but authentic Philly fries for all that (would've been better with cheese). The bread was sublime, perfectly soft, falling apart from the juices. The chicken and sauteed onions, suspended in a matrix of provolone and white American, gave your teeth something to bite into that they didn't want to let go of. We tried the pizza steak and the cherry pepper steak (medium spicy), and both were terrific. Pizza sauce just the way they do it in Philly, a good rich marinara, and peppers with enough zing to make your mouth tingle for the cold (root) beer. We have to get hold of those rolls somehow--they're exactly right for the sandwich. Other bread comes close, but there's no mistaking the real thing once you've tried it.

The most amusing part of the whole place was that the bathroom light wasn't working. It's a small one-person bathroom, and the switch turns on the fan but nothing else. The counter girl and her friend told us someone "went in and just took the light right out." So, as Kevin Smith would say, we had to piss in the dark.

For a cheesesteak like that, they could've taken out the lights of the whole restaurant. We'll definitely be going back, next time we have to drive through L.A.

Original Buffalo Wings

Original Buffalo Wings, in San Carlos
Pizza, burgers, cheesesteaks, and, of course, buffalo wings

The oddity of Original Buffalo Wings, located on Holly Street between 101 and El Camino (just before El Camino, on the left as you're coming from 101), is that it serves exclusively American food in what appears to be the living room of a Thai family(*). There are Thai-themed decorations all over, a bookshelf with pictures, a corner that appears to be a child's activity area, and the doorway back to the restrooms is surmounted by a wooden relief that wouldn't look out of place in a Thai restaurant.

The decor notwithstanding. OBW turns out to be a pretty good pizza/burger/cheesesteak diner. We tried the half-dozen buffalo tenders, which were tender as advertised. The buffalo sauce was rather mild, but nicely vinegary, and the dish was served with celery and blue cheese dip (rather than the oft-substituted ranch). The cheesesteaks and chicken steaks were both quite good, only lacking in the roll department. The flat sesame seed buns split all the way across did not really adequately contain the sandwich, though they tasted okay.

The interesting thing was that both the chicken and beef had a distinctly Asian flavor to them that we think might have been soy sauce. Whether or not this has a place in a Philly steak, it tasted pretty good. The fries also passed muster: hot and crispy, not too greasy. The main drawback to the meal was the $0.55 charge for refills of fountain drinks, which caught us all off guard in this age of free refills. We managed to nurse our small sodas through the meal and left quite sated.

It's not haute cuisine, but for a quick lunch, Original Buffalo Wings is pretty tasty. Definitely worth a repeat visit.

(*) The consensus among the luncheoners during our visit was Thai; I apologize if we, in our ignorance of Asian cultures, misidentified it.