Day Trip to Philly

A good friend of mine Eric packed up all his belongs today and went off to Las Vegas to start a new chapter in his life. My friends and I wanted to hang out and do stuff before he left. We asked him "Okay what do you want to in NY before you leave?" His answer was "I want to get some Philly Cheesesteaks." Okay...not exactly in NYC but if that's what you want let's go!  I don't exactly eat cheesesteaks but I'm all about road trips and having good times with good people.

We planned to head out to Philadelphia Friday night after work around 7.  Okay whenever you make plans that include Angel and Daryl expect to be delayed...We didn't leave NYC until around 10pm.  We didn't arrive in Philly until midnight! The drive out there was fun.  We all loaded up into Tian's mini van and went on our way.  We jammed to some tunes, talked about random things, and cracked jokes. You know the usual stuff friends do. 

Tony Luke's from the outside

We had three cheesesteak spots on the tourist list to hit up. First spot was Tony Luke's. It was the first time any of us were there.  We've heard good things about it from other people and that's why we wanted to stop by.  Okay when it comes to food pertaining meat I'm pretty useless in that category.  I myself ordered an Uncle Mike which consisted of sweet peppers, hot peppers, red gravy, fried onions, spinach, broccoli rabe, and cheese. For a veggie sandwich it was slamming!  It was huge. Much bigger than the cheesesteaks my friends got and it was so flavorful.  They also had these salt and vinegar fries which I was really tempted to try but if you know me I'm a sucker for cheese so I had to get a side order of mozzarella triangles.  What I also really liked was the unlimited free pickles slices.  The good kind too, none of that stuff that's injected with yellow dye.  Since we were going to eat at 3 places everyone wanted to pace themselves. Tian and Sherida split each sandwich while Eric and Angel decided to eat half of each sandwich and take the other half home. Yuri and Daryl on the other hand decided that they could handle eating the full sandwiches.  If you want to know what everyone thought about their cheesesteaks it was ranked unanimously in third place.  It's not that it was a bad sandwich everyone just thought that it was a little too fancy and not greasy enough.  If you don't know what I mean check out the following clip. 

Daryl struggling to finish at Geno's

The second spot we hit up was Geno's Steaks. Geno's and Pat's are right across the street from each other. If you can't remember which is which just remember that Geno's has all the fancy lights. While we were online at Geno's we ran into one of our friends from NYC! Totally random.  He was staying the weekend to party and he couldn't believe we made the trip out to Philly just for some sandwiches and then planned to head right back home. Ha! Everyone throughly enjoyed there sandwich from Geno's.  I was told it had the perfect meat to cheese ratio.  It must've also had that perfect greasy factor. Quick tip the hot sauce that they offer there is super duper spicy.  Of course Yuri ate it with no problem, but Daryl on the other hand was having a problem getting it in his belly.  Angel really enjoyed his sandwich.  He almost ate the whole thing instead of saving half to take home.  The only negative I would say about Geno's is that they always seem like they are in a big rush over there so they can come across as pretty rude. 

Now it was time for the third course.  We walked across the street to Pat's King of Steaks.  It doesn't have all the fancy light's like Geno's but it definitely has a vintage touch.  Everyone that I know usually rates Pat's as their favorite Philly cheesesteak hangout.  But tonight everyone that I went with ranked Geno's as the winner!  Maybe Geno's stepped it up or maybe Pat's just fell off for a night. I have no idea I'm just relaying the collective thoughts of my friends. As for myself I ordered a veggie wit whiz. Yea the have a vegetarian option. It's a secret item off the menu, I found out about it the last time I was in Philadelphia. They load the sandwich with onions, peppers, mushrooms and throw some whiz on top.  They also have really good fries. Yuri got a side after he inhaled his third sandwich. On the other hand if you are wondering what happened to Daryl he had to tap out after Geno's. He couldn't hang with eating the full sandwiches.  We then headed out next door to the South Philly Bar and Grill to digest and have a drink.  It was pretty dead in there but the people that worked there were pretty cool.  We stayed until the place closed at 2 am. 

How to order a properly order a Philly

Now that we fulfilled out culinary tourist experience we weren't going home until we did one of the most touristy things you can think of...run up the Rocky steps.  We got in the car and headed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  We thought hey it's the middle of the night no one is going to be at the museum.  Boy were we wrong!  There was this whole biker gang hanging out at the top of the first landing of steps.  Christian and Eric decided they wanted to stay at the bottom of the steps.  The rest of us started acting like pure tourists.  Yuri started playing Eye of the Tiger on his phone and we started running.  When I tell you there was a bunch of bikers at the top of the steps I meant full out dudes in leather with their motorcycles hanging out smoking and drinking.  The farther up the step we ran and the closer to the bikers we got I just kept laughing harder and harder. Sherida was yelling at Yuri to turn the music off. I just couldn't contain myself.  Those bikers must've took one look at us and thought "ugh more tourists running up these damn steps."  By the time we reached the first landing we were no longer running. We were trying to play it cool and walk past the bikers.  Once we maneuvered our way through them we started running again to the top of the steps.  But then all of a sudden these other tourists came out of nowhere and they beat us to the top of the steps!  Yea we felt pretty pathetic.  We hung out at the top of the steps for a little beat. It was such a beautiful night.  The view was nice, the company was great, and the weather was perfect. (Compared to earlier in the week when it was a scorching 90 degrees)  Why the other two chose to stay at the bottom of the steps I have no idea. I personally think they were intimidated by the bikers. Once we made it back to the bottom of the steps we just hung out and took in the scenery for another hour. 

Hanging out by the Rocky Statue

After that we it was back to NYC we went.  Luckily for me I didn't have to drive so I knocked out once we hit the road. Actually everyone pretty much knocked out.  Eric shouldered the drive back to NYC and we made it home with the sun rise just after 6 am.  I would recommend visiting Philly to anyone during anytime of the day.  For a day trip or a night trip in our case is pretty fun if you have a couple hours to spare and want to go on a Philly Cheesesteak run.  I've also been to Philadelphia for a weekend experience but you'll just have wait for that post. =P