Sunday, September 21, 2008

Danny Mac's Cheesesteaks

My dad is from outside of Philadelphia, and one of my favorite things about going to visit that side of the family is getting an authentic cheesesteak. In particular, there's a grungy little basement place on South Street that I always try to make it into called La Pizzeria. Truth be told, I might go for the atmosphere as much as I do the cheesesteaks, especially around Christmas when the place is decorated with slightly sad, ancient-looking tinsel. The cheesesteaks are definitely good, though. As you can see from the photo, they're loaded with shredded beef, cheese, peppers, onions, and mushrooms, and served on a nicely toasted bun. Neil, pictured below at La Pizzeria, had never had a cheesesteak, authentic or otherwise, until I took him to Philly a few years ago. He was immediately hooked, and we often wondered whether a decent cheesesteak was to be found anywhere in our fair River City.

I had heard over at Louisville HotBytes that a place in Louisville called Danny Mac's was serving up authentic Philly cheesesteaks, but for some reason, we never got around to checking them out. Then a few weeks go we accidentally drove by the place and realized that it's about five minutes from my house. Friday night we decided it was high time we give Danny Mac and his cheesesteaks a try.

Danny Mac's doesn't have a website per se, but they do have a rather bombastic little blog trumpeting the superiority of their food. We called to confirm that they were in fact open after the Great Wind Storm and Subsequent Blackout of 2008 and headed over.

Neil and I both ordered cheesesteaks with everything (peppers, onions, and mushrooms) and were informed that they'd be ready in 15 minutes. Because I recently started watching Battlestar Galactica on DVD and have been having trouble dragging myself off Neil's sofa to do anything else, we decided to get the steaks to go, and also to run over to the liquor store while they were being made to get a 6-pack of the BBC's Dark Star Porter. We got our beer, went back to Danny Mac's, and waited. And waited. Fifteen minutes ended up being more like 25 or 30. But friends, these cheesesteaks were worth the wait.

We got home, settled in with our BSG and beer, and opened our styrofoam boxes. Inside were huge (and very hot) foiled-wrapped packages of heaven. We unwrapped our sandwiches to find big, perfectly toasted rolls overflowing with meat and toppings, served with cups of au jus. They were every bit as good as any cheesesteak I've ever had in Philly (and definitely better than some). Neil and I were giddy. As good as it was, I couldn't even finish mine. Neil was all too happy to help.

I'm eager to try Danny Mac's pizza and see if it lives up to all of its creator's hype. I'd typically be skeptical, but that cheesesteak has made me a believer.

Danny Mac's Pizza
1014 Clarks Ln (right off Poplar Level, not far from Eastern Pwky)
502 635-7994

2 comments:

Tabetha said...

Yum! Sounds very good. I don't see any cheese in that cheese steak, though. Is it just hard to see?

Erin said...

You can kind of see some cheese to the left of the green pepper at the top. I guess it was mostly hiding under all the meat. Believe me, I wouldn't tolerate a cheeseless cheesesteak!