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Philly Mag vs. Uncle Gus’ Steaks Wasn’t the Bout I Had Circled During Champ Week

By Kyle Pagan

Published: Mar 14th, 2025 · 10:34 AM EDT

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Uncle Gus’ is in the Reading Terminal Market and it’s being funded by a couple of the city’s best food proprietors: Joe Nicolosi of DiNic’s, Dave Braunstein at Pearl’s Oyster Bar, and the cream of the crop, the claim to the best cheesesteak in the city currently, Danny DiGiampietro of Angelo’s Pizzeria. Don’t tell that to Jason Sheehan at Philly Mag, who went into the Market, had their cheesesteak, and crushed it in a review calling it “completely overrated” –

“I take my bag, find a seat, peel the paper from the sandwich, and it is … fine. Just on first looks, I’m bothered by its relative skimpiness, the meat that doesn’t go all the way to either end. A cheesesteak should be a celebration of abundance — a greasy, messy disaster of a thing, heavy as a weapon, comforting in its heft. This is not that.”

Lets take this review in parts so it’s more digestible.

I agree with Sheehan here. If I’m paying for a cheesesteak, which can get up to $20 at some places in this city, you better stuff that bitch. I want cheesesteak Manifest Destiny. Meat from end to end, from sea to shining sea:

“Eating it doesn’t improve my opinion. Again, there’s nothing at all wrong with it. The meat is unevenly chopped, but I like mine that way. And the bread is excellent — those seeded, split rolls are just one of the dozen reasons why Angelo’s got famous. There’s the customary hit of salt and fat that’s the calling card of Philly’s signature sandwich, and the Cooper Sharp gums everything together and makes it stick, but it is a thoroughly run-of-the-mill sandwich. Harmless, but far from inspired.”

This is where Sheehan loses me. Eating it doesn’t improve his opinion BUT there’s nothing at all wrong with it. He likes the unevenly chopped meat, he thinks the bread is excellent, and the cheese is great. So what gives? It’s not inspiring? I don’t know how many people are visiting Philly looking to be inspired by a cheesesteak. It’s a cheesesteak. Do you expect visitors to feel something so euphoric their first bite that they quit their day job, go into an abundance of debt, and open a shop outside of Lambeau Field even though they have no experience in the cheesesteak game? If you’re from Philly and you’re grading on a scale of inspiration doesn’t every cheesesteak in this city deserve one star? How much can you really reconfigure a cheesesteak? Angelo’s introduced a seeded roll and cooper sharp cheese and I think it was like the first time the cheesesteak has been reinvented in decades, which the author acknowledged. Now everyone around the city is copying them until some next cheesesteak revolutionary is born and introduces a new ingredient to the masses. Our very own Cheezus Christ if you will. If you live in this city and you’ve had dozens of cheesesteaks I think you’re kind of an asshole if you go into a joint and expect it to knock your socks off when you know the first 70 years of existence the sandwich had little improvement.

Now Nicolosi and Braunstein have said they want to sell the best cheesesteak in the city. Is it that? I don’t know. It’s good. I had it a couple months ago and it reminded me of Angelo’s. Do I think about it every night and every day? No. People have mentioned it’s small, but I didn’t notice that. I’m also in the boat where cheesesteak discourse is stupid. I don’t cheesesteak shame. You want to eat at Pat’s you go for it. Geno’s? Have a ball. Your local pizza shop? It’s still probably going to be the best cheesesteak someone visiting has ever had in their lives. When you’re known for something you’re good at it. It’s like getting breakfast tacos in California. The worst breakfast taco in LA is the best one in Philadelphia. Go fill your guts with fats and cheeses wherever you want because life is short!

Uncle Gus’ fired back on IG. Irrelevance! DING! DING! DING!

 

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