Mayonnaise Sammy

Delicious Mayo Sandwich Special from the South Philly Taproom. Thick cut fluffy bread, jersey tomatoes, and lots of mayo. Super Yum. That day was a hard decision in specials, I ended up getting the corndog, mayonnaise sandwich, and the cheesesteak sliders. What's wrong with me?

South Philly Taproom
1509 Mifflin Street,
Philadelphia, Pa 19145

The Jerseys Are In

A week or so ago I was at Cosmi's waiting for some "soprasud" on seeded bread (next time you're there don't miss the hand written signs for "perjoot" and "gabagul" - not poking fun, I love that shit.. this is Philadelphia, not Italy ) when a truck pulled up out front and the tattooed guy behind the counter announced "da Jerseys are in!"

The "Jerseys" above (smaller ones on the right) are from the Italian Market, 50 cents a pound.. a bit banged up but fine for cooking. The Pennsylvania heirlooms on the left are from the Amish dudes at the Passyunk Square farmer's market (every wednesday 3-7pm) - 2.25 a pound for some GIANT yellow and red ugly ripe jawns.

Iovine Brothers at the Reading Terminal also has heaping piles of local zebra striped green, yellow, orange and dark red tomatoes for next to nothing. Another good spot for heirlooms is the saturday Rittenhouse Square market, and I'd bet Sue's Produce on 18th street has some good ones too.

So obviously we've been living off of tomato salad and gazpacho for the last 3 weeks.. plus I just turned that pile above into some killer "gravy" that I planned to freeze for the future but I'll probably just eat it all in the next few days.

Rutt's Hut

Stopped at Rutt's at 9 in the morning on the way to 5 days of camping. Deep fried hot dogs with relish and cheese whiz washed down with breakfast Budweiser. Also corn on the cob.




The Bar / Dining room is pretty much the greatest place I have ever seen in my life. Once South Philly is completely gentrified I might just move to New Jersey and hang out here all day drawing hot dogs at the bar.



Read my full, official Rutt's Hut article over at Serious Eats.

Rutt's Hut
facebook page
417 River Road
Clifton, NJ

Hot Dog Madness - New Mexico Chile Dogs, Italian Dogs in Toms River, and Philly's Dapper Dog

Drawing For Food correspondent Caroline Russock recently came back from New Mexico with some fantastic photos of Albuquerque's Dog House Drive In, a route 66 truck driver counter joint packed to the gills with "rough and tumble dudes who looked like they've been baking in the New Mexican desert for their entire lives" and known for their hot dogs.



The Dog House serves foot long, split and grilled beef & pork dogs served on toasted rolls and slathered in red New Mexico style chile. Also on the menu - frito pie and green chile cheeseburgers. Read the full story on Serious Eats.



Dog House Drive-In
1216 Central Ave SW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
(505) 243-101

•••


Finally had my first authentic Italian Hot Dog at Joe-Joe's in Tom's River and it was awesome. A real New Jersey style Italian dog is deep fried and served on either a half or quarter loaf of "pizza bread" (a unique product made by a few old-school bakeries in North Jersey) and topped with peppers, onions, and deep fried potato wedges. Awesome.



A lot of places sell a watered down version that's basically a hot dog on a sub roll with hash browns and sauteed peppers. Which is fine but doesn't compare to the places like Joe-Joe's or Jimmy Buff's that specialize in Italian Hot Dogs. Do yourself a favor and check out what might be the country's least well known and most delicious hot dog variation. Read the full article on Serious Eats.


Joe-Joe's Italian Hot Dogs
2039 Route 37 E
Toms River NJ
(732) 270-9720

•••


I tried several times to catch Philadelphia's Dapper Dog cart at lunch at their main spot on the corner of 3rd & Poplar (across from the Standard Tap) but they were closed due to rain or technical difficulties. I was about to give up on them until my buddy Nick stumbled out of a bar and right into the Dapper Dog cart and stopped by with a pile of hot dogs.


The special (and my favorite) was a grilled dog topped with mounds of mashed potatoes and grilled scallion. Sounds weird but it wasn't bad, especially since the potatoes were damn good themselves. The beans on the "michigan" chili dog turned me off a bit but damn do they give you a lot of toppings for $3.50. Mac & Cheese dog was decent, some serious carb-on carb action to soak up all the alcohol in your system.


Other toppings include tomato sauce, pepperoni, asparagus, fried eggs. After 2am you can get one with anything (or everything) on it for 5 bucks. As well as setting up in Northern Liberties on weekend nights, Dapper Dog does a lot of street fairs and special events, follow their twitter and facebook for info. For more on Dapper Dog check out the feature on Serious Eats and a write up over at Don't Buy All The Hot Dogs.

Dapper Dog
2nd & Poplar
Philadelphia

Memorial Day - Pork Roll Double Meat Dog, and Chau's Strawberry Pie

I've been on a sort of Pork Roll kick lately, after trying the "Jersey Burger" at 500 degrees. I always try to keep some on hand for pork roll eggs benedict, perfect size and so god damn good, I don't know why it's not on the brunch menu of every gastropub in town.



For last week's Hot Dog Of The Week post I went recipe style for Memorial Day with the "Pork Roll Double Meat Dog" despite having never actually made one. It's as much a Philly hot dog as it is Jersey, with the split and grilled dogs, grilled onions, club rolls and american cheese.




Memorial Day I gave the Pork Roll Double Meat Dog recipe a whirl, adding cheese wiz and mustard to the mix, and holy crap they were delicious. The addition of wiz really brings it all together. You can't see it in the photos but it's under the American with the onions.



Along with the artery clogging pork roll hot dogs, there was Tomato Pie from Sam's Italian Market, and Chau's amazing Strawberry Pie. Also a questionable Hawaiian pork roll, pineapple and swiss cheese hamburger experiment, and Jello Shots.

Roney's Restaurant

I spotted Roney's down the road from The Pub on a cruddy strip of route 130 in New Jersey. It looked closed, maybe even abandoned, so imagine my surprise when I discovered it was open 24 hours. I still didn't believe it until my hand literally opened the door. The building is unbelievable, and you need to get there soon if you want to see it in person.



We walked in and it was empty except for the cheerful owner / sole employee and his pregnant wife (?) who was hanging out in a van in the parking lot and waltzed in with a box of chips every once in a while. I was a little bummed that the place wasn't still run by the original "Roney" but Peter was a great host, encouraged us to take pictures and told us the whole history of the place. At this point it's sort of a diner slash convenience store, with a megatouch machine and a bootleg dvd of "Transporter 3" playing on a busted up old TV on the counter.



The burgers were decent, standard fast food style cooked on the original 90 year old grill, on which the buns are warmed right before serving. It's not going to impress any North Jersey slider experts any time soon, but the buns weren't stale and a plate of onion rings is something like $1.75. Good food and worth it to stop by just for the building and crazy atmosphere.



I got the feeling that this place is really jamming around breakfast time, on top of the grill were literally hundreds of empty egg crates. Also weekend nights the drunks spill out of the bars and continue partying at Roney's until 5 or 6 in the morning. There's even a patio in the back with tables that would be a sweet place to eat 4 or 5 burgers and watch the sun rise after a night of drinking.

Peter told us a bunch of stories of all the crazy stuff he's seen there at 4 in the morning.. reminds me of my days working graveyard shift at 7-11. And believe it or not this tiny 20-seat hamburger shop has a full size walk-in refridgerator and freezer in the basement. Most of the equipment is as old as the restaurant itself - somewhere around 90 years.

The story behind Roney's is that it used to be a White Tower - a White Castle imitator popular in the 50's - until the manager (apparently a "Mr. Toney") bought the building in 1981 and turned it into Roney's, adding a full-on diner and breakfast menu. If you look closely you can still see a ghost of the "White Tower" lettering on the sign.



After Mr. Toney either retired or passed away it apparently became a Vietnamese restaurant for a few months before Peter bought it. Unfortunately the state or township is buying the property and demolishing it to make more room for the highway within the year.

The owner has another place around the corner, the Dugout Grill & Deli, where he plans to install Roney's grill after they tear it down, and whatever else they will let him keep. (Uhh. I'll take the signs off your hands...) So once this place is gone you can stop there for a burger cooked on 100 well seasoned years of New Jersey history.

Roney's Restaurant
Open 24 hours
50 Haddon Avenue
(google map)
Haddon Twp, NJ

more

• Roney's at Burgatory
• Roney's review (and menu photos) at eatingwithgeorge.com
• More about Roney's and White Tower

The Pub

After Caroline's great post on Roll-N-Roaster I thought I'd keep the retro theme alive. Before Steven Starr, Neil Stein, or even George Perrier, going out for a fancy dinner in Philadelphia meant either Bookbinder's for seafood or The Pub.

At one point in the 1960's there were five branches of The Pub in the Philadelphia area - the original in Pennsauken NJ, the "Little Pub" on 1421 Sansom Street (now Chris' Jazz Cafe) another location at 1522 Chestnut (photo of the back door on Sansom - I think - here), one on Allegheny Ave, and the mind - blowing Polynesian Pub Tiki at 18th & Walnut right on Rittenhouse Square. The Pennsauken location is sadly the only one left standing.


If you live in Philadelphia you've no doubt passed The Pub a million times, on the way to the shore or sitting on the Chinatown bus blasting through the South Jersey landscape of disintegrating bright yellow liquor stores, derelict strip malls and discount furniture emporiums.

This will not prepare you for the amazing mountain lodge meets medieval palace that lies within. Nothing has changed since 1960, which is mostly a good thing. Taxidermied deer heads, multiple suits of armor, shields and spears and coats of arms line the walls and up the gigantic cielings. The dining room holds about 500 people and the bar area alone is the size of most center city restaurants.



So what about the food? If you're expecting prime aged kobe beef with forest mushrooms, obviously this is not the place. But both times I've been here, my charcoal grilled steaks - wheeled to the table on a sizzling grill cart by diner-sweet waitresses, and ladled with a pool of no-frills beef jus- have been cooked perfectly. And the massive onion rings were crisp and delicious, and quite possibly not from a bag.



All entrees come with unlimited warm loaves of bread stabbed with a knife, your choice of potato side, and the "famous" salad bar. The pre-dressed Caesar salad is OK but I went for a big pile of iceberg lettuce and veggies drowned in ranch dressing. Everything was fresh which is more than I can say for most salad bars and the best part is the maple-leaf shaped wooden plate you pile your salads on.




I would suggest sticking with steaks, The prime rib and filet are decent and I would guess NY strip is also a good choice. The filet kabobs are more affordable but not as juicy. Ribs were OK but kind of tough and oversauced.. real Barbecue has ruined me for mediocre ribs anyway.

Half roast chicken might be something to try. Crab meat stuffed seafood, give it a shot if you want to roll the dice, that stuff scares the hell out of me. The biggest bummer are the twice baked potatoes that are lacking any sort of salt, fat, or flavor.. same goes for the fries and mash... But who cares? Order a giant drink (made with "1 1/2" shots of booze) and have a great goddamn time.


Part of me thinks that with a new chef, or even just a few tweaks to the menu (prime steaks, better sides and desserts, table-side caesar, even more giant retro cocktails) this place could be the best steakhouse in Philly.

But I doubt any restauranteurs have the stones to invest in a place like this without remodeling it into some douchey luxe-lounge nightmare. Which would scare away the loyal Jersey locals who pack The Pub every night. Just as well to leave it exactly the way it is.

The PUB
7600 Kaighn Avenue
Pennsauken, NJ 08110

also
• Time Travel - Citypaper Review from 1998
• great collection of menus from The Pub Tiki

Hot Dog Of The Week - Charlie's Pool Room

Some of the best Dogs I've had, in probably the coolest Hot Dog Joint I've ever seen. Charlie's is hidden in western New Jersey, across the river from Easton PA and a few miles south in the town of Alpha. Hard to find it but it's so worth it.

The Fencz brothers who run the place are terrific hosts and you'll learn the history of the place while you wait for your delicious hot dogs. Check out the hand lettered signs, read some chick tracts and play some pinball. The pool table no longer seems to be in operation as people come mostly for the dogs these days.

Read my full review on Serious Eats.





Charlie's Pool Room
1122 East Boulevard, Alpha NJ 08865