My Life on the Railroad: May 2016

As a brief introduction to this post, I think it's necessary to share the basis of it and where it came to birth. As a "foodie" from the Pacific Northwest we are famed for our seafood in Seattle and known for our coffee partly due to a small franchise that some of you may be familiar with that goes by the name of Starbucks. For myself, I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to the East Coast and take part in a Conductor training program for Amtrak in Wilmington, Delaware. One of the perks of working for Amtrak was the ability to use the amazing high speed transportation system that they have in place all along the Northeast Corridor. With that being said, I felt a responsibility to see what the cities had to offer me and boy did they fulfill that calling in a nine week period. I regularly traveled to some of the greatest cities in America, seeing the sites and tasting all that they could cook up. I went to New York, Baltimore, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia. It all started with one great steak and it also came to a close with one great steak. The "Greatest" steak in my opinion and the shared opinion of so many others. The one steak to rule them all.

In my adventures, I sought out 10 separate establishments that offered a Philly cheesesteak and with many of them, they claimed themselves as "King" of steaks, or even the "Original" steak, but in the end of this challenge...There could only be one! The best Philly cheesesteak!

To start, let's name the contestants. Some of the entrants were local submittions by residents of the area and others were based off of Internet searches and third party site reviews. I also chose two based off of the recommendations of others which took the search outside of Philadelphia.

So here they are:

Sonny's Famous Steaks

228 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19106

Tommy DiNic's

Reading Terminal Market, 1136 Arch St, Philadelphia, PA 19147

Jim's Steaks

400 S St, Philadelphia, PA 19147

Ishkabibble's

337 South St, Philadelphia, PA 19147

Geno's Steaks

1219 S 9th St, Philadelphia, PA 19147

Gooey Looie's

231 McClellan St, Philadelphia, PA 19148

Pat's King of Steaks

1237 E Passyunk Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19147

Kat'z Delicatessan

205 E Houston St, New York, NY 10002

Olympic Sub & Steaks

813 N Market St, Wilmington, DE 19801

Tony Luke's

39 E Oregon Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19148

So there they are listed in no specific order with photos and address. I won't give you a comprehensive list of 1 through 10, who has the cleanest bathrooms or anything like that. What I will do is give you the top 3 and some of the worst on that list.

So let's start with thee worst Philly Cheesesteak. Well I'll give you the two worst since they are the most recognized cheesesteak brands in the area. They're both located at "Cheesesteak Circle", and have the most online reviews out of all of the places I went to. They are also infamously named, "tourist traps" by everyone that knows their name. The award for worst cheesesteak in Philadelphia goes to:

Geno's Steaks! Congratulations for taking something so great and turning it into a pile of crap on a roll. So lit up with signage and advertising they now miss the entire point of what they are doing on that block because it certainly has nothing to do with producing a quality product. There is zero flavor in the steak, it's dried out and I bit into several gristle and fat pieces that just further added to the eneventful experience. It was like a well oiled machine that simply pumps out a product for its consumers. The second worst steak goes to:

Pat's King of Steaks! I don't know what happened to that place either. They too were dishing out a sub par performance in terms of quality. Totally dry as well and without any flavor. There is nothing worse in a steak than when you are continually chewing each piece to death just to break it down enough to where you can actually swallow it. Bad form, Geno and Pat! The neon lights and pageantry will not work for this fan of steak and you only took my money for the purpose of perspective from the full Philly steak experience. I guess in search of the best, I sought out the worst as well. To round off the list of worst steaks in Philadelphia is: Jim's Steaks. Well done Jim's, you successfully beat out two of your competitors for providing your fellow Philadelphians a non stellar steak! I wouldn't go as far as calling it dog meat or anything but it had a moment where I bite into the undesired. It held a little more flavor than the other two, but it too lacked flavor and was dry. I could only attribute that to the pile of precooked meat sitting on the grill. So with that all said, I move forward into something a little more positive, the "B" team! That team consists of the middle of the pack guys that don't got it down but are doing it right and both of those have to go to Katz Delicatessan and Tommy DiNic's. They both are experts in their respective fields and from having their best, I can say they were worthy of seeing whether or not they could do a steak right. They did! Nothing that had me at hello, but both places put out quite the beef steak! Great job you two!!!

Alright, here we go now. Counting backwards in a list of the top 3 best Philly Cheesesteaks!

3. Ishkabibbles

They have flavor and was one of a few places that don't overcook and completely dry out their steak. Coupled with really great shoestring potato French fries they take the bronze. Popular among locals and well reviewed, Ishkabibbles has two locations within a half mile of each other on South Street.

2. Sonny's Famous Steaks

An amazing cheesesteak on Market street and my first one on this quest. They have a great steak that was juicy and not dried out either. The fries too are also top notch shoestring cut fries. Nicely located on the end of market in the trendy area of Old City. If you're in the area, I highly recommend the pit stop of Mac's Tavern next door for a pint. The owners, also actors in the FX comedy series, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are the fine proprietors of this establishment and would be more than delighted to fetch you a flag of ale on your visit.

1. Gooey Looie's

Gooey Looie's are in a league of their own. When I say that, I mean Sonny's was a great steak, but this place off the beaten path of McClellan and 2nd are doing something to Cheesesteaks that no other place does. That's their secret, they know how to cook a steak to perfection without drying it out one bit but in fact it's done so amazingly, it retains all that gooeyness that's makes it so flavorful and juicy and they do it with an amazing white cooper sharp cheese that blows the doors off of American, provolone or whiz!

I had the privilege of getting the opportunity to share my story with the owner and talk shop and more importantly talk steak! I shared with him my mission and that it had officially been fulfilled once I ate at his grocery/sandwich shop. I told him that I was getting them plain, without peppers, onions or anything exotic that would skew my ability to judge the meal for what it is, "cheese" + "steak". I asked him if the original ingredients that go into one. The original cheese and what was with the whiz. It started with American and somewhere along the line whiz made it in there and here we are. He didn't recommend the whiz, which to me ruins it. It is alright but too much cheese whiz is just way too much to deal with. I can't even finish a steak that's topped with whiz. He did recommend the cooper sharp cheese and on my second visit, I indulged! He was right! That is the way a steak should be, so if your ever in area...STOP!!! GPS this place and go! They are the friendliest bunch of Philadephians I encountered in my time there and they also have this amazing local dessert called water ice that's a really tasty, post cheesesteak treat. It quenches without being too sweet. The prices are the fairest of them all and the staff are the best. Hands down, without a doubt, thee BEST Philly Cheesesteak out there. You guys are amazing, keep doing what you're doing, see you soon!

Thanks!

There you have it. My review. The best cheesesteak! I hope you enjoyed the read and get an opportunity to taste the steak for yourself. Cheers!

So here we are, the home stretch. I'm in my final two weeks of training at Amtrak's, Wilmington Training Facility. All preceding tests have been passed and am now approaching the final two that will send me home to see my family and continue into the next phase of the overall training process. I've made all my necessary checklist trips while out here on the East Coast and am ready to highball back to a more regular way of life.

I passed my most recent test in revenue with a 92%. I should have done a little bit better but I must get a little excited with those things because I typically answer one or two wrong on them even though I know the correct answer. I seem to get ahead of myself by reading the question and identifying the answer, yet I circle the wrong answer on tests. I did that twice. I even go back over each individual answer on the test to double check for mistakes or ones that I skip to answer later on. I passed nonetheless so ultimately that's all that matters. It still bothers me though that I regularly do that in test taking. With that said, the two most important ones remain: signals and operating rules. With signals, we need to know our respective territories signals by name and definition, word for word. With operating rules, we have a hundred question final that goes over everything from safety, movement, working limits, switching, restrictions and so forth. On the signals test we need to be able and pass it with 100%, the operating rules test requires us to pass with at least 88%. Up to this point, I'm feeling pretty confident that I will pass both of them. I've had my signals memorized pretty quickly since they were the same ones that I knew when I was working over with BNSF. I brushed up on them a couple weeks in and have occasionally gone over them just to stay on top of them. The operating rules that in learning are also the same ones that I trained with in Montana, so these two tests are very familiar to me as we go over all of the same information that I tested on over a year ago in Montana. I still understand its importance and am not overlooking it by any means. I'll browse over, have Siri read to me the rules as I ride the exercise bike. I'll test myself regularly when I'm on the train taking trips or if I'm in the car and even when I'm just lying in bed. I think I should be fine with it.

I have continued to take my off time very seriously as well. I've marked off my checklists on things to do and places to eat. So in my time here: I've gone to five different Major League Baseball parks, I've been to five of the oldest bars in America with the oldest one being built in 1674, I've eaten at eight different Philadelphia cheesesteak establishments for a future post on a review of "The Best Philly Chessesteak", I've been to the monuments, Smithsonian's, museums, observation towers, tourist points, historic grave sites, along with the most popular eating establishments that the major cities here have to offer. I've had a good time out here and have gotten to do a lot of neat things during this experience, I'll miss it a little bit. I think the luxury of being able to get on a train and have places like Philadelphia, DC, and New York at my disposal will be what I miss the most. It is definitely an experience in its own class in comparison to the training I took a year ago even though I've shared about the ironic similarities between the two. I definitely think about the experience in Montana a lot. The hands on work pops up a lot in my head during discussions. I miss it.

I am afraid of the next chapter, honestly. How does the next thirty years look like? Is this it? What will the dynamic of my family life look? An interesting road ahead for sure, I don't know how it looks or what is really driving me in this current moment other than its the road I've been traveling. I miss the fire department too. I really enjoyed everything about that work. One thing at a time, I suppose. One day at a time. Ten more of those until I get to see my kids. I look forward to that as I'm in this, the final countdown.