Today's paper had an article about Filling Philly's, a new restaurant featuring Philly cheesesteaks. The owner had gone to Philadelphia and researched a number of restaurants, trying to offer an authentic one here. She even imports the buns from a Philly bakery, yada, yada, yada.
Despite the obvious misspelling in her restaurant's name, I gave it a whirl by ordering a takeout that I could split with my wife. I wouldn't be able to eat there, I discovered, because of all the hard surfaces. It was so noisy I couldn't even hear the person taking my order--but I did see his lips move.
And despite the owner's predilection toward Cheez Whiz, I opted for a Classic with meat, onions, green peppers and provolone. I thought it was good, but not great. The bun seemed awfully soft (in fairness, it might have been the fault of the trip home) and at first I didn't see any cheese. That's because the slice of cheese was covered by the meat instead of vice versa.
I'll give them another in-house try, but it sure is hard to find a really good Philly, don't you think?