Have I got a story to tell you
Did I always love Cheesesteaks, Yes
Did I always video and grade every cheesesteak I ate, No
Incase you don’t make it to the end of ‘the story of me;’
Philadelphians love cheesesteaks because they are embedded with our happiest memories.
Here is a link to my all time favorite cheesesteak story. It includes cutting school, a bank robbery and my uncle Tom.
Here is a link to my favorite cheesesteak story from my adventure. It revolves around dad’s and car shows.
The story of me. Before the adventure I lived a ‘by life’s checklist’ life. My favorite cheesesteak was my dad’s favorite cheesesteak. I graduated from college. I went to work with my dad. I met a girl. We got married. We bought a house. We had babies. We spent Saturday mornings at the soccer fields. We joined Disney’s Vacation Club. Our older daughter went away to college. Her sister was right behind her. My wife wanted to go back to work. I had a health scare and got downsized after 25 years in my corporate career. I thought this was the perfect opportunity for my wife and I to do something fun, creative and different together. On the soccer field sidelines, I would say something ridiculous, she would do a big eye roll and everyone would die laughing. I thought we were a modern day George Burns and Gracie Allen. I’ll wait while you google them. She didn’t like that plan. I wasn’t going back to a corporate job. We separated.
I moved back to the Philadelphia Area to decide what I was going to do next. I met my ex-new best friend. We wanted to do stuff together but didn’t know what. Claymont Steak Shops held a special place in each of our hearts. We decided we would ask family and friends who made their favorite cheesesteak. We would go try the cheesesteak and then find something to do in that area. I ride share drive. I started asking my riders who made their favorite cheesesteak. Their passion for cheesesteaks came flying out of my back seat and I realized this was more than something to do with my ex-new best friend.
I was on Facebook but Instagram and Twitter were new to me. I did some market research, ie. I looked to see what other people were doing on social media with cheesesteaks. I saw a lot of young attractive fun people posting about cheesesteaks but no one had a detailed scoring system or was tracking the cheesesteaks they ate. I needed to create a niche for myself. I created my 5 category 100 point scoring system and a spreadsheet to score and track the cheesesteaks I ate. 5/16/2018 I ate my first official Philadelphia Cheesesteak Adventure Cheesesteak. Fun side stories about ordering business cards and scoring my first cheesesteak for another time
My first ‘best of’ list and eating my 1,000th different cheesesteak got a lot of media attention. My subsequent ‘best of’ lists, 2021 Cheesesteak Calendar and drive to 1,000 campaign not so much attention.
2024 will be our 4th March Cheesesteak Madness, MCM. MCM is a 64 cheesesteak bracket style tournament. It mirrors the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament. We select a People’s Champion and a Judge’s Champion. The people’s champion is selected by online voting. The judge’s Champion is selected by Judge’s that go out and eat every cheesesteak. All of the videos for March Cheesesteak Madness are on my YouTube channel.
My YouTube Channel, Philadelphia Cheesesteak Adventure, has a video for everything I’ve done. I made playlists.
There is a Podcast in the works. Call me, 732-226-3140, if you want to talk cheesesteaks.
Special Thank you to the Pat McAfee show and specifically the Aaron Rodgers book club. Don Miguel Ruiz’s book, The Four Agreements should be mandatory reading for all humans. It should be a High School class with passing being a graduation requirement. Mental Health is real. We are all living our lives based on misconceptions, labels and stuff we heard on the playground as kids. I’d like to form the new AA. New Adults Anonymous, a 12 step program to help new adults recover from adolescents. 1,100 different cheesesteaks and this is what I got. Life is full of plot twists.
Thanks for reading!! I hope to hear from you!!