Big Shawn’s Cheesesteaks
4317 Kalamazoo Avenue SEI’m not sure what day it is right now or which city I’m working in. It’s been a helluva couple of weeks with a lot of overtime and a lot of travel.
I was in Grand Rapids last week working an evening shift filling in for a colleague. Another co-worker and I had an assignment in Kentwood which we finished up just before dinner time.
We were in an area that had a lot of dining options and I was hungry. I didn’t tell him what I was doing but I pulled in to a parking lot near the corner of Kalamazoo Avenue and 44th Street and told him I was getting dinner.
I stopped at Big Shawn’s Cheesesteaks. The small Philly cheesesteak restaurant is in that massive shopping center on the corner of 44th and Kalamazoo. Big Shawn’s is in the building on the Kalamazoo Avenue side. You can enter from either Kalamazoo Avenue, which only has a few parallel parking spots in the shopping center, or from the parking lot which is a lot easier to park on.
The restaurant is counter service and carry-out only. Most of the space is taken up by the kitchen. There is a large counter overlooking the kitchen and a small waiting area near the parking lot entrance. That’s pretty much the whole space.
The cash register is closer to the Kalamazoo Avenue side of the building. When I walked in, the person working the grill turned around to take my order while she was working on a couple of other sandwiches for a to-go order. I put in an order for an Original Cheesesteak and an order of fries. The cost was around $12.
It took around ten minutes for my order to be put together. I was always planning on taking it back to the office because my co-worker wasn’t hungry and didn’t end up ordering anything but there wasn’t really any place to eat even if I wanted to dine in.
I started with the fries on the ride back to the office. I don’t usually expect much from places like this in the fry department so I’m just happy if I get a good amount of fries and they have a little bit of salt on them. I got both from Big Shawn’s. They were frozen skin on fries and there was quite a few in the bag.
I really like the idea of cheesesteaks. Steak and cheese. What’s not to like? Well…onions. I don’t like onions. So I was really happy when I asked if it was possible to get the sandwich without onions and she said yes. Some places have them already mixed in with the meat but that was not the case here.
I only got a 6″ but I definitely should have went bigger. The sandwich is overflowing with tender seasoned steak and the melted cheese that oozed in to ever crevice made by the meat. The sandwich was so good. Cheesesteaks are a simple concept…steak and cheese..but it’s a simple concept that is oh so delicious.
Is it an authentic Philly Cheesesteak? Hell if I know. I’ve never been to Philadelphia. But I liked this sandwich a lot and that’s all that really matters.
SW Michigan Dining 