Philly Steaks and Fresh Lemonade
5404 West 25th StreetThe unplanned trip home. Never for anything fun.
One of my aunts passed away last weekend and I needed to get home for the funeral. My company doesn’t do bereavement for extended family members so I worked something out with my boss. I’d work a half day on Wednesday then make up the remaining hours Friday evening.
I left work about 1 PM on Wednesday to make the three hour and fifteen minute drive to Livingston County, IL. I stopped along the way at Taco John’s in Michigan City for lunch then spent a little over three hours at the funeral home. I still had to drive back to Kalamazoo that night because I had to be at work the next day.
I left Illinois around 7 PM. I had snacked at the funeral home but was hungry. I keep seeing billboards on my drive to Chicago for a restaurant just off the highway in Gary. It’s a sandwich shop and I do love sandwich shops….so I finally made the time to stop.
Philly Steaks and Fresh Lemonade is in a small strip mall on the corner of 25th Avenue and Burr Street in Gary. The plaza is just north of the interchange with I-94 and is nestled amongst the truck stops at the exit. The building is really close to the road but there is still just enough room for one row of parking right off 25th Avenue.
The restaurant is set up like a lot of Chicago area sandwich shops. There’s a long stainless steel counter in the back of the space with menu boards on monitors above the counter and off to the side. Philly Steaks is in the name but there is a huge menu of Chicago staples to choose from.
The restaurant is pretty large and has quite a bit of seating. That’s something that is kind of unusual in places like this. A lot times, they will be take out only or have very minimal seating. Philly Steaks and Fresh Lemonade has about half a dozen very large tables lined up three to a side in the store.
Each of the tables is a half circle with the store’s logo on it. There are restaurant style chairs on one side and a long, curved leather bench on the other side. The furniture has definitely seen better days but it’s still surprising to me that they had so much sit down room.
I put in an order for an Italian beef (baptized and hot), an order of fries and a Pepsi. The cost was a little over $13. This is a sandwich that I can’t eat in the car so I took a seat at one of the tables and waited for my number to be called.
When my food came up, I popped open the Styrofoam and was shocked at how much food their was for less than $15. The fries were piled high in the box. They weren’t good fries. They were frozen shoestring fries but there was a lot of them. They could have used more salt and probably something to dip them in but I’m not a ketchup guy and that’s all that was in the box. They were fine for what they are. The takeaway here is that there was a lot of them and the fries really helped fill me up.
The Italian beef was a mess and that’s exactly how I like it. The French roll had been obliterated by the gravy by the time I went to pick it up. All that beefy, oregano-y goodness had soaked in to the bun making it a challenge to eat like a normal sandwich but giving the bread that delicious tenderness I crave in Italian beefs. The meat itself was kind of disappointing. It tasted like it came from a Vienna beef kit. That’s not a bad thing. It’s just not as good as beef made and sliced in house. The sandwich was topped with a plethora of hot, pickled vegetables. Giardiniera is something that isn’t really recognizable to people outside of Chicago but it’s really the condiment that makes Chicago food what it is. I could almost eat this stuff right out of the jar. It’s so good and adds such a spicy goodness to anything it touches.
Philly Steak and Fresh Lemonade satisfied a craving for me. It’s not the best beef I’ve had but it’s still a beef and better than almost anything I can get in Michigan. I’m always looking for beef places right off the highway when I make the drive to and from Chicago. I’ve seen the billboards for this place for several years and was always curious about it. Now I know I can grab a beef and get back on the highway pretty easily.
SW Michigan Dining 