A year or so ago, Bobby and I decided to take a day trip that landed us in Twinsburg, Ohio so that we could try a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. Bobby had done a search for the best Philly Cheesesteak in Ohio and The Original Steaks & Hoagies was by far the most recommended. (You can read about the adventure here.)
One of the owners saw Bobby’s post and put it on the company’s website. Bobby saw that and they became Facebook friends. Because of that, one of the owners, Jeff Wiseman, invited Bobby to like the Facebook page for the new Fairlawn location. Fairlawn is much closer to Wooster than Twinsburg. Not only that, but they were holding a “soft opening” on March 22 and 23, and we were invited! We decided that it would make a great date night at the end of the week. Bobby took it another notch when he invited our good friends, Ron and Jan Maxwell, to join us.
We always have a great time when we are with Ron and Jan. Our personalities just click. So as we talked on our way to the restaurant, laughter filled the car. But when Ron said, “I’ve never been to a soft opening in my life. Put that in your blog!” we cracked up.
To be honest, I think I’ve only been to one other soft opening before and that was years ago in Cincinnati. And for those of you who aren’t sure what that means, it is when a restaurant invites people to come and try it out to give their staff an opportunity to learn the ropes and to work out the kinks before the official opening. The food is usually discounted so the patrons understand that if the wait is longer or the orders aren’t exactly right, it is part of what they agreed to when coming to the soft opening.
When we got there, around 7 p.m. on Friday, March 23, the place was busy. We had to wait in line to order. The interesting thing is that as we walked from our car to the restaurant, which is in a little strip mall on Market Street, we passed two other restaurants. We could see inside and both places had either no patrons or just one or two people inside. Then The Original Steaks & Hoagies was a center of bustling activity.
So how was the food? Just as good — no, even better than it had been in Twinsburg. Of course, this time we weren’t eating it in the car (which if you read the post about the Twinsburg restaurant you’ll know why we ate in the car.) That meant the food was nice and hot and fresh off the grill. But different from Twinsburg, this location had fresh cut fries. (Yep, my favorite!) Plus they had Whizzy Tots. It is something new that Jeff and his partner put on the menu.
We all got a variation of the cheesesteak, because really, how can you come to a cheesesteak place — at least for the first time — and not get cheesesteak? Ron selected The Original which comes with fried onions, mushrooms, hot and sweet peppers and choice of cheese. Ron doesn’t like yellow cheeses, so he went with provolone.
Jan and Bobby went for the basic cheesesteak with just steak and provolone. Bobby ordered for me, as I was making sure we had a table to sit down and, yes, it was that busy. This time he let me have mushrooms on my sandwich, so I got the cheesesteak with provolone and mushrooms. We all got the large size, which is crammed full of meat and cut in two and just $1 more than the small. The 100 percent ribeye meat was very tender. Ron stated that the hot peppers on his sandwich were pretty hot. (So buyer, beware!) The bread is nice and hardy. Strong enough to hold the contents that are put on it. Soft enough that it doesn’t break your teeth biting into it. And they are made in Philadelphia.
In addition to the huge sandwiches, both couples ordered the fries and the Whizzy Tots. None of knew what to expect with the Whizzy Tots, but we’re all fans of tater tots. So when the food came out and we had these large, round, deep fried things, we weren’t sure what we got. Had the restaurant messed up and given us something else? Had we ordered the wrong thing? To me it looked like fried macaroni and cheese. But nope, the tots are Cheese Whiz and shredded potatoes deep fried. The reactions around the table were mixed on how well we like the tots. We enjoyed them as they were pretty tasty, but some of us expressed that we like our tots a little more firm. Maybe this is why the restaurant lists the Whizzy Tots under “Starters” and not under “Fries.”
We had a chance to talk with Jeff on of the owners (Bobby’s Facebook friend). He said the last two days had been phenomenal. They had been crazy busy and they weren’t even officially open yet. They are opening on Saturday, March 24 which is National Cheesesteak Day.
When asked about their slogan “From Philly to the Land” Jeff said he came up with that one day. He liked it because he was bringing authentic Philly Cheesesteak to Cleveland area. The maps on the wall and the skyline outlines of both Philadelphia and Cleveland are a nice touch.
We left the restaurant completely full. While Bobby had encouraged us to “go big or go home” we had kind of wished we had decided on the small sandwiches instead of the large. But we were all pleased to be part of their soft opening. And however busy it was on Friday, I bet Saturday it will be more. So I’ll stay home and let the die-hard cheesesteak fans take my place in line. Oh, I almost forgot, if you are in the Fairlawn area, The Original Steaks & Hoagies offers delivery. Type in your phone “Uber Eats” and Fairlawn and you’ll find them. So maybe you won’t have to stand in line after all!
Please note that the above map gives the general location of the shop. However, to help you further navigate, it is a strip mall in front of the Sam’s Club/Walmart Plaza. It is the one with the Verizon store.
