This week’s lunch was held at the long established Allen's Grille & Grog, 9076 Madison Blvd. This was a place I used to frequent when single, indulging far too much in beer and Van Halen jukebox songs. So this was something of a homecoming for me. The place, in a word, is a bar. There’s no way to really sugar coat that part of it. There’s smoking, there’s pool tables, and there’s the general sense of decay that comes with old paneling and alcohol. In other words, I love this place. That said, the menu is pretty generous, providing a bit more than simple pub-grub, including pot roast which almost tempted a couple of us to stray from our Tour-de-Sandwich path.

Our sandwich choice here was the Philly Cheesesteak. We were supposed to order it with extra mushrooms and an ice cold Heineken. Most of us did get the extra mushrooms, but none opted for the beer since we all wanted to pretend we were returning to a hard afternoon of diligent work. But before we could order ours, another table full of 6 or 8 robust fellows all ordered the same sandwich. The waitress, told us that the group comes in each and every week to order the same sandwich. This, I would think, speaks well of the Philly at Allen’s.

So the sandwich itself was substantial and quite tasty. The general feeling was that it was good, large and filling – well worth the visit, but perhaps not as interesting or unusual as we might have hoped for. We sort of decided that we’ve all had so many Philly’s over the years, perhaps we had too many other data points. For example, several of our party (myself included) have been to the City of Brotherly Love and “dined” at either Pat’s or Geno’s, so we may have set the standard a little higher than necessary. I think in retrospect, the Heineken was a missing critical ingredient.