Food & Music Fest Bite Spotlight: Tony Luke's

Editor's note: Earlier this month, we announced that Serious Eats would be cohosting the Great American Food & Music Fest. Each week until the event, we'll spotlight a different food purveyor that will be participating. Today we have ...

Tony Luke's roast pork sandwich

A Tony Luke's roast pork sandwich is, as Adam Kuban noted in a recent post, "pretty near perfect." And his cheesesteaks are damn fine as well. So when we were putting together our list of preferred sandwich purveyors for the Great American Food & Music Fest, Tony Luke's was at the top.

What makes Tony Luke's sandwiches so great? The pork is sliced really thin but remains moist. As for the bread I will defer to my colleague Mr. Kuban:

"The vehicle for delivery is that same signature bread used for the city's cheesesteaks. Indeed, this bread seems like it was almost made for a roast pork Italian, since it's soft enough inside to soak up the sandwich's juices but just crisp enough outside to rein it all in—stopping well short of the mouth-damaging crustiness of a baguette. And the proportions are all in balance—not too much bread, not too much filling, no ingredients falling out of an overstuffed sandwich."

The sharp provolone lends the sandwich some much-needed bite and tang, and the broccoli rabe adds just the right touch of bitterness.

And Tony Luke's cheesesteaks? To my way of thinking, they're better than the holy trinity of Philadelphia cheesesteak emporia, Pat's or Jim's or Geno's. I know to some Philadelphians I'm spouting cheesesteak heresy here, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Great American Food & Music Fest host Bobby Flay found out the hard way about Tony Luke's. He lost a Philly cheesesteak throwdown to Tony Luke's last year.

There are no plans for Bobby and Tony to renew their rivalry at the fest, but if they ever did I would surely volunteer to judge.

Remember, tickets for the Great American Food & Music Fest, on June 13 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California, start at $35, which includes all ticketing fees and, more important, your first Tony Luke's sandwich or cheesesteak.

Here's more info on the Food & Music Fest. And you can buy tickets here. Hope to see many serious eaters there. We can share a Tony Luke's roast pork sandwich.

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