The World's Largest Philly Cheesesteak Wasn't From Pennsylvania

Anyone in Pennsylvania, especially in the Philadelphia area, likely has a passion for Philly cheesesteak. Since cheesesteaks became an iconic Philadelphia sandwich, there has been much debate over which restaurant serves the best cheesesteaks in Philadelphia. However, many venues across the country make amazing cheesesteak sandwiches of their own, and even celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain's favorite cheesesteak wasn't from Philly. Judging the best may be subjective, but determining the largest in the world is measurable. Interestingly, the feat has been achieved in Idaho rather than Pennsylvania.

In Lewiston, Idaho, the Main Street Grill made a 722.8-foot Philly cheesesteak sandwich in less than 40 minutes on August 26, 2023, during the small city's summer festival. The diner, which opened in 1988, is part of the Happy Day Restaurants family, whose executive chef, Frank Webster, told The Lewiston Tribune, "We won the highlight with the No. 1 sandwich we do at Main Street Grill, which is the Philly, and (to) be able to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club and bring down something to the Hot August Nights. It's a win-win."

This world record comes on the heels of Steak Thyme Bar & Grill in Miamisburg, Ohio, making a huge 650.3-foot cheesesteak just a few months prior as part of a one-year anniversary celebration. However, don't think that Philadelphia doesn't have any skin in the game. More than a dozen of the city's restaurants and national chefs gathered in 2021 to make a 510-foot cheesesteak, the longest at the time, through the Italian Market as part of one of the restaurant owners' birthdays and a chance to bring people together.

It was no easy task to create the longest Philly cheesesteak ever. From the start, some of the Main Street Grill team quickly got to work lining up 40 cases of hoagies in a snake pattern on tables so that each end was touching, a requirement that Webster said the Guinness World Book of Records stipulated to produce one contiguous sandwich.

Meanwhile, other team members got busy preparing over 360 pounds of meat, over 300 pounds of vegetables, and nearly 70 pounds of hot Monterey Jack cheese sauce, the latter of which is different from the Swiss that the diner prefers but helped keep the sandwich warm. In any case, this wasn't your typical at-home Philly cheesesteak recipe.

Webster noted that Guinness didn't stipulate a time limit, but his own goal was 41 minutes, which they undercut by four minutes. By comparison, the longest cheesesteak made in Philadelphia in 2021 took two hours to complete. However, Guinness did require that the entire challenge be filmed, including the measuring. He told The Philadelphia Inquirer, "There are so many things you have to do in order to capture a record. We had to fill out paperwork and had to videotape actually making the product from start to finish."