5 Ordering Tips For Getting The Best Philly Cheesesteak At Sheetz

If you've spent any amount of time in or around Pennsylvania, you know that when it comes to 24-hour gas station sandwich allegiances, you are either a Wawa person or a Sheetz person and there is no in-between. Loyalty to these two chains runs deep. People get tattoos. They get married at their favorite stores. But of all the deep lore and sectarian strangeness in the Sheetz/Wawa divide, one of the most surprising things is that while Wawa, of course, offers cheesesteaks on their menus, Sheetz does not.

Maybe it's a regional thing (Wawa has an iron grip on the Philadelphia region, after all, while Sheetz commands the outlying areas, and Pittsburgh), but whatever the reason, this doesn't mean that you can't get a cheesesteak at Sheetz. It just means that you need to design your own. 

The deep bench of potential ingredients and customization options available at Sheetz gives you the power to make some really interesting choices. However, the question then becomes how to make not just any old steak sandwich, but the best possible Philly cheesesteak with the tools available to you.

Sheetz has their menu divided into categories and sub-categories, most of them with cutesy names. There are "Subz" and "Shnacks," "Wrapz" and "Dipperz." What you're looking for here is the "Subz, Sandwiches & Wrapz" section. After that, the "Hot Subz, Sandwiches & Wrapz," and then "Made To Order Steak." 

The first option you have to consider is the roll. You can get a half-size, or have your steak on sandwich bread or in a wrap, but those are all ridiculous options. What you want is a full-size, white sandwich roll because that is the most traditional choice and provides a solid backbone for whatever cheesesteak shenanigans you're going to get up to moving forward.

There's also the option of having it on a pretzel roll, and honestly, that's not a bad choice either. Non-traditional, sure, but it's sturdy, has some chew to it, and it can hold the weight of whatever you're planning on cramming inside. Culinarily, it's a matter of taste. Philosophically, the question is whether or not a cheesesteak on a pretzel roll is simply too much Philly for a single sandwich. (And the answer is no. There is no such thing as too much Philly.)

Should you toast your cheesesteak? No. Absolutely not. Sheetz gives you the option to toast pretty much every sandwich on its menu, and while in many cases this is a great idea (because it adds a little texture and some structural integrity to the roll), this should never be done to a cheesesteak because its softness is part of its charm.

Both the making and the eating of a cheesesteak are greasy, messy processes, and the roll is partly there to act as a sponge to catch all that meat juice and melted cheese before it ends up on your shirt. A toasted roll is far less effective at doing that.

What's more, a cheesesteak is supposed to be warm and soft and comforting. It's last-call drunk food, or something you pick up on a lunch break and eat while walking. The nice soft roll? That's a big part of that. It's the fluffy jacket keeping all that meat and cheese warm when it's out in the cold, cruel world. And to add the crunch of a toasted roll to that just feels ... wrong.

Let's be honest here: There are no great cheese options at Sheetz for assembling a proper cheesesteak. In the vast cheesesteak discourse, arguments can be made for many cheese varieties that will work as the glue that holds these sandwiches together — both physically and spiritually — but the two most common choices are Cooper Sharp (an aged American cheese loved for its excellent meltiness and mild flavor) and Cheez Whiz, which is almost exclusively ordered by tourists and a small but dedicated cadre of purists who will swear that "Whiz wit" (steak topped with Cheez Whiz and wit' fried onions) is the one true way to the ideal cheesesteak. 

Surprisingly, for a place that has made the letter Z such a big part of its brand, Sheetz doesn't offer  Whiz. They also don't offer Cooper Sharp — or any other white American cheese substitute. They have the standard yellow-orange American slices, which have the right taste, but the color is jarring. And they have a liquid nacho cheese sauce which has the consistency of Whiz, but the wrong flavor.

Your best bet is to go with provolone or, if you're feeling a little spicy, the pepper jack. Sheetz's provolone is mild, so it doesn't add a lot of funk to the sandwich. Plus, the color is right. And the pepper jack, while a non-traditional choice, does add the tiniest of kicks to the flavor. One last thought: The sliced cheeses don't always melt well, so if getting that gooey texture of meat and cheese mixed together is important to you, order the shredded mozzarella blend instead.

At its most basic, a cheesesteak is sliced beef and melted cheese loaded onto a white hoagie roll and eaten on your couch while watching the Birds beat the Cowboys in a Sunday game at the Linc. But the most important thing about any cheesesteak is that it is your cheesesteak. And Sheetz allows you a hundred different ways to adjust the fidelity of a sandwich to make it your own.

Caramelized onions, which add a little textural variety and a sharpness that cuts through all that meat and cheese, are the most common add-on for a standard cheesesteak, and Sheetz makes those available. Roasted bell peppers and onions? Everyone in the world that's not from Philadelphia seems to believe that peppers belong on an authentic Philly cheesesteak, but everyone else in the world is wrong. They don't. But if that's your thing, they're available. If you want a cheesesteak done hoagie-style with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, and raw red onion, you can do that, too. Or what about ketchup and pickles, like a cheeseburger? Well, then you're a monster, but you do you.

If you're after something with a kick, there's Boom Boom sauce, sliced jalapeños, and banana pepper rings that'll make for a spicy cheesesteak that would horrify any local. For a thoroughly Mid-Atlantic experience, you can add a shake of Old Bay and eat it while complaining about the traffic on I-95. 

A cheesesteak with onions is great, but some people don't like the idea of limp, cooked onions mixed in with their steak. Solution: skip the caramelized onions and, for an extra $2, go for fried Onion Petalz on top of the sandwich instead, which give the same flavor and add a crunch. For the same texture (and some added spice), you could go with the breaded and deep-fried Jalapeño Fryz instead.

Another option? Add pepperoni. It sounds strange, but a little extra smokiness works well against all that steak and cheese, and it adds an extra layer of flavor to what is otherwise a fairly uncomplicated sandwich.

Finally, cheesesteaks are about excess — greasy, cheesy, delicious excess — so on any order, you can double-up on the steak. Granted, over the past year or so, customers have had complaints about the quality of the meat being used at Sheetz — calling it "gristly," "chewy," and "like wet cardboard." It seems like the chain has changed it more than once recently, and there are loyalists who still swear by it, but let's be honest here: no gas station cheesesteak is ever going to be as good as one from your favorite neighborhood spot. But sometimes the best cheesesteak is the one that's right in front of you, so at midnight on a Tuesday or coming home after a long day at work, Sheetz can be a dependable — and more importantly, available — option for getting exactly the cheesesteak you need, when you need it.