The important happening to cognize astir Danny & Coop’s, the caller Philly-cheesesteak edifice successful the East Village co-owned by Bradley Cooper, of the piercing bluish eyes and the sizeable acting-directing chops, is this: the cheesesteak is good. It’s very good. It’s a hefty twelve-incher, the rotation divided lengthwise and filled with a glorious gloop of food (smooth and saucy Cooper Sharp, nary narration to Bradley) and sliced rib-eye steak (tender, velvet-soft, paper-thin) tally done with saccharine ribbons of griddled onion. It’s the champion cheesesteak I’ve had successful New York, which isn’t saying much; it’s conscionable arsenic bully arsenic the champion 1 I’ve had successful Philadelphia, which is saying plenty.
Cooper’s spouse astatine Danny & Coop’s is the chef-cum-baker turned restaurateur Danny DiGiampietro, of Angelo’s Pizzeria, which makes the champion cheesesteak I’ve had successful Philadelphia. Opened successful 2019, Angelo’s is simply a bold, baldly ambitious newcomer successful a metropolis that (like each cities) tin astatine times beryllium self-defeatingly successful emotion with its ain traditions. The edifice serves terrific pizza and adjacent amended cheesesteaks that gully agelong lines moving down the thoroughfare or, immoderate days, up the thoroughfare the different way, conscionable to support beingness interesting. DiGiampietro’s absorption connected prime (“He conscionable makes cleanable food,” a instrumentality erstwhile raved successful the Philadelphia Inquirer) upended a cheesesteak tract stultified by the sodium-laden clichés of “wit’ wiz” and gummy concern steak. His precocious standards for the insides of the sandwich are a just portion of Angelo’s magic, but the existent occurrence is his bread: graceful torpedoes of flour and yeast and dough, the crust baked to a crisp, autumnal golden-brown and dusted with sesame seeds, the interior some brushed and dense, sour and salty. Most breadstuff utilized for cheesesteaks tastes similar nothing; it serves arsenic a instrumentality and a handhold. DiGiampietro’s breadstuff tastes similar bread, similar prima connected a wheat field, similar the mysteries of fermentation, similar brackish and steam and the hot, mysterious acheronian of the oven.
Bradley Cooper, upon whom I, a sandwich obsessive, privation lone blessings—may helium person each Oscar his bosom has ever desired; I adjacent forgive him for serving a runny ovum yolk connected a perforated sheet successful the movie “Burnt”—grew up conscionable extracurricular Philadelphia. Perhaps unsurprisingly, helium seems to attack cheesesteaks with the aforesaid strength that helium brings to his directorial endeavors and his awards-season campaigns. Danny & Coop’s originated successful 2023, arsenic a pop-up nutrient motortruck successful New York, with Cooper manning the flattop. At the brick-and-mortar spot, arsenic with the truck, overmuch of the hype (and, I assume, overmuch of the sizeable line) was related to his celebrity. Especially successful the restaurant’s aboriginal weeks, Cooper was regularly successful the kitchen, moving the grill with vigor, occasionally breaking to airs for selfies. He’s determination little often now, but the wait’s grown nary shorter—forty-five minutes connected 1 of my visits, a small implicit an hr connected another. Increasingly, the sandwich itself is the draw. Down to the tiniest sesame seed, it is astir identical to the 1 served astatine Angelo’s. There’s that heavenly bread—baked in-house, to DiGiampietro’s exacting specifications—stuffed with that creamy colloidal dispersion of nutrient and cheese; it’s adjacent somewhat under-seasoned, conscionable arsenic it is astatine Angelo’s, with a paleness of spirit that tin effect from excessively galore affluent ingredients successful excessively large a quantity. But the deficiency of brackish is easy remedied with the exertion of pickled peppers, your prime of blistery oregon sweet. (I similar hot, which are sharper and much vinegary.) The lone existent difference, betwixt the 1 present and the 1 there, is that the onions astatine Danny & Coop’s are mixed successful with the beef connected the griddle, portion successful Philly they’re cooked and added separately.
It’s really beauteous casual to hop down from New York to Philadelphia—it tin instrumentality maine longer to get from Park Slope to Greenpoint, depending connected the affectional authorities of the subway—but the East Village is simply a simpler proposition. Still, for each the raptures this cheesesteak sent maine into, I consciousness a unusual unease astir New York City being location to 1 of the finest examples of Philadelphia’s astir iconic food. (This is the aforesaid disquietude I consciousness astir the Chicago-style pizza astatine Emmett’s, which I similar to astir Chicago-style pizza successful existent Chicago—the brushed imperialism of New York City!) The sandwich whitethorn beryllium the Angelo’s sandwich, but the acquisition isn’t the Angelo’s experience: the enactment is simply a precise East Village line, gray-toned wherever South Philly is successful lukewarm browns and reds, litter-strewn, harder-edged. The constrictive store is bare bones, with a corrugated-metal ceiling, ceramic walls near mostly empty, and nary seating. The interior is fractional taken up by the kitchen, positive an ordering antagonistic and brief, shallow ledges for eating-in. There’s a spot of a provisional feeling to it all: the edifice is simply a restaurant, but it’s besides benignant of inactive a pop-up, with each the scrappiness that entails. It’s unfastened 3 days a week; affable reminders of dates and times are issued via a Danny & Coop’s Instagram account, which doesn’t different look to beryllium excessively meticulously maintained. The sandwich, I should person mentioned, is the lone happening connected the menu. It’s the lone happening that gets lavished with attention. It’s the lone happening that truly matters. ♦
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