A Philly-themed restaurant called Passyunk Avenue is opening in London
– Patricia Madej
Teti, 39, grew up in Lawrenceville, N.J. But his family has deep Italian roots in South Philly, and he’s now earning recognition for the City of Brotherly Love’s signature sandwich recognition.
He launched Liberty Cheesesteak Company, a food truck parked in London’s Old Spitalfields Market, in 2015 after leaving the corporate world, with hopes of helping Brits understand that it’s not all hamburgers and hot dogs in America.
Now, with the help of a few investors, he’s expanding and rebranding next month to a brick-and-mortar location called Passyunk Avenue in London’s Fitzrovia neighborhood that will feature not just cheesesteaks, but also roast pork and meatball sandwiches, soft pretzels, citywide specials and scrapple.
Teti, who has lived in London for nearly 10 years, hopes to give off a dive-bar vibe, which he called “a concept that’s not really understood in Europe.”
The cheesesteak recipe he crafted — complete with thinly sliced rib-eye beef, soft Italian rolls and a housemade cheese whiz — has garnered a few accolades. Buzzfeed ranked it as the No. 1 sandwich that “every Londoner needs to eat” in 2015, while The Londonist named Teti’s cheesesteak as one of the 100 best sandwiches in London last year.
(The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2018, United Kingdom, <https://www.inquirer.com/philly/food/passyunk-avenue-opening-london-liberty-cheesesteak-company-restaurant-20180116.html>)
