Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [63]
Longacre’s Modern Dairy Bar
1445 Route 100
610–845–7551
Barto, PA
BLD (closed Sun) | $
The rolling land of eastern Pennsylvania, dotted as it is with black-and-white bossies roaming farm fields, is a perfect appetizer for one of Longacre’s excellent milkshakes or malts, or an old-fashioned ice cream soda in a tall tulip glass. If you need an ice cream dish that is more substantial, choose a sundae made from your choice of over a dozen flavors of ice cream and nearly two dozen toppings, including the usual fudge and marshmallow and butterscotch as well as such old-time fountain oddities as wet maple walnut and crushed cherries. The supreme such concoction is known as the Longacre Special (aka Garbage Sundae) and features ten scoops of ice cream, ten toppings, whipped cream, and a cherry, all served in a thirty-two-ounce goblet.
It is also possible to come to Longacre’s for a handy-size hamburger or hot dog, accompanied, of course, by a cherry Coke, vanilla Coke, or Hadacol (today, that’s a Coke and root beer combo; early in the twentieth century, it was an elixir loaded with alcohol).
We like the fact that Longacre’s little eating area—a short counter and a handful of booths—opens at 7:30 A.M., a time when most ordinary customers come for coffee and an egg sandwich. But the waitress assured us that it is not uncommon for the doors to open at dawn for customers who grab a booth or a stool at the counter and order up a cookie dough sundae or a CMP (chocolate marshmallow peanut sundae) for breakfast. Humankind’s fundamental need for excellent ice cream is a craving that cannot be controlled by the hands of a clock.
Lorenzo’s Pizza
900 Christian St.
215–922–3808
Philadelphia, PA
LD | $
Despite the name of this restaurant, we can tell you nothing about its pizza. We went there on a cheesesteak-eating expedition with the Roadfood.com team for the purpose of comparing it to the better-known shops around town. Located on a corner near the Italian market, it is a real neighborhood place with none of the tourist trade found elsewhere.
The steaks are made from frozen sheets of meat, which is not really a bad thing. After all, we are not talking about prime beef here. Anyway, the frozen sheets get thrown onto the grill along with a pile of raw onions. As the meat and onions sizzle together, the chef hacks away at them with a spatula, winding up with a hodgepodge of meat and soft-cooked onions. The aromatic combo is shaped into an oval about the length of the Italian bread for which it’s destined, and the oval is generously dolloped with molten Cheez Whiz. The cheese is insinuated into the hash, then the lengthwise-sliced bread is used to shovel up the whole mess and finally enclose it. We like this sandwich plenty; our Roadfood.com colleague Stephen Rushmore declared it the cheesiest steak in the city.
Marrone’s
31 W. Main St.
570–276–6407
Girardville, PA
LD | $
Pennsylvania has a pizza culture unlike any other place. There’s Philadelphia, of course, with many excellent examples of classic Neapolitan-American, thin-crust pie; and there is Old Forge, outside of Scranton, where the pizzas are thick-crusted and rectangular, available with toppings that range from bacon and eggs in the morning to Monterey Jack cheese and meatballs to Polish pizza with kielbasa and onion topping.
Marrone’s of Girardville, down in Schuylkill County, serves its own unique variation of Old Forge pizza. Presented on a thin sheet of paper in a metal pan, it is rectangular with a lightweight crust that is about a half-inch thick and crisp around the edges but chewy-bready toward the middle. Most regular pizza toppings are available in addition to the gobs of cheese that are standard, and on the side comes a plastic cup full of bright-red, crushed-pepper hot sauce. A plastic spoon is provided to spread the sauce atop the pizza, and it is a brilliant addition. The pizza is mild-mannered, the sauce packs a punch. What a nice duet!
Marrone’s is a seventy-plus-year-old, brick-front tavern where many people come only to drink