Jim’s West Scores Yet Another Legal Win Against Delco Jim’s Steaks

Left: Cortez Johnson in front of his West Philadelphia cheesesteak shop Jim’s West. (Photo by Victor Fiorillo) | Right: The Jim’s Steaks in Delco. (Google Maps)

And you thought the Delco Pooper story had a lot of installments! She’s got nothing on the drama between two Jim’s cheesesteak shops in the Philadelphia area. I started covering the legal battle between Jim’s West on 62nd Street in West Philadelphia and Jim’s Steaks in Delco way back in September 2023. And I definitely didn’t expect to be covering it in the blazing summer of 2025. But that’s where we are.

If you already know what I’m talking about, you might want to scroll down a few paragraphs. Otherwise, I’ll summarize as briefly as I possibly can.

Carl Proetto owns the Jim’s Steaks in Delco, which has nothing to do (at this point) with the Jim’s Steaks on South Street. In the 1960s, Proetto’s dad, Bill Proetto, bought the original Jim’s Steaks at 431 North 62nd Street from its original owner, who opened it in 1939. So the shop goes way, way back.

Cortez Johnson, a filmmaker who now lives in Delco, grew up around the corner from the 62nd Street Jim’s Steaks. He bought the original Jim’s Steaks building from members of the Proetto family in March of 2023 and opened it in August of that year under the name “Jim’s West Steaks and Hoagies.”

Proetto took immediate action. His lawyer sent cease-and-desist notices to Johnson, telling him that under no circumstances could Johnson operate a cheesesteak shop at that location and call it Jim’s. Johnson disagreed, believing he was allowed to do so, and open he did. He hired some of the cooks who worked at Jim’s before it closed in 2019, and Jim’s West was an immediate hit, as the social media-savvy Johnson plastered all over the Jim’s West Instagram page, which quickly garnered more than 20,000 followers. (The Delco Jim’s has less than 3,000.)

Johnson soon found himself in court, unrepresented. Proetto sought an emergency injunction that would have forced Johnson to shut Jim’s West down, but the judge ruled against Proetto, saying that Proetto had failed to show that Jim’s West had caused “irreparable harm” to the Jim’s Steaks in Delco. The judge also showed much concern over the agreement of sale and deed presented in court on the day of the hearing, finding considerable differences between some of the language in the two documents.

Undeterred, Proetto pursued a lawsuit, asking a judge to bar Johnson from using “Jim’s” in any way, shape or form. But earlier this year, the judge ruled against Proetto, pointing out that “Jim’s Steaks” is not trademarked and that Proetto has no problem with the Jim’s Steaks on South Street using the Jim’s name. Proetto also tried to convince the judge that he suffered emotional distress when he saw an armed guard outside of Jim’s West on the news, but she wasn’t impressed. And while Proetto testified that his Delco shop lost business due to Johnson opening Jim’s West, the judge found no evidence of that. And just like that, Proetto lost his case.

But would that be the end of it? No!

Proetto just couldn’t let this thing go, so his attorney filed an appeal with the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. On April 8th, the court told Proetto that it was going to dismiss his appeal unless he showed adequate reason for it not to do so. The court gave him a chance to do just that but, in the end, Superior Court quashed the complaint, saying that Proetto hadn’t met the criteria for a successful appeal. That happened earlier this month.

So what’s next? Johnson’s attorney Alex Palmer says he considers the matter closed but points out that Proetto could escalate this mess to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. But our supremes only accept a very, very small number of cases. I reached out to Proetto’s attorney to see if he planned to do so but got no response.

My advice? As someone who has been to Jim’s on 62nd Street and Jim’s in Delco in recent weeks for a forthcoming cheesesteak story, I’d have to suggest that Proetto cut his losses and focus on food quality and customer service at the Delco location, because Johnson hasn’t just beaten him in court: he’s beaten him there as well.