Pat’s Steaks Owner Frank Olivieri Reveals the Truth About His Late Father
Frank Olivieri Sr., who died last week, put relish and mustard on his cheesesteaks and was secretly friends with Joey Vento, the late owner of "rival" Geno's.
Left: Frank Olivieri Jr. with Frank Olivieri Sr. in front of Pat’s Steaks in South Philadelphia in the early 1980s; Right: Frank Olivieri Sr. in his obituary photo
Last week, longtime Pat’s Steaks owner Frank Olivieri Sr. passed away at the age of 87. Here, his son and Pat’s Steaks heir Frank Olivieri Jr. shares memories of Frank Sr., aka the guy who wouldn’t give the Pope a free cheesesteak.
Frank, condolences on the loss of your father. When he died last week, I saw some posts on social media saying that the “inventor of the cheesesteak” had died. But that math doesn’t make any sense. Your father did not, in fact, invent the cheesesteak, right?
No, it was my great-uncle, Pat Olivieri, and my dad’s father, Harry Olivieri, back in 1930. Well, that’s when they came up with the steak sandwich, and years later, someone at Pat’s added cheese to it. My dad never really intended to get involved with the business. Like me, he started working at the store when he was 11 or 12 years old. But he wanted to be a lawyer. He wanted to go to Penn Law. But then Pat, when he was on his third marriage, went out to California and decided to purchase all these tracts of land there, and my father and Harry bought the business. I became a full partner in the ’90s and, about 10 years ago, sole owner of Pat’s.
And it was really under your father’s watch when the cheesesteak entered the modern era, when it became a “thing.”
Exactly. Cheesesteaks found their way onto the world stage after the first Rocky movie, in 1976. Pat’s was always popular, but after that, it became a destination, a place where famous people just had to go.
What else changed about the business during your father’s time there?
Cheez Whiz. A lot of people don’t realize this, but my dad was the first one to put Cheez Whiz on the sandwich. That was back in 1957. That was at a time when people would still socialize at home. You’d always have friends coming over the house, and they would bring snacks and dips. And someone brought over Cheez Whiz, and he tried it and realized it would be the perfect thing for the steaks. The customers loved it. We always had a vat of Cheez Whiz, and one day, someone dipped a French fry in it, and cheese fries were born.
Also born: high cholesterol.
[laughs] Pat’s Steaks is a vegan’s worst nightmare and a cardiologist’s wet dream.
Frank Olivieri — the current owner of Pat’s Steaks in Philadelphia — standing on a roof at the cheesesteak shop in 1982. / Photograph courtesy of Frank Olivieri/Pat’s Steaks
What was he like as a boss?
Oh. My. Gosh. He had an iron fist. He carried a key chain with maybe 7,000 keys on it, so we would hear him coming from the back office, and suddenly we’d pick up rags and start wiping things down, because you did not want him to catch you doing nothing. Oh, and he was really, really good at making sure everybody got charged for their sandwiches. When the Pope came to town last, his valet came to give us some Pope swag and pick up some sandwiches, and my father said to me, “You’re charging them for the sandwiches, right?” And I told him that they were for the Pope. And he said, “I don’t care who they are for: You charge them!” And I said, “Okay, dad. I’ll see you in hell, I guess.”
Oh my!
And I remember this time when I was 15. I was cutting bread. And you have to keep in mind that this building was pretty much exactly the same as it was in the 1800s. My father didn’t do any renovations. He didn’t make any upgrades. So I’m cutting the bread and all of a sudden I fall through the floor in the back. My knee is bleeding, and my father hands me a screwdriver and a pair of pliers and points to the stop sign at the corner and tells me to take the bolts off and bring it to him. So I do. As I’m bleeding. And then he screwed the stop sign to the floor to cover the hole. I’m not kidding! And there were also all these Cheez Whiz can lids covering all these other holes in the floor. He had screwed them all on there.
Much has been made about the rivalry between Pat’s and Geno’s. Did that begin when your father had the shop?
You bet. It started in the ’60s when Geno’s opened. Not because they were competition. My father didn’t mind the competition. Competition is a good thing. But Geno’s would put up these signs degrading Pat’s, like “You don’t have to order double-meat at Geno’s to get a real sandwich.” (My father was famous for putting barely any meat on the sandwiches.) Or “Geno’s is the Ace of Steaks,” the idea being that an ace beats a king. He never liked that kind of stuff. So it became a battlefield for a while. But later, they maintained the idea of the rivalry but were secretly friends. And they would get together and discuss raising prices together. I wouldn’t go so far to say that they were price-fixing, but … they’d both raise the price a nickel, and people would just go nuts. People still go bananas when I raise the price 20 cents. “Do you really need another house?” Yeah, I’m going to buy another house with your fucking 20 cents. Just look in between the cushions in your sofa.
I’ve had cheesesteaks with you before, so I know that you’re a meat, fried onion, salt, pepper and hot sauce kind of guy. What about your father?
Fried onions, dill relish, and Gulden’s spicy brown mustard.
My kids yell at me for putting Gulden’s on my cheesesteaks, so I’m glad I’m in good company. But I never tried relish.
I’m actually going to put it on the menu and call it the “Frank Sr.” Put on your snowshoes and come and get it.
Busy down there amid all this snow?
I’m in Palm Beach. But I can see the shop from the cameras, and all my employees are either eating or playing sudoku.
