Philly Homa

[SoonerDave]

So is 240 open yet?

[Martin]

So is 240 open yet?

i don't think so... 6 days ago, they posted on facebook that their two additional locations are "almost complete."

[TheTravellers]

Called to get takeout from the Paseo location and asked if they did curbside, they were totally confused about that. Then they said they were out of Cheese Whiz, would queso be OK instead. FAIL!

[catcherinthewry]

I went yesterday for lunch yesterday. Had a Philly with provolone sans mushrooms. The bread was good. The meat was well seasoned. They were a little skimpy on the peppers and onions, but that's not the worst thing in the world. Loved the location, but will be happy when they open on the south side.

[Pete]

Called to get takeout from the Paseo location and asked if they did curbside, they were totally confused about that. Then they said they were out of Cheese Whiz, would queso be OK instead. FAIL!

Virtually every restaurant with open dining rooms are not doing curbside pickup.

You are being overly critical of a place that just opened a couple of weeks ago.

[TheTravellers]

Virtually every restaurant with open dining rooms are not doing curbside pickup.

You are being overly critical of a place that just opened a couple of weeks ago.

Curbside - maybe, but tons of other places *are* doing curbside, including the Mayan and Red Rooster (Mayan might have an open dining room by now, not sure, but I don't think RR does yet), both just down the street. Saturn Grill has an open dining room and is doing curbside.

And BS on being overly critical of them - they've had a location in Edmond open for how long? They should know how to manage their inventory so they don't run out of one of the integral ingredients for an item that's literally part of their name. And even if they *do* run out, why can't they go to Homeland on 18th/Classen, or Eley's on 30th/May or any other grocery (or maybe dollar) store to pick up jars of it, that's *literally* what is used, it's not some special secret cheese that can only be whipped up by two people that know the recipe. There's no excuse for running out of Cheese Whiz, especially since it pretty much takes years to expire - load up on pallets of it, they'll use it all before it expires.

[keyboard]

Virtually every restaurant with open dining rooms are not doing curbside pickup.

You are being overly critical of a place that just opened a couple of weeks ago.

Well, it does claim to specialize in Philly cheesesteaks, and even proclaims so with its very name, but yet didn't even have all of the basic ingredients to make the most famous Philly cheesesteak, with Cheez Whiz. This might be disappointing for a potential customer who has never had a Philly cheesesteak before and wants to try one. Maybe it's a teachable moment.

In the meantime, where's Phil Me Up Cheesesteaks when you need them (https://www.facebook.com/phillmeupcheesesteaks/)? I myself prefer Chicago-style Italian beef, better quality and less greasy beef that hasn't been shredded to bits (I don't get the appeal of Cheez Whiz, either), and will make a point of visiting Cal's Chicago Eatery https://www.facebook.com/calseatery/.

[Pete]

This is a small, famiy-run restaurant that has been open for 2 weeks and ran out of one type of cheese while offering 9 other options. There could be a supply-chain issue for all we know... Why not give them the benefit of the doubt while they are in the process of opening?

And the Mayan's dining room isn't open, neither is Red Rooster. It's either curbside or dine-in; very very rarely both so to get angry at a place... Well, you are going to be angry about 98% of the time you order from a restaurant that has their dining room open. And yes, that type of absurd expectation is being overly critical.

Might want to stick to the drive-thru.

[TheTravellers]

This is a small, famiy-run restaurant that has been open for 2 weeks and ran out of one type of cheese while offering 9 other options. There could be a supply-chain issue for all we know... Why not give them the benefit of the doubt while they are in the process of opening?

And the Mayan's dining room isn't open, neither is Red Rooster. It's either curbside or dine-in; very very rarely both so to get angry at a place... Well, you are going to be angry about 98% of the time you order from a restaurant that has their dining room open. And yes, that type of absurd expectation is being overly critical.

Might want to stick to the drive-thru.

Well, it's not really either curbside or dine-in, it can be dine-in, take-out, drive-through, or curbside (as I said, Saturn Grill does all except drive-through 'cos they don't have one). And no, we're not doing dine-in for a while, we do the other three options. Not having curbside wasn't the dealbreaker, I would've walked in and gotten the takeout order, but not having one of the five main ingredients of their flagship product that they're named for is just bad management of some sort (unless there truly is a supply chain problem, but I have a hard time thinking that's the case). If they were a brand-new restaurant and not a new location of an existing restaurant, I'd cut them some slack (I always give brand-new places at least a month to get their **** together).

Glad that you're more forgiving of them than I am, but I've seen this "Sorry, we're out" at many places and most of the time it's just inexcusable. At the place that was in the Paramount bldg, they ran out of one of the liquor ingredients for a drink we had ordered one of and wanted another, but they said they were out and when I asked why they couldn't just go to the liquor store across the street and get some more, he explained it was something to do with ABLE (which may or may not have been true), so that was kind of excusable. When I tried to get a watermelon salad at Ned's one time, they were out of watermelon, and there's a Natural Grocers literally 2 blocks away they could've walked to and bought watermelons from, so that one's inexcusable (yes, watermelon was in season at the time).

As far as the 9 other options - if I ordered a BLT and they said they were out of lettuce (or mayo), would arugula (or mustard) do? No. If I wanted ice cream, but they said they were out, but they have 9 other flavors of soft-serve. No. We'll have to agree to disagree, I just hold places to higher standards than a lot of people, and my higher standards aren't really unattainable, I just don't settle like other people do, I'm not really very easy-going (I know, that's a shock).

[Pete]

Well, it's not really either curbside or dine-in, it can be dine-in, take-out, drive-through, or curbside (as I said, Saturn Grill does all except drive-through 'cos they don't have one). And no, we're not doing dine-in for a while, we do the other three options. Not having curbside wasn't the dealbreaker, I would've walked in and gotten the takeout order, but not having one of the five main ingredients of their flagship product that they're named for is just bad management of some sort (unless there truly is a supply chain problem, but I have a hard time thinking that's the case). If they were a brand-new restaurant and not a new location of an existing restaurant, I'd cut them some slack (I always give brand-new places at least a month to get their **** together).

Glad that you're more forgiving of them than I am, but I've seen this "Sorry, we're out" at many places and most of the time it's just inexcusable. At the place that was in the Paramount bldg, they ran out of one of the liquor ingredients for a drink we had ordered one of and wanted another, but they said they were out and when I asked why they couldn't just go to the liquor store across the street and get some more, he explained it was something to do with ABLE (which may or may not have been true), so that was kind of excusable. When I tried to get a watermelon salad at Ned's one time, they were out of watermelon, and there's a Natural Grocers literally 2 blocks away they could've walked to and bought watermelons from, so that one's inexcusable (yes, watermelon was in season at the time).

As far as the 9 other options - if I ordered a BLT and they said they were out of lettuce (or mayo), would arugula (or mustard) do? No. If I wanted ice cream, but they said they were out, but they have 9 other flavors of soft-serve. No. We'll have to agree to disagree, I just hold places to higher standards than a lot of people, and my higher standards aren't really unattainable, I just don't settle like other people do, I'm not really very easy-going (I know, that's a shock).

It's. Been. Two. Weeks.

And we're in the middle of a pandemic.

[TheTravellers]

It's. Been. Two. Weeks.

And we're in the middle of a pandemic.

OK, maybe I have no clue how restaurants with multiple locations work, I've only ever worked at restaurants that have a single location. Do new locations start from scratch or do they use the same policies, suppliers and managers as the other location(s)? I would assume they use existing managers, suppliers, and policies, but I don't know for sure, enlighten me? If they do use existing managers...., it's been 7 months that they've had their Edmond location open (I think they opened in 12/19), so they should know what they're doing by now.

Guess my expectations were too high and I should just not bother with any new locations or new restaurants until the pandemic is over. Hope the other two locations they have in the works figure out how to keep enough Whiz in stock by the time they open.

[Martin]

i happened to be in the paseo area today and was in the mood for cheesesteak, so we decided to check this place out with a to go order. the food was pretty solid in my opinion. we got their standard cheesesteak with provolone and an order of onion rings. i'd say it's one of the best cheesesteaks i've had in the okc area... the last places i've been getting them regularly are at texadelphia and jersey mikes, and this puts those two to shame. the beef, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and cheese all blended together to make a really tasty sandwich. i liked that the vegetables were chopped fairly small so that you don't end up with a huge onion and pepper string pulled out of the sandwich when you try to take a bite. the sandwich had a bit of grease (which is a necessity, imo) but not so much that the whole thing falls apart when you eat it. the baguette was really soft and tasted fresh. no complaints at all. the onion rings tasted as if they're fresh rather than frozen. it seemed that they used sweet onions rather than the typical yellow onions and they seemed to be hand battered. again, well executed.

hope the i-240 location comes to fruition... i look forward to hitting it up regularly.

[Martin]

just happened to be in the area today and found that the southside philly homa is open for business.

[catcherinthewry]

Went to Philly Homa in the Paseo and they were closed at noon yesterday. Anyone know what's going on?

[eeyore]

The Paseo location isn't listed on their website anymore.

[SEMIweather]

So they barely lasted three months? I'm honestly surprised they even bothered opening in the first place, but I guess there's no way to know when they signed their lease and whether or not they could get out of it.

[Martin]

i'd take that with a grain of salt... the south okc location is not listed and (as far as i know) is still open.

on the flipside of that, the paseo location's facebook hasn't had a post in a couple weeks.

[Jersey Boss]

S OKC had all CS for 6 bucks today. It was on their FB page

[Pete]

I confirmed they closed at the Paseo about a week and a half ago.

Because they replaced Buttermilk, they did virtually nothing aside from hanging menus and a sign. So, I guess business wasn't good and it was easy to pull up stakes.


As we all know, places like this have to promote themselves otherwise no one knows they are there or they forget about them.

[AP]

Dang, I went twice and really enjoyed it.

[Teo9969]

Dang...I was looking forward to having the philly loaded fries again, but just not sure I'm traveling all that distance for them.

Honestly not sure what they were expecting opening smack dab in the middle of a pandemic.

Also would have thought the Landlords would work to incentivize their stay until at least next spring. Commercial Real Estate just has to be an absolute disaster world wide right now.

[Pete]

^

They were given a very good deal on a brand new turn-key restaurant space.

In fact, it is once again available at reasonable terms for anyone who wants to step up.

[Teo9969]

What's a very good deal in this environment?

They obviously could have done more advertising - They likely just wanted to take a shot at the space to see if foot traffic, word of mouth, existent followers, and free social media advertising could drive some volume. It's not a terrible idea, but I understand their failure.

That being said, regardless of who goes in there, how much success is anyone going to have in the current environment?

[Pete]

That being said, regardless of who goes in there, how much success is anyone going to have in the current environment?

Chicken Foot at Chisholm Creek is absolutely killing it.

And plenty of other places are quite busy.

[PaddyShack]

Dang, we tried going a couple of times and they were always closed or were in the process of closing, mind you it was at least an hour before the close time on their door read.