C.C. Pepper's Coast-to-Coast Cheesesteak

So, as strange as it may seem, the government is giving away free money in the form of stimulus checks. (I know, can you believe it?) Our check arrived on Thursday in the mail, so on Friday, among other errands, my husband and I ran into town and deposited the check into our accounts at a local bank.

The rest of what happened, well, you can blame it on the new mechanic.  My husband took one of our cars to a local guy for its inspection on Wednesday, and when he got there (just before 1 pm), the mechanic was eating a C.C. Pepper's cheesesteak. My husband said the whole garage smelled like it, and the scent was tantalizing!

And so it was that - after a break of I can't even tell you how long, possibly years - we got C.C. Pepper's cheesesteaks as our lunch treat. There have been C.C. Pepper's locations in State College as long as I can remember. At one point, there were at least FOUR of them. Now we are down to just one, on North Atherton, by the Walmart.

If we were eating in, we might be inclined to get the cheesesteak meal, which features one cheesesteak of your choice, a generous order of fries, and a drink. When I was a student at Penn State in the mid-80s, the C.C. Pepper's meal was about a once-a-week Friday night treat, on my limited budget.

But nobody is doing eating in these days. So my husband ran in, placed an order, and brought our cheesesteaks out to the car: California style for him (one he'd never tried before), and my favorite, Coast-to-Coast, for me.

California style has cheesesteak plus melted cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo. Philly style has cheesesteak plus melted cheese, fried onions, and tomato sauce. And Coast-to-Coast, which costs a bit more than either of those, is a combo of the two.

It is a great big mess to eat, as you can see above. But I put it on a frisbee and ate it all up! Hooray, what a good idea! Here's a song for a happy meal: Three Dog Night, with Joy to the World.

Prior Blips from C.C. Pepper's:
American Cuisine: the Cheesesteak
The Messy Feast: the Coast-to-Coast Meal at C.C.'s