Thursday, September 23, 2010

George's Lunch Truck

Double bacon cheeseburger (George's)

I'll never be a professional food writer. I have neither the qualifications, nor the talent in writing to ever make money doing this, and I'm okay with it. So while Sam Sifton can afford the luxury of being paid to shit all over fancy pants restaurants, I do not. As a direct result of this misfortune, when I go out to eat, my first priority falls on the wallet, with taste being secondary (sad... I know). Luckily, I like food... in all forms. Yes, expensive restaurants certainly have their niche in my book, but like Danny, fast food and generally boring stuff is fine with me too. Shit, I'm a grad student, and like I said, I don't get paid to eat.

This is where George's fits in. If you're looking for the holy grail of cheesesteaks, burgers, or sandwiches... feel free to stop reading now. Actually, if you're even looking for an above average meal, you can probably skip this post. Nope, I'm gonna dedicate this one to all the broke ass students who are sick of dining halls. George's is a food truck that specializes in American cuisine, which apparently just means sandwiches and burgers, for prices that keep my checking account adequately full. Sort of. For example... for just $3.75, you can get a bacon double cheeseburger (see above). Like I said, it's not spectacular. In fact, calling it good would probably be a lie. If I had to find a comparable, it's like a better version of a whopper with bacon, which isn't all that awful. The meat is of the frozen sort, and then cooked through and through, but if we consider the fact that it's only $3.75... it's looking pretty decent now no?

George's plain cheesesteak

For the same $3.75 you could also get the cheesesteak. Melted white American cheese, a generic 10" hoagie roll, onions, and frozen chopped steak. The recurring theme here is that it's not spectacular, but it's cheap as hell. In a straight comparison of food, Steak Queen kicks George's metaphoric ass, but at 75% of the price, it's acceptable on days I don't feel like walking that far. Basically, with my limited food budget in mind, even though George's isn't a culinary mecca of burgers and cheesesteaks, it's fine by me.

6 comments:

gtrine said...

Ditto on your entire post! Keep em coming .... I enjoy all of them!

Sue said...

w00t, broke ass grad students! cheap eats are the best.

Kevin said...

So you're going to Penn right now? I just graduated from there in the spring, and my favorite restaurant near campus was a small Korean place called Koreana (on the corner of 38th and Chestnut, behind Abner's). I highly recommend the Dol Sot Bulgogi - under $10 for a big stone pot of deliciousness.

-Kevin

Nicholas said...

gtrine - thanks! I actually have sincere difficulty thinking of meaningful reasons to write sometimes. The food is there, I just don't know why I want to write about it. So I apologize if some of my posts seem inane.

Sue - lol I figured you'd understand. People don't get why I go to stupid seminars all the time. Sure it's not artisanal pizza, but it's FREE pizza goddamnit!

Kevin - yeahhhh, at Penn right now. I actually have a history w/Koreana dating back to '06 when my sister graduated from here. I'll probably revisit sometime in the near future :)

Anonymous said...

Oh god, I have eaten so much cheap food from George's. The $2.75 breakfast sandwiches on a long roll are super filling and they use sausage links instead of patties which makes me happy. I've had many a cheap cheeseburger, blt, crispy chicken etc when I only had $3-5 to eat with. George's forever. Broke forever.

Nicholas said...

Anonymous - I actually don't go that often (only when Kim's is missing and I don't want to walk to 38th), but every time I do, I think about how awesomely cheap everything is. Then I always leave with a smile :)

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