EDIT: Stack’d II quickly became The Ave which quickly became the Tipsy Cow. Gone are the sandwiches, but you can read about the Tipsy Cow here.
While the list of great sequels is quite short, a few stand out. And joining the ranks of X-Men 2 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze is Stack’d II (hopefully someday they’ll update their site to include this). As you may recall, I once paid a visit to Stack’d in Shadyside, a build-your-own burger concept that found success on sales of beer, keeping their burgers cheap and not by the quality of burgers being pumped out. In fact, this was so successful that they made a sequel that swapped burgers for cheesesteaks.
I must admit I was skeptical at first. After all, a burger seems easier to make than a cheesesteak. But all the toppings from the original Stack’d were there, along with new toppings you’d be likely to find on a cheesesteak like cheese wiz, mushrooms and peppers. As an added bonus, Stack’d II cuts their sandwich prices in half on Wednesdays after 9pm so a base cheesesteak is only $3.
I went with the classic, just with steak and wiz, with Cajun fries on the side. It turned out that this was the best $4 cheesesteak I had ever had (cheese costs a buck, which seems somewhat ironic). The wiz was a little nacho cheese-esque, but the meat was pretty good and nicely seasoned. Clearly, making cheesesteak meat en masse is better than making burgers the same way and it showed. The roll was somewhat soft and although I would have liked a little more crunch to it, it did its job. I also felt like the fries were an upgrade from Stack’d, in that the seasoning was way more powerful.
As opposed to my first visit to the original, I am somewhat excited about a return to Stack’d II to see what kind of interesting cheesesteak concoction I can craft. It may not stack up to a more authentic spot, but for the value it’s hard to beat.
