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| - Never have I seen a place go from a favorite of mine in the city to some place I'll never go again so fast.
I started going to Southside Steaks shortly after it opened. I thought the steak sandwiches were amazing and rivaled the best Philly had to offer. I'd sing their praises to anyone who was remotely interested in eating cheesesteaks. Not only was the food great, but the design of the restaurant was funky and fit perfectly in the busy Carson Street neighborhood of the South Side. They did cheesesteaks and great fries and not a whole lot else.
Over the years, things pretty much remained the same. Every now and then a special new sandwich would be introduced to the menu. Maybe it would stick around, maybe it was just their briefly. All was good and well. Unfortunately, I had to move away from beloved Pittsburgh for a few years (to Philly of all places, which gave me an even better barometer of what to expect from a cheesesteak after exploring numerous outlets in that city), but upon my return I was pleased to see Southside Steaks was still up and running and just as good as I had remembered, albeit with a couple menu changes like chicken wings being prominently pushed.
SInce my return, I haven't been as much as a regular as I once was, so I wasn't aware of the whole rebranding to "The Groove" until I saw a recent post on Facebook mentioning it. So I decided to stop in last week and see what was what. I shouldn't have bothered. The menu is a godawful mess now, with everything being sold in combos, which you can either choose by a preselected list of sandwiches or a build your own deal. Sorry, but even in my dark days in Philly I was never once asked if I wanted my sandwich toasted. You don't toast cheesesteaks. But that was the first option displayed when picking out a combo.
Then there was the place on the list asking what sort of seasoning you want on your sandwich. What do you mean, what kind of seasoning do I want on my cheesesteak? None! Who does this? No one else, to my knowledge. Not even the crappiest cheesesteak joints (and there are plenty in Philly) ask you what kind of seasoning you want on your sandwich. It was just weird.
So the combos are listed at $9.75 and come with chips (this for the build your own deal). For an extra dollar, you can get fries included. Gimme a break. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the old method here. An affordable and tasty cheesesteak and a huge order of fries if you wanted em separately, with either cheese whiz or gravy for a little extra. But I added the fries because they used to be great. Now, it seems like they're trying to mimic Wingstop's fries with the seasoning. At Wingstop, that's fine. This is how their fries have always been and it's part of *their* menu. Southside Steak's fries used to be awesome, but in this case they had so much fry seasoning dumped on them it was ridiculous. Not even Wingstop dumps that much on. Blech. What a disappointment.
I just got a basic Philly cheesesteak as usual with whiz and grilled onions. Nothing fancy. The meat, which was once really juicy and tasty before was now dry and dull. The roll it was on was chewy and tasteless. What the hell happened? You don't take once worked so completely well and upend it all in one fell swoop and change everything. It absolutely sucks. We asked if the place had changed owners and were told by the cashier that it hadn't and the new menu reflected the "better quality of the food." OK, so going from pretty damn great in my opinion to absolute Sucktown doesn't seem to bear that statement out in the least.
And the interior. What the hell? Southside Steaks had its own slightly gritty, personal charm. Now it looks like an effing tube sock came in and exploded all over the walls with a stupid stripe pattern. The high tables are gone, being replaced with generic mall food court type tables and chairs. And all the stupid '80s crap. Hey, I lived and liked the '80s, but it makes absolutely no sense. And "The Groove" is an absolutely stupid name. What about that suggests cheesesteaks, other than it has "Cheesesteak Co." tagged onto the end of it? Terrible name.
I wouldn't be surprised to see The Groove become a Carson Street casualty in a short amount of time. Nothing was wrong with Southside Steaks. Everything is wrong with The Groove. The prices are crap, the menu is terrible, the food is subpar, and the decor is just dumb. I haven't been this disappointed in an eatery in quite a while. Why did you guys screw this up so incredibly bad? I'm never going back, and I suggest you stay away as well.
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