Philly’s owner Shem Adams was born and raised in Philadelphia, a Mecca of sports good food and entrepreneurial activity. It wasn’t until he had moved to Conn. did he begin to realize how much the Philly culture was an integral part of his life. Although he rapidly adapted to the different pace and quality of life Connecticut had to offer, there were a few things about life in Philly he found hard to escape. Coming from a family where food was an intimate part of socialization, his most unshakable cravings were the fun foods he grew up with. He began to make frequent return trips back to Philly ‘to see his Pop’, but his first, last and intermediate stops were always to the better steak shops around the city, the ones you have to be native to know about. Shem wasn’t the only one making those trips, not even the only one in his car. Whenever his friends found out he was going to Philly, he had more reservation requests than a Times Square Hotel on New Year’s Eve.This went on for years, and when the time came for him to apply his inherent entrepreneurial skills to the retail market, it was only natural to consider Philly sandwiches. There was one problem, duplicating the Philly sandwiches had been tried with varying degrees of shortcomings in many cities outside and inside PA. Being well-traveled and always hungry, he had sampled most of the impostors and determined their most common mistakes and some that were crazily unique. Always possessed of an acute curiosity and keen wit, he set about discerning the individual components that are so closely guarded by purveyors of the Philly taste. This took months of investigation coupled with years of honing his grill skills, but he finally had the Philly secret in his possession! And when the time was right Philly’s was born. And as you can attest as you wipe your mouth with that greasy napkin… the rest is history.