Hometown Living At Its Best 83
The beef for Taste of Phillie's cheese steak
sandwiches comes from Texas and is cut fresh
daily. The chicken is purchased locally, and the
bread comes from Philadelphia. Matthew takes
pride in serving handmade sandwiches with fresh
ingredients, and his customers like that, too.
kind and always ready to give to those truly
in need, he’s more of a “tables turned over
in the temple” kind of father figure. There’s
no room for disrespect in his establishment.
“Many parents don’t teach their kids respect,
and then when you correct them, they get
mad,” said Matthew. “Somebody has to take
responsibility and be the parent and teach the
consequences of bad choices or the judicial
system will do it for you. I don't want to see
these kids grow up the same way I did. They
don’t have to make the mistakes I made.”
Just as with his children, Matthew
values the time and influence he has with
his twenty-six grandchildren. In fact, he bought a used car
recently for one of his granddaughters, but said, “For her to
receive it, she has to help me work on it.”
Fair enough. But he didn’t mean change the oil or fix a
flat. He meant put all the little pieces back together again
because he purposely removed the motor from the car so his
granddaughter could see how it worked.
“You know that commercial where the kid calls his
parents because he’s got a flat tire, and they ask if he’s got
a lug wrench?” I nodded. “The kid says, ‘Yeah,’ and then
whispers to his friend, ‘Is this a lug wrench?’ That’s the
stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.” He shook his head.
There’s a reference to a verse from the Bible on the
wall at A Taste of Phillie that reads, “Jesus answered, ‘It is
written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every
word that comes from the mouth of God,’” Ironically,
Matthew was also the name of the writer recounting the
story of the temptation of Jesus. The Passion translation
says it like this: “Bread alone will not satisfy, but true life is