Pat’s King of Steaks will operate out of a truck parked outside during renovations

The years had been catching up to Pat’s King of Steaks, the South Philadelphia landmark where the steak sandwich was invented nearly a century ago.

Owner Frank Olivieri, third generation, said the building needed work from the top down — so much work, he was told, that Pat’s would have to close for several months.

Closing was not an option for Olivieri, and so he hatched a plan not only to keep the Whiz whizzing 24 hours a day but to add a revenue stream for the long run. He commissioned a 22-foot food truck with a six-foot grill, a replica of Pat’s kitchen, to be parked on the building’s Passyunk Avenue side, allowing customers to order through its windows.

Pat’s, which sells sandwiches on local delivery apps as well as nationally through Goldbelly, won’t miss a beat.

The truck, which he said cost “north of $225,000,” is now being outfitted in South Jersey. Olivieri said it is due to arrive during the second week of December.

When renovations are finished, the truck will be rolled out for catering and private events — Penn State games, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and such, Olivieri said.

The often-repeated Pat’s King of Steaks backstory goes something like this: Sick of eating hot dogs from his South Philly cart in 1930, Pat Olivieri sent his brother Harry — Frank Olivieri’s grandfather — to a butcher for meat. A passing cab driver smelled the resulting sandwich and asked for one instead of a hot dog. There wasn’t enough meat to make another sandwich, the story goes, so Pat cut the sandwich into two and handed half to the customer. The Olivieris took over the building that year.

Olivieri said he wanted to keep the building’s original look — it’s not historically certified — as renovations have proceeded from the top down. A new roof came first, in late 2021. The second floor was gutted and rebuilt, followed by the back of the building, which he said got additional support from rebar and concrete “like a real building.” The kitchen floor will be raised to level it with the back of the building, and the kitchen will be outfitted with new equipment.

The upshot: The changes will be fairly invisible to the casual customer, though the service windows will be raised a bit. “It’s going to be newer, nicer, and a more pleasant environment for the [six to eight] guys that work in there,” Olivieri said. “It’ll last a lot longer than I will.”