In The Cradle of Industry and Liberty

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ORIGINAL PHILLY CHEESESTEAK CO. AND PHILADELPHIA PRE-COOKED STEAK CO. @ Above: Original Philly Cheesesteak Co. co-founder Nicholas Karamatsoukas and James Trivelis, the company’s first general manager. Below: Original Philly Cheesesteak Co. co-founder George Kontodemos. In 1981, nearly fifty years following the creation of the “cheesesteak” sandwich, Greek immigrants Nicholas Karamatsoukas and George Kontodemos founded the Roxborough Meat Company. Known today as the Original Philly Cheesesteak Co., the business was born out of the founders’ innovative idea to manufacturer and sell portion controlled Philly Steaks to local restaurateurs. Up until then, local steak shops and restaurants were producing each and every cheesesteak manually—procuring, prepping and slicing steaks in-house on a daily basis. The lack of consistency in the cut and quality, combined with the time and labor involved in preparing the meat, were costing the operators both time and money. The popularity of the Cheesesteak was growing rapidly and an ever increasing number of restaurants were adding the tasty sandwich to their menus throughout the city but the inefficiency in preparation remained. The partners at the Original Philly Cheesesteak Co. had the solution. Both in their thirties, Karamatsoukas, the former owner of a luncheonette, and Kontodemos, an independent restaurateur, engineered and perfected the manufacturing processes and began producing and supplying local restaurants with thinly-sliced, preportioned steaks from what was originally a garage in Roxborough, just nine miles northwest of Center City Philadelphia. Roxborough was, and remains today, steeped with a sense of community and entrepreneurship and the partners’ fledgling business was thriving as operators quickly realized the time and cost savings gained by giving up their manual methods and trying the Philly Steak innovation. It was not long before the operation grew too large for the confines of the little garage and a larger space was needed to allow the partners to meet the demands of their customers. The Original Philly Cheesesteak Co. moved into a larger building on West Bristol Street, near Fourth Street in Philadelphia’s Hunting Park IN THE CRADLE OF INDUSTRY AND LIBERTY 122
neighborhood. The increased production capacity that the larger building afforded allowed the business to continue its sales expansion. During the early years, the company would deliver its Philly Steaks directly to operators using a small fleet of trucks. The deliveries, however, could not keep pace with demand and local, independent distributors started buying product from the company for resale to their customers. Once again, the founders were faced with a capacity problem. They not only needed more manufacturing and storage space, they needed a facility that could accommodate the larger and more frequent number of trucks coming to pick-up orders. In 1986, Karamatsoukas and Kontodemos moved the company to a much larger facility a mile away, on the corner of North Howard and West Venango Street. The property had all of the prerequisites to enable growth for years to come and grow it did. Around that time period, Karamatsoukas and Kontodemos hired James Trivelis as the company’s first general manager. Trivelis, who would go on to become president of the Original Philly Cheesesteak Co., was a rising star in the corporate world and used this experience to implement a rapid growth strategy, which set the stage for the company to go from a local presence, to a regional player and finally to a national force in the Philly Steak category. Meanwhile, in nearby Aston, Pennsylvania, entrepreneur Stavros “Steve” Kalisperis operated Mama Maria’s Stromboli, a USDAinspected food processing plant. A Greek immigrant, Kalisperis opened Mama Maria’s after having spent many years operating a successful pizza restaurant renowned for its excellent stromboli. Seeking to capitalize on this specialty, Kalisperis started the company to manufacture frozen strombolis for retail sale in grocery stores throughout the area. But as fate would have it, Kalisperis’ Italian- American product would be usurped by a Greek American relationship. Kalisperis and Karamatsoukas were acquainted at church and developed a friendship through the many social activities of the Greek American community in the area. The Original Philly Cheesesteak Co. continued to grow and Karamatsoukas, an engineer by degree and innovator by nature, wanted to explore the possibility of adding fully-cooked Philly Steaks to his company’s burgeoning product line. He asked Kalisperis if he could use Mama Maria’s restaurant-style ovens to test his idea and prepare fully-cooked, Philly Steak samples Kalisperis was happy to oblige. The test was a success and the friendly gesture soon developed into a partnership between Kalisperis and Karamatsoukas—Philadelphia Pre-Cooked Steak Co. was founded by the two in 1991. @ Authentic Original Philly Cheesesteak. PARTNERS IN BUILDING PHILADELPHIA 123
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IN THE CRADLE OF INDUSTRY AND LIBER
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IN THE CRADLE OF INDUSTRY AND LIBER
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CONTENTS 4 FOREWORD 6 ACKNOWLEDGEME
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@ Michael A. Nutter, Former Mayor,
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For the historical images that enli
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This is a history of manufacturing
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While other manufacturing centers w
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@ Above: Workers at Midvale Steel p
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aircraft that dates to the earliest
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would hold into the early nineteent
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technology, transportation, and com
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age had joined the Religious Societ
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Philadelphians lived in the city’
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“and many boats, which are useful
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Quaker merchant Thomas Masters purc
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INDUSTRY INVENTORS Manufacturers in
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Quaker upbringing. Known as the “
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MAKING A CASE FOR AMERICAN MANUFACT
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up cotton manufacturing operations
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After receiving a patent for the en
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The Globe Mill on the Cohocksink Cr
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@ Opposite: Detail from 1849 map sh
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of the town’s total population. S
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On a positive note, a group of Fran
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factories with a powerful energy so
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and flagship for Commodore Matthew
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@ Left: Penn Steam Engine & Boiler
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Garrett & Eastwick Locomotive Works
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seen. The episode brought Hagner co
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United States, the nation’s de-fa
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The turn of the twentieth century p
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in various categories at the Centen
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makers, 20 stove manufacturers, 12
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and lace, in which Kensington manuf
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through exploitation of their worke
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@ Left: Yard locomotives at Midvale
Page 73 and 74: among the largest in the world at t
Page 75 and 76: factory nearby. This became the lar
Page 77 and 78: she writes of the sad circumstances
Page 79 and 80: @ Clockwise, starting from the top:
Page 81 and 82: BEER AND TOBACCO Beer making contin
Page 83 and 84: MILK AND ICE CREAM Like any major c
Page 85 and 86: the Philadelphia Phillies. Located
Page 87 and 88: and a half later from a city of man
Page 89 and 90: After major cutbacks in the auto in
Page 91 and 92: into countless lunchboxes throughou
Page 93 and 94: hangar space in 1980 at Northeast P
Page 95 and 96: is the nation’s largest manufactu
Page 97 and 98: fuel for local industries, current
Page 99 and 100: centralize operations in the buildi
Page 101 and 102: BOOKS AND ARTICLES Bridenbaugh, Car
Page 103 and 104: Sutcliffe, Andrea J. Steam: The Unt
Page 105 and 106: Penrose, Bartholomew & Thomas shipy
Page 107 and 108: PARTNERS IN BUILDING PHILADELPHIA H
Page 109 and 110: @ Left: An early Kingsbury advertis
Page 111 and 112: PARTNERS IN BUILDING PHILADELPHIA 1
Page 113 and 114: Aerodynamics. The name DeVal was a
Page 115 and 116: packaging and shipping; and nondest
Page 117 and 118: Another step in product advancement
Page 119 and 120: PHILLY CASE From the basement of a
Page 121 and 122: Under Yost’s direction, The Rowla
Page 123: The story of Tioga Pipe is a classi
Page 127 and 128: Humphrys is one of the oldest manuf
Page 129 and 130: The Doherty brothers realized, to s
Page 131 and 132: Centrally located off the Pennsylva
Page 133 and 134: Jersey and Delaware. Outgrowing the
Page 135 and 136: Philadelphia is famous for its appr
Page 137 and 138: injection molded plastic to enter t
Page 139 and 140: had expanded from smaller pieces fo
Page 141 and 142: for many years and they know the fi
Page 143 and 144: furnace as well as a custom flame h
Page 145 and 146: and Salmon Streets. The company wou
Page 147 and 148: The company capitalized on the stra
Page 149 and 150: discharges. The supercapacitors are
Page 151 and 152: products that are custom designed t
Page 153 and 154: Today manufacturing matters, now mo
Page 155: LEADERSHIP SPONSORS Historical Publ
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