Earlier this week you got acquainted with the signage around Pat's King of Steaks, the second part of this photo tour is going to take in everything else, well, the bits that are of interest to our design proposals, at least.
Our project aside, I really like this photograph, good work intern Percy! Obviously, this is one of the picnic-style tables that surround Pat's, they aren't exactly exciting, but they do get the got done. 
The trash cans at Pat's are just that, trash cans, you can trust me when I say they won't be looking like that in our designs.
This is a picture of the cup your fries come in, there's a nice little touch to the cup that you can push a couple of tabs on the top edge and they fold in to help keep your fries warm if you have the willpower to not tuck in straight away.
There's not really much that you can say about the condiment stand at Pat's, it's there, it's propped up by a brick, and it has condiments on it.
What, you didn't think I was going to show you around Pat's without showing you their most prized product in all its gooey glory, did you?
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
Since not everyone reading this blog will have experienced (and 'experience' is probably the right word) Pat's and Geno's, it would probably be a good idea to give you a virtual tour of them both so that when we start teasing you with elements of our design proposals you have a decent understanding of what the original looked like and how our ideas would (hopefully) improve upon them. I'm going to break this series down into a few parts, and then do the same of Geno's. First up, a look at the signage around Pat's.
Considering that most people order a whiz wit you have to question why the menu is so long.
This instruction board only serves to make first-timers more nervous (trust me!), but each time I've been the staff haven't even approached the steak-Nazi reputation that precedes them.
Pat's familiar crown logo makes an appearance on this sign located on the side of the building. The sign also lights up at night.
This sign is located on the opposite side of the building and also lights up at night. Notice how this sign uses a typeface unlike any other on the building.
Breaking up the list of items with the logo helps to make the menu board look a lot less like a shopping receipt.
This is Pat's retaliation to the controversial 'speak English' sign displayed at Geno's. You may notice to the left of the picture is an award from Tide, the washing detergent manufacturer, claiming that Pat's has 'Philadelphia's favorite stain', the award itself is fairly hard to read because of a grease mark on the window!
These signs fill the spaces that were previously occupied by windows, and can be found on the South and West walls, where the eating areas are. I think it's my favorite sign at Pat's, whereas everything else is very busy and cluttered, this sign is simple and restrained, also, who doesn't love a pun?
Friday, May 29, 2009
Joe Vento, the founder and owner of Geno's Steaks, can be accused of a lot of things, but being subtle is certainly not one of them. Every time you visit ,he's managed to find another space on his walls to put up another neon sign. This isn't necessarily bad, as it reflects Joe's character pretty well, and I'm sure that more than a few drunk college students have been glad to see those familiar lights in the distance as they aimlessly wandered around the Italian Market trying to find cheesesteak Mecca.
The lights are a part of Geno's, and we recognized this throughout the redesign proces. Sure, our ideas are very different from what's there at the moment, but we didn't want to take the essence of Pat's and Geno's and just throw them out of the window...
Pat's, on the other hand, is more of a blank slate. They have a look, but they also seem to have changed a lot less over the years. Except for a few of the signs, you can easily imagine Pat's today looking very similar to how it did in the 1950s. For this reason, Pat's has to be approached in a different way. A lot of people are turned off by the flash over at Geno's. In fact, as Frank Oliveri, owner of Pat's, once said "you can't eat flash."