{"id":147843,"date":"2026-03-25T09:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T09:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/147843\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T09:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T09:43:09","slug":"philadelphia-airports-longest-line-cheesesteaks-not-tsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/147843\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia airport&#8217;s longest line? Cheesesteaks, not TSA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Travelers passing through Philadelphia International Airport on Monday may have expected long security lines. But the longest line was made of cheesesteaks.<\/p>\n<p>Organizers say they achieved a new <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/tag\/guinness-world-records\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Guinness World Record<\/a> for the longest line of cheesesteak sandwiches, with 1,291 lined up inside a departure hall to mark National Cheesesteak Day. The display far surpassed the previous benchmark of 500 sandwiches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe went for the world record for the longest cheesesteak in history,\u201d said Clarence LeJeune of MarketPlace PHL, a company that operates airport concessions. \u201cToday we accomplished that goal here in Philadelphia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Volunteers assemble cheesesteaks at Philadelphia International Airport, March 24, 2026. AP<\/p>\n<p>Organizers achieved a new Guinness World Record for the longest line of cheesesteaks. AP<\/p>\n<p>The cheesesteak, which <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/07\/25\/business\/iconic-philly-cheesesteak-shop-may-raise-prices-as-beef-costs-surge-sticker-shock\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">originated in Philadelphia<\/a> in the early 1900s, is widely considered the city\u2019s signature food. LeJeune called it \u201csynonymous\u201d with Philadelphia, alongside its sports culture.<\/p>\n<p>People in black aprons assembled cheesesteaks along tables set up in the walkway between Terminals B and C, filling rolls from silver buckets as they moved past storefronts.<\/p>\n<p>After the record was certified, volunteers handed out the sandwiches to travelers, airport workers and Transportation Security Administration staff, who have been\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/24\/us-news\/fetterman-slams-democratic-mess-as-tsa-workers-miss-paychecks-during-dhs-shutdown\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">working without pay\u00a0during the government shutdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>TSA employees carrying boxes of cheesesteaks for their co-workers. AP<\/p>\n<p>The cheesesteak is widely considered Philadelphia\u2019s signature food. AP<\/p>\n<p>LeJeune joked there are few hard rules for cheesesteaks, which is part of the \u201cbeauty of the experience\u201d \u2014 except, he said, \u201cYou don\u2019t ask for Swiss cheese,\u201d referencing a 2003 moment when then-presidential candidate John Kerry\u00a0drew criticism in Philadelphia\u00a0for ordering one with Swiss.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Empric, a Guinness World Records adjudicator, said rules require all food used in record attempts to be eaten or donated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this case, they are going to TSA agents who definitely could use some lunch,\u201d Empric said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travelers passing through Philadelphia International Airport on Monday may have expected long security lines. But the longest line&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1817,34837,69,71,70,13305,302],"class_list":["post-147843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-airports","tag-guinness-world-records","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-tsa","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}