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Sesame-seeded rolls are in at Jim\u2019s South Street<\/a> \u2014 and out at Pat\u2019s King of Steaks<\/a>.<\/p>\n The opposite moves by two of Philadelphia\u2019s best-known old-school cheesesteak shops<\/a> expose a divide increasingly shaped by social media. Tourists arrive expecting the crusty, seeded rolls they see online<\/a>, while many longtime customers still prefer the plain rolls Philadelphia stands have served for generations.<\/p>\n The seeded-roll question is part of the crowded field of never-settled cheesesteak disputes: Which cheese is correct? How finely should the beef be chopped? Should the onions be diced, sliced, or chopped?<\/p>\n Tourists vs. locals<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Jim\u2019s began offering seeded rolls as an option for the first time since it opened in 1976. Pat\u2019s, which made news in February<\/a> when it began offering them after 96 years of plain rolls, abandoned the experiment after only a few weeks.<\/p>\n Seeded rolls tend to be crustier, and the toasted sesame adds a faintly nutty flavor. Plain rolls are generally softer and milder, putting more emphasis on the beef and cheese.<\/p>\n At Jim\u2019s, owner Ken Silver said he added seeded rolls to his Liscio\u2019s bread order to give customers a choice. \u201cFor the most part, it\u2019s a tourist thing,\u201d Silver said. \u201cOur local base is almost all plain.\u201d<\/p>\n Silver said Jim\u2019s made the change \u201cfor the same reason we added chicken and Cooper Sharp<\/a> [cheese]. People expect it from what they see on social media.\u201d Overall so far, he said, seeded is outselling unseeded, 6 to 1.<\/p>\n At Pat\u2019s, those expectations did not translate into sales.<\/p>\n Owner Frank Olivieri began offering seeded rolls in February, shortly after the death of his father<\/a>, Frank P. Olivieri, who had resisted changes. The younger Olivieri initially said the limited-time offering<\/a> would likely be permanent.<\/p>\n It lasted a month.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I got in 400 [seeded rolls] a day, by the end of the day, I was throwing out 390 of them,\u201d Olivieri said. \u201cNot that I\u2019m the barometer to judge everybody else by or what influencers think you should eat, [but] not everybody who comes to Pat\u2019s Steaks wants the [seeded] rolls.\u201d<\/p>\n How the old guard rolls<\/p>\n Pat\u2019s recently switched its bread supplier from Aversa to Corropolese, and offers plain rolls only now.<\/p>\n Geno\u2019s Steaks, across Passyunk Avenue, also has been firmly seedless since Joey Vento<\/a> opened the shop in 1966. \u201cIt\u2019s never crossed my mind,\u201d said Geno Vento, who took over after his father\u2019s passing in 2011<\/a>. \u201cWe have our customer base, and I don\u2019t feel that we need to change the roll [baked by Liscio]. I feel like it\u2019s more of a trend right now. And they might put [cheesesteaks] on rye bread next. You never know.\u201d <\/p>\n Geno\u2019s concession to the new generation is Cooper Sharp, which the shop buys in sauce form<\/a> and heats up \u2014 as an option.<\/p>\n At the old-school Dalessandro\u2019s in Roxborough<\/a>, owner Steve Kotridis said he began offering seeded rolls a few years ago \u201cwhen it became a fad,\u201d though he estimated that only 3% of customers order them. Dalessandro\u2019s uses a softer Amoroso roll for cheesesteaks and a sturdier, seeded Aversa for hoagies, both with and without seeds.<\/p>\n For newer cheesesteak shops, however, the seeded roll has become all but de rigueur \u2014 a style that predates social media but has been amplified by it. Famously, Donkey\u2019s Place<\/a> in Camden has served its distinctive cheesesteaks on poppy-seeded round rolls for more than 80 years.<\/p>\n Seeds of change<\/p>\n The seeded-roll trend launched with the hoagie<\/a>.<\/p>\n Louis Sarcone Jr. at the century-old Sarcone\u2019s Bakery<\/a> credits Bobby Toner of the now-closed JR\u2019s Deli with helping establish seeded bread as a hoagie standard in the 1980s, after Toner began buying Sarcone\u2019s seeded loaves.<\/p>\n Sarcone said Primo Hoagies<\/a>, founded in South Philadelphia<\/a> in 1992, spread the style widely as it expanded into a 120-unit chain<\/a>. Sarcone supplied Primo for years before it started using parbaked rolls supplied by another bakery.<\/p>\n By 2024, Sarcone said, 90% of the rolls he baked were seeded, up from 75% a decade earlier.<\/p>\n John Bucci Jr. said John\u2019s Roast Pork<\/a> began serving cheesesteaks on seeded rolls in 1987, after its supplier, Vilotti, went out of business. Bucci\u2019s father, who was terminally ill, left the choice of a new bakery to his son. \u201cJR\u2019s had started making their hoagies on seeded bread, so, I figured, why not try [it] on a cheesesteak?\u201d Bucci said.<\/p>\n John\u2019s initially bought its seeded rolls from Carangi and later switched to Sarcone\u2019s.<\/p>\n Now a cheesesteak roll<\/p>\n The seeded roll\u2019s rise as a defining feature of the modern Philadelphia cheesesteak came later, accelerated by Angelo\u2019s Pizzeria<\/a>.<\/p>\n Owner Danny DiGiampietro, whose wife is Louis Sarcone\u2019s niece, used Sarcone\u2019s seeded rolls when he opened the first Angelo\u2019s in Haddonfield<\/a> in 2013. After moving Angelo\u2019s to Ninth and Fitzwater in 2019, DiGiampietro began baking his own bread.<\/p>\n As Angelo\u2019s fame grew, its crusty, sesame-seeded rolls \u2014 an image widely broadcast on social media and emulated by other shops \u2014 helped define the newer-generation cheesesteak.<\/p>\n