Johnny's Hots

1234 Delaware Ave., Philadelphia, PA - (215) 423-2280

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Posted By Michael Stern on September 22, 2008 9:27 AM

Johnny's is the classic urban street food eatery without an indoor dining room or tables and chairs. Place your order and pay for it at one window, pick it up at a window a couple of yards to the right, then marshal the meal on one of the metal counters provided at chest level against the shop's stone block wall and on the pillars in front. When finished – ten, fifteen minutes at most – gather crumbs in the papers in which the food was wrapped, dispose your refuse in a garbage can, and drive away.

The namesake hot sausage costs all of $3.50, plus 50 cents for peppers or mushrooms and 75 cents for broccoli rabe or spinach. It is something like a Georgia hot or a half-smoke, its taut casing packed with finely ground meat that is bright orange, manifesting the pepper with which it is generously apportioned. It's not firecracker hot, but you will glow; and if you like the glow, it's even better with long hots (peppers) as a garnish.

Thanks to my estimable dining companion, Roadfood.com's own Bruce Bilmes, who steered me here to take a break from our day of cheese steak eating, I ordered an item from the bottom of the menu that might ordinarily elude attention: a hot dog and fish cake sandwich. That's right; snugged into a single sturdy roll is a split hot dog (or hot sausage, if you prefer) with a fish cake smooshed right on top of it. Bruce explained that this particular odd couple has a history in the annals of Philadelphia's cheap eats, originally popularized by a now-vanished joint called Levi's. Given its provenance, we got ours with that ever-rarer local condiment, pepper hash. The hash is wonderful. The fish cake and wiener combo, that's what I'd call an acquired taste.

Overall Rating

Hot Sausage

Hot Dog & Fish Cake

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Posted By Jonathan Tan on March 22, 2011 7:31 PM

I love the Philadelphia surf-n-turf. The fish cake and hot sausage (you can also get it on a hot dog) combination is just sublime.

I like that it's no fuss, no muss. I've been there when Gourmet magazine was interviewing the staff, and when it was just me and a bunch of cops and other folks lining up for lunch. I only wish they were open into the evenings; as it is, I can only get there on Saturdays.

Overall Rating

Hot sausage and fish cake

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