Dear Grub Street,
Please help me find a restaurant that serves creamed chipped beef for brunch. My friends and relatives from Philly refuse to visit unless I have one lined up. (I personally do not eat creamed chipped beef — it’s way too scary-looking.)
K.M.
K.M.,
With this In-box post, we here at Grub Street reach a bitter milestone: Despite our best efforts, and with Shopsin’s now closed, we have not been able to locate creamed chipped beef — a diner staple throughout the rest of the nation, mind you — anywhere in New York. Yes, the dish sounds bad and looks worse, consisting as it does of a viscous cream gravy, studded with dried packaged beef, dumped over white bread. But our research skills are poor, after all, and we imagine — for the love of your family; for our sanity! — that the open goop sandwich does indeed exist somewhere in the city limits. Other readers: Have you seen it, tasted of it, even? Let us know. Or are you a chef who would be willing to … cook it? Call us.
In the meantime, K.M., please tell your relations that there’s more to a delicious and frightening breakfast than this beef creation: Bill Telepan serves that Pennsylvania Dutch standard, scrapple, at his eponymous restaurant every weekend.
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