Food and fun at late-night eatery

Philadelphia Sandwich Co. (Credit: Courtesy Philadelphia Sandwich Co.)

"Mike!" thunders the man behind the counter, a hint of New Jersey accent coming through.

"Mike!" he yells again, this time clearly audible over the thumping hip-hop and rowdy crowd.

It's 1:45 a.m. on a recent Saturday, and after failing to locate Mike, Dennis Williamson, 31, manager at the Philadelphia Sandwich Company, makes his way through the drunken, dancing mob and out to the crowded sidewalk.

There, he locates Mike lounging on the corner and makes him the recipient of a hot, cheesy, steak-filled sandwich.

In 2005, Williamson opened the Philadelphia Sandwich Company. It's now the go-to place for the kind of sandwiches and fries that sound best after a few beers and a long night.

In a pale pink building on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale, the tiny, unpretentious sandwich shop is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Sixty percent of our business is done between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.," said owner and fellow New Jersey native Aaron Link, who bought the place from Williamson in 2007.

The shop is steps from some of the Valley's biggest and most popular bars and clubs, including Acme, Dos Gringos, Stingray Sushi, Myst, Axis/Radius, Saddle Ranch Chop House and Giligin's.

It draws in the post-club crowd with blaring rap and hip-hop spun by DJ Kevin Uehara.

"We were walking by and it was like a hip-hop sandwich shop, so we had to stop," said Rachel Rush, a Los Angeles native visiting Scottsdale.

Inside, even more distracting than the smell of cheesesteak or the deafening thump of beats is the money on the walls. The dollar bills are estimated at about $1,600, and regulars refer to it as the world's most expensive wallpaper.

Creeping up onto the ceiling, the bills cover all the walls as staff members encourage patrons to sign their own dollars and have them added.

But DJs and dollars aside, people really do come for the food.

Williamson grew up in south New Jersey, an area as committed to the cheesesteak as Philly itself. After he moved here, he felt Scottsdale needed his favorite food.

"We knew we could do a better meatball, cheesesteak and roast-beef sandwich better than anyone here," he said.

The result is that in the wee hours of the morning, Scottsdale's fashionably drunk can indulge in steak sandwiches topped with everything from American cheese to Cheese Wiz. There is breakfast food (from 4 to 11 a.m.). There are fried zucchini bites and Philadelphia's own Tastykakes. There are chicken, roast-beef and meatball sandwiches.

There is even the "vegetarian" Second Street: French bread topped with fries, mayonnaise and provolone. The shop has something for everyone.

"It's delicious," said one partygoer between mouthfuls of cheesesteak, "and convenient!"

By 2:15 am, the Philadelphia Sandwich Company has become an impromptu party.

Music blares, and men and women spill out of the tiny shop onto the street corner, eating by the fountain and shouting in a way that suggests at least short-term hearing damage.

Inside, employees scream names and toss sandwiches at customers. The workers are Link's friends, mostly 20-somethings who used to live with him in Manzanita Hall at Arizona State University.

They have the freedom to wear whatever they want, to curse or make bad jokes, to post a sign on the bathroom reading "Show the cooks your boobs," featuring a hand-drawn pair of breasts.

In fact, sometimes it's hard to tell the staff from the guests, which feels like a good thing so early in the morning.

Now Link is looking for locations in downtown Phoenix.

Watch a video of a typical night

Philadelphia Sandwich Co.
7158 E. Fifth Ave., Scottsdale
(480) 970-1102