The cheesesteak is a staple of Philadelphian culture, with restaurants scattered throughout vouching for why their version is the best. On the other side of the world – specifically Tokyo, Japan – there is a place that has been trying to replicate the iconic Philadelphia food item down to a T.
Kosuke and Tomomi Chujo are the owners of Nihonbashi Philly, a sports bar that is themed with the style of the city, including the Eagles, being represented throughout.
Their goal is simple, but easier said than done – bring the history and culture of Philadelphia to Japan.
Kosuke and Tomomi met in 2012, having never been to Philadelphia or trying a cheesesteak before.
Kosuke first fell in love with the history of the city when he was young, learning about the music before getting into the food and, of course, the cheesesteak.
"My husband loves the music of Philadelphia International Records, so he studied about Philadelphia's history and foods on books and photo books when he was young. Of course, he knew cheesesteak even before he opened our restaurant. He has known cheesesteak since he was young. Also, Pat's (Pat's King of Steaks) appeared in Rocky," Tomomi said.
Kosuke found similarities between Nihonbashi, the neighborhood where they live in Tokyo, and Philadelphia, drawing him closer to the city. However, when he originally started the restaurant, it was still named after Philly, but served Italian food.
"He started the restaurant in 2011. Before that, his family had a printing company in the same place. He changed the business to a restaurant," Tomomi said about the origin of Nihonbashi Philly. "I came after two years. We got married in 2013. We actually met in the restaurant.
"After we got married, I said, 'So the name is Philly, why don't you make cheesesteak,' because it's a bit strange, and he said, 'I never ate a cheesesteak before,' so he was thinking the food is part of the history of each place, so he didn't want to make before eating cheesesteak."
Tomomi suggested a trip to Philadelphia, but Kosuke doesn't like to fly in planes and gets air sick, so the trip would have to wait. In the meantime, the couple started researching cheesesteaks by looking at videos on YouTube, books, and websites.
Although the two figured out how to make their cheesesteaks look like the ones they saw online, they still didn't know how they were supposed to taste. The original "cheesesteak" from Nihonbashi Philly used teriyaki sauce, cheese, and beef, which according to them and their customers, wasn't bad. But it wasn't what an authentic cheesesteak tasted like, which they would later find out from Kosuke's high school friend, Go Inoue, who studied at Penn. Inoue said that it "looks like a cheesesteak but tastes completely different," causing them to rethink their original attempt.
"We started talking about cheesesteak every day, and we took the place of the positive feeling that we would definitely make it. But there was something we didn't understand even if we made it as shown in the video. What does this actually taste like? Is this right?" Tomomi said. "As long as the name of our restaurant name is Philly, we want to make authentic cheesesteak. Even though we wanted to do so, we made it that we had never eaten before with only a video, but it was no different from 'looks like a cheesesteak' that we made past. Most problem things are we never had a real cheesesteak, we realized!"
After making it through the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic with the restaurant still open, Kosuke decided to travel to the City of Brotherly Love in 2021. As local restaurants began to close down one by one, the couple knew a shutdown could happen to them at any moment during the pandemic, and decided to take a risk to help save their business.
"One day, my husband said: 'Let's go to Philadelphia for studying cheesesteak! We may only have a chance now. If you can't see the future anyway, let's do what we like in the end.'"
So off they went, through empty airports and planes, as entry restrictions into the United States started to ease, the Chujos scheduled it out to be back in Japan before the number of people entering the United States from Europe increased.
They set out to explore Philadelphia, quickly finding some of the most notable cheesesteak places, from their original favorite Angelo's to Pat's, Geno's, Tony Luke's, and Jim's, to name a few.
Their new favorite, which they discovered when they returned to Philly in August 2024, became Carangi Baking Company, located just over a mile away from the NovaCare Complex.
But just eating the famous cheesesteaks was only part of the experience for Kosuke and Tomomi. They had to study all of the different ones they tried, and Kosuke even brought his own scale along to measure the weight of each cheesesteak.
The reason for the scale?
"As he (Kosuke) said, food is history. He doesn't want to change the history," Kodai Wakayashi, an employee who the Chujos view as family, said in translation for Kosuke.
"He respects it (the history) so much, so that's why we measure and take notes of the taste as well."
So, what does he do with the weights he measures on the scale? He takes the average weight and uses that for his own restaurant, although it is something that changes based off the taste.
After learning about and finally experiencing what a Philly cheesesteak tastes like, Kosuke and Tomomi made it back to Tokyo and began crafting a new version of their cheesesteaks.
Along with the beef cooked by Kosuke, Tomomi had to learn how to bake the bread herself. She also makes her own cheese whiz, because, well, what's a cheesesteak without whiz?
They have American and provolone cheese, peppers, onions, mayonnaise, and ketchup as topping options – all typical with a cheesesteak, but there are two ingredients that you likely won't find in a Philly cheesesteak – fresh mushrooms and jalapeños – that is one of the restaurant's most popular orders.
Along with the signature cheesesteaks, Nihonbashi Philly offers barbeque chicken wings, chicken cheesesteaks, and spareribs. They are hoping to add a roast pork sandwich to the menu.
While the Philly cheesesteak journey began over a decade ago for Kosuke, his love for the Eagles was sparked in 2020, shortly after he watched Amazon Prime's All or Nothing featuring the team.
One of his favorite players became Brandon Graham, who he had the chance to meet when the Chujos returned to Philadelphia and attended Training Camp practice earlier this summer. Tomomi and Kosuke had the chance to try cheesesteaks at the NovaCare Complex.
"The first time when he came here (Philadelphia), he was wearing an Eagles jersey, and it was during COVID, but people would say to him, 'Go Birds,' instead of hello, and so he got deeper and deeper and now our shop is almost all green," Tomomi said.
Now, as Nihonbashi Philly will look to continue to evolve and embrace the culture of Philadelphia, it all will come back to the infamous cheesesteaks.
"Many Philadelphia people who live in Japan every day, and Philadelphia people who visited on trips, have come to visit the store. I always ask the people of Philadelphia, 'How was our cheesesteak?' They said, 'Delicious! It is amazing! It's real!'" Tomomi said.
"Now the waves gradually spread around the world, and now people from Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Korea, Europe, and many other countries come to eat cheesesteak. That means that we have to tell the whole world about Philadelphia from Tokyo through cheesesteak. We thought food is a part of the culture and history." – Written by Liam Wichser
