Philadelphia Weekly

Justin's Snack Corner

601 S. 52nd St. 215.474.3509
Cuisine: Cart food.
Hours: Thurs.-Tues., 7am-7pm; Wed., 7am-5pm.
Prices: $1.50-$5.99.
Sound advice: Jovial.
Atmosphere: No frills.
Service: Hilarious, friendly.
Food: Breakfast, burgers, hoagies, hash.

A few food items written about in these pages recently: quince paste, walnut mustard, foie gras terrine, gazpacho emulsion, mushroom pate, smoked rabbit nachos, truffle puree, marcona almond foam.

Additionally, the phrases "substantial fungal load" and "legume of the moment" have been used to describe a mushroom-spiked pizza and the fava bean, respectively.

There are no foams, reductions or pastes at Justin's Snack Corner, a no-frills steak, hoagie and all-day breakfast takeout on 52nd, West Philly's Main Street. The very thought of smoked rabbit nachos would gross out Justin's regulars. And there's no pate or substantial fungal loads to be found either, but you can get a few 'shrooms added to your burger or steak. Or maybe a slice of that poor man's pate, scrapple.

You can phone in your orders at Justin's, but you're better off stopping in. That's where the show is. While Justin's cooks sweat over a flattop­­--folding omelettes, cooking burgers, searing steaks, cracking jokes and frying potato hash­--Justin holds court in the manner of Cedric the Entertainer in the Barbershop movies.

He playfully taunts customers ("You gain weight, brother?" seems to be a favorite), and the first sound you're likely to hear when opening the door is laughter. Think your favorite Center City food cart chef with the "His mama call named him Clay, I'ma call him Clay" scene from Coming to America thrown in for good measure.

Saturdays are Justin's busiest, and the wait for a burger, hoagie or egg sandwich can stretch to a half- hour. But it's when the pressure mounts that Justin really turns on the charm, and deftly displays a Godlike penchant for organization, spreading hand-written orders over a counter and keeping track of them with verve while answering the phone, bagging orders and joking with waiting patrons who suck down tall cans of Arizona Iced Tea.

The burgers at Justin's are cooked through, but are moist and delicious nonetheless. A well-seasoned flattop seals in juices better somehow, and the one here gets a mighty workout. The cheesesteaks are oh-so-gooey, flavorful and served on rolls soft enough to give your gums a break, but crusty enough to count.

Anything with eggs at Justin's will make your eyes roll into the back of your head. They just know how to cook them--fluffy, buttery and seldom marred by that ugly brown overcooking that turns eggs into ughs. Justin's griddle-masters make a mean French toast, and a perfect stack of pancakes--the kind you're sick of halfway through (just as you should be). Both come with generous pats of salted butter that tastes a little odd. It's best to have it on the side and add tiny bits as wanted.

Anything off the griddle satisfies, but nothing more so than the out-of-this-world potato hash. The outer layer develops a perfect brown crispness that gives way to a fluffy cloud of starch.

With or without caramelized onions, these spuds are dreamy, and Justin knows it, taking time out of even the busiest breakfast to dramatically open the Styrofoam to-go container and hand you a giant bottle of hot sauce and a giant bottle of ketchup, never failing to wink and say, "Don't mix them up, brother!"

If you want a true breakfast of champions, order the hash with a slice of scrapple--that almost-lost Pennsylvania Dutch dish that turns nasty hog bits into something sublime.

It's as involved a process as anything you might find in a fine dining kitchen. You boil the bits into a broth; add cornmeal to thicken it into a mush; season that mush with sage, thyme and other herbs; cool into a mold; and then slice and pan-fry in butter, browning the edges to mouthwatering perfection.

So there, that's just odd enough to keep the foodies satiated. If not, no worries. Next week it's back to regularly scheduled programming in a big way.