Got 45 Minutes to Spare?
The Missus and I ate at the new PepperJax (27th and Pine Lake) last night. We waited in line a whopping 45 minutes. Yikes.
First off you may be asking, “Mr. Wilson, why would you wait 45 minutes when you could have just scooted over to Cheesesteak Grille at 16th and Old Cheney and had a perfectly delicious sandwich from a small, local joint?”. That’s a reasonable question. I have two answers. Had I known I’d be standing in line that long I would have gone elsewhere; the line didn’t look that bad. And I wanted to give P’Jax a try. I figured a little standing around wouldn’t kill me.
The bizarre thing about the long wait is that the line wasn’t even all that long. (For perspective, when we arrived the line was backed up to the front door.) I’ve waited in similar lines many times. Heck, when I went to UNL the line at the Union’s Subway location at lunchtime used to be at least that long every day, yet they managed to get people through in about ten minutes. The ordering process isn’t the same at each restaurant, but it’s comparable enough that it makes me baffled at the 35 minute difference in service times.
No doubt you want to know if it was worth it. ... Kind of?
Look, I love the customization options available to diners. There are plenty of cheesesteak-friendly toppings available. They can be added on the grill or placed on the sandwich post-grilling. There are several sauces available, most of which I found to be very tasty. You have non-philly options if that’s your druthers. In short, the whole concept just works for me.
But my sandwich itself—a steak philly with onions, mushrooms, green peppers, and jalapenos—was merely good. Now don’t misunderstand me here. I’m saying the sandwich was good. I would gladly eat another one, today even. (Who’s buying?) But I won’t wait 45 minutes for good, particularly when there are perfectly good burritos (Chipotle), pastas (Noodles & Co.), and burgers (Crave) right next door. The biggest complaint I have about the sandwich is the meat. It was surprisingly chewy. I don’t order a philly for a jaw workout. OK, it wasn’t that bad. But right away my first couple bites took longer than expected to process. I was surprised.
Again, don’t take away from this that I hate the joint. I don’t. Far from it. I will happily go back. But if the line is more than a handful of people deep, I’ll steer elsewhere. There are only a few foods I’ll wait more than ten minutes to order, and frankly this isn’t one of them.
UPDATE: LiquidRetro’s take on PepperJax
The Comments
Moses says I get the sentiment.............. December 1, 2011 at 10:07am
My lovely wife and I have the same discussion every St. Patrick’s Day. She feels like she has to have corned beef and cabbage. I don’t particularly like the dish. She says, “try it, it is not that bad.” My view is that not that bad is no reason to pay or wait in line at a restaurant.
Karin Dalziel says I tried the chicken philly, December 1, 2011 at 10:16am
I tried the chicken philly, and it was just OK too. In contrast to the steak, the chicken was TOO soft, too uniform. It was like a highly processed, taken apart and put back together chicken patty, which, from the looks of it, it was. I thought the mushroom sauce was pretty good, and the fries were good (if a little over salty) but given other choices in the area, I can’t see going to PepperJax too often.
George says I believe you guys were December 1, 2011 at 11:34am
I believe you guys were about 3-4 families ahead me in line (you, your wife and little one with glasses?).
I do agree with everything you said. The line was devious. You looked at it and said “well that’s not to long” and once you committed it was pretty hard to justify stepping out of it. By the time my kids said enough, there was no way I was going to accept defeat!
The biggest issue I saw was the employees not staying focused. They were read to bread my meat, but the girl who was toasting the bread had spaced off and hadn’t toasted any. I hope the flow gets better, otherwise I don’t think the lines will really get any shorter.
The sandwiches were good. Cheaper than ordering from Davinci’s (who always gets our order wrong) and we’ll go back.. when there are no lines.
Mr. Wilson says RE: I believe you guys were December 1, 2011 at 12:07pm
Yep, that was us! You should’ve bopped me on the head and said hi.
George says RE: I believe you guys were December 1, 2011 at 12:27pm
I should have asked you for your autograph
You’re like famous in our house as we talk about the blog at least daily 
Now that I think about it, we’ve been at several functions at the same time. You guys were at the last LUX community event. We were at the same table making personalized pins. And I believe your oldest was in the same Sunday School class as my son at Berean. Small world huh? (I promise I’m not a stalker)
Gene says Seriously. December 1, 2011 at 11:51am
Go to Philadelphia and watch how they assemble a cheese steak in a few minutes.
Write it down or take a picture.
Copy it.