The supergroup behind the new cheesesteak stand at Reading Terminal Market includes Angelo’s Pizzeria and DiNic’s

The new cheesesteak stand at Reading Terminal Market has a distinctive pedigree.

Two owners of Uncle Gus’ Steaks are second-generation market veterans: Joe Nicolosi of DiNic’s Roast Pork & Beef and Dave Braunstein of Pearl’s Oyster Bar. The third is Danny DiGiampietro, owner of Angelo’s Pizzeria in South Philadelphia, who is baking his signature steak rolls for Uncle Gus’ singular product.

Uncle Gus’ soft-opened late last week on the market’s 12th Street side, next to Bassetts Ice Cream. It replaced Carmen’s Famous Italian Hoagies & Cheesesteaks, which closed last month when Carmen DiGuglielmo retired after 42 years.

DiGiampietro, 52, whose background is in baking, was a bread vendor who delivered rolls to DiNic’s and Pearl’s before he opened Angelo’s.

Nicolosi, 43, and his father, Tommy, had long considered opening a cheesesteak stand as a complement to DiNic’s revered Italian sandwiches such as roast pork, roast beef, and meatballs. “It was always, ‘One day… one day…’ That type of thing,” Nicolosi said. “Then Dave and I became friends and we talked about it as well.”

DiNic’s manager Jack Mooney’s background is in cheesesteaks, as he worked for former market stand Rick’s Steaks from age 13 to 23, after which he left to become a prison guard. He returned in late 2019 to work for Nicolosi at DiNic’s.

Last year, Mooney approached DiGuglielmo on Nicolosi’s behalf and asked if he would sell Carmen’s. DiGuglielmo wasn’t ready. Then, in February, Mooney ran into DiGuglielmo at the annual Party for the Market, Nicolosi said, and DiGuglielmo wanted to talk.

DiGuglielmo rejected Nicolosi’s initial offer. Nicolosi and Braunstein then texted DiGiampietro: “Hey. Cheesesteaks. Reading Terminal. You in?’”

He was, agreeing to share the business equally with Nicolosi and Braunstein.

“It was like that,” Braunstein, 37, said.

Uncle Gus‘ is the Nicolosi family’s first foray into cheesesteaks. “I have a long history of saying quasi-derogatory things about cheesesteaks,” Nicolosi said. “I think I got this line from my dad: ‘A cheesesteak is like a hot dog. It could be good but it’s not cooking.’” Since turning on the grills at Uncle Gus‘ last week, however, Nicolosi acknowledged that he has more respect for the grillwork.

A decade ago, Braunstein took over Pearl’s Oyster Bar from his parents, Dani and Lisa Braunstein, who opened it in 1981. In a further connection, Dave Braunstein’s younger brother Jared is general manager of Angelo’s, on Ninth Street near Fitzwater.

The stand is named after Nicolosi’s great-uncle Gaetano “Gus” Pollizze, a retired upholsterer who for two decades sang opera for customers while working DiNic’s register. He died in 2009 at age 89.

Nicolosi and Braunstein said their goal was to sell the best cheesesteak in the city.

Won’t this create an odd dynamic, with DiGiampietro both a business partner and the owner of Angelo‘s, one of the city’s most acclaimed sandwich shops?

“I defer to what Tommy always says: ‘I don’t know if we’re the best, but we try our best,’” DiGiampietro said

“It’s all subjective,” Braunstein said, with a smile.

Nicolosi knows this first hand. His family came into the pork business through his great-grandfather, an immigrant butcher named Gaetano Nicolosi. His sons — including Tommy’s father, Benny — started roasting pork and selling it out of a garage in 1954.

Nicolosi remembers hearing how customers compared roast pork sandwiches when his father, along with cousin Frank DiClaudio (the “Di” in “DiNic’s”), opened their first shop in South Philadelphia in 1977.

“Everybody said the young guys are good but the old guys at the butcher shop, they’re better,” Joe Nicolosi said.

Same product, same process, though.

“Without question, there are going to be people that say Uncle Gus’ might be Angelo’s-adjacent but the original is better,” Braunstein said. “We’re going to have that. But I would say that Angelo’s is amazing, but they’re doing so many things. We’re going to be singularly focused on one thing.”

Besides the same rolls, Nicolosi said, Uncle Gus' basic sandwich has the elements of Angelo’s standard cheesesteaks — the same beef, Cooper sharp cheese, and fried onions.

“We‘re not looking to be a carbon copy,” Nicolosi said. Angelo’s offers whole, roasted long-hot peppers on its sandwiches, for example, while Uncle Gus’ slices its long-hots, griddles them on the flattop, and folds them into the meat.

“We’re modeling ourselves after the guy that we feel subjectively has elevated the cheesesteak primarily through his bread,” Nicolosi said. “So can we take it further? Do we necessarily know the path to that now? Not really.”