That was a typo as I’m not sure where the meat came from but the rolls were imported from Philly
Sounded perfectly reasonable to me.
We use to get Greek gyro meat prepackaged along with the pita bread at WinCo.
Straight from Chicago. 
I’ve been making a lot of cheese steaks lately, I posted about it here:
You can partially freeze and slice thin as others have said. I also have one of these which is awesome and totally easy to clean: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=manual+meat+slicer&ref=nb_sb_noss
As for tips and tricks - I’ll chop of the fat bits from the steak and start with that in the pan to get it rendered, or if i don’t have excess fat bacon fat is awesome too. Throw in onions, then meat. Let them hang in their own side of the pan. Don’t worry about getting the steak in any special configuration, just let them go wherever in the pan and just give it a press to make contact. As someone mentioned above, “real” philly cheesesteak is more steamed than seared, because they are cooking such large quantities. The trick to getting that seared brown flavor at home is to toss your stuff in the pan and leave it alone. Get the onions almost burned, same with the steak. You can even do like a partially pink but well browned cheesesteak this way. You don’t even have to toss or flip the steaks around, the top will get pink while the bottom gets crusty.
For cheese it’s personal pref but I am heavily biased towards gooey yellow cheese. Velveeta, butter and half and half is what I use. You mentioned mushrooms, I don’t think it’s a worthwhile addition to a cheesesteak but if you want mushrooms I would highly recommend the Cook’s illustrated method, you can find a video on Youtube by searching for America’s test kitchen mushrooms.
If you have a slicer or can slice thin enough, basically any cut is fine. Ribeye is classic but there are famous places that are using round. As long as its thin and you hit it with enough beef or bacon fat it will taste fine. Chuck would probably be the best bang for the buck. As for why using something like ribeye - there’s this misconception that you can’t tell shitty lean meat when it’s cooked through but it’s actually the opposite. Fatty cuts shine most compared to others especially when it is cooked through, because the fat keeps it juicy. The whole “cook the shitty steak for the well done eater” thing is absolute nonsense.
Bread doesn’t even really matter after that, I wouldn’t focus on getting any specific type of bread, use what you like! In the linked picture I used a sliced bread that’s a bit airy and has some chew. Toasted up it goes really good with a cheesesteak giving it a nice crunch even though it’s far from traditional. You generally have a choice to go with a soft steamy vs toasted crispy, and both are great depending on what you’re looking for.
And along the lines of the smashburger you mentioned… check out chopped cheese recipes, it’s basically a burger/cheesesteak baby.
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Today’s cheese steak. Sliced ribeye, cheap american singles and onions. On an everything roll! It was good but needed more meat. I wanted to show how you can get a combination of deep browning and pink meat by not moving the meat around. Same with onions, you get some black and some cooked through.
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Since I have had no success so far in tracking down Shannon (the proprietor of Knuckle Dragger) I decided to check out the local Safeway for bread. The best I came away with was their “Signature Select French Hoagie Rolls”. At about 7.5 inches, they’re a bit smaller than the Amoroso rolls, and they’re pre-sliced (which I wish they weren’t), but they have a similar soft texture and smell great.
So later today I’ll be doing a smashed Philly Cheese (ground) Steak with a fatty, fresh ground Chuck, sautéed onions, shrooms, and bell peppers in EVOO, with deli American cheese. I’m gonna prep a splash of soy/Worcestershire sauce just in case I think it needs it… so stay tuned for a photo or two and my feelings about the end result.
Ok… delicious. Did onions, then shrooms, and peppers. Onions were a little too done so next time it will be shrooms, then onions, and then peppers.
Based on how good this was I don’t think I’m gonna mess with sliced steak.
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Ok I have done this pup quite a few times now, both for me and a friend (he was doubtful when he saw the meatballs, but blown away in the end).
So here is the tried and true recipe: https://scottinpollock.us/cheesesteak.html
Obviously, if your timing is good at getting the cast iron just to the smoke point 3 minutes before the veggies are done you won’t need to set them aside as mentioned in step 2.
Enjoy!
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I don’t mean to quibble, but isn’t a meeatball grinder a meatball sandwich whether you deconstruct it or not?
Either that or you’ve devised a new category. 
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Hmmm… well they’re not really meatballs… just fairly fatty ground beef formed into balls so they can be evenly smashed (no seasoning or other ingredients).
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BTW… I have become so enamored with the flavor of these smashed meat balls (for this and my burgers), last week I made chili… and instead of just browning 2 lbs of beef in a large skillet, I formed a dozen of these balls and smashed them 3 at a time, before adding them to the other ingredients in my stand mixer to break it all apart, and add it to the crock pot.
That was the only change I made to my standby chili recipe and the results were surprising (so much beefier).
So maybe “smash-meat” is a new cat for ingredients. (c; Wonder what it would do to a Bolognese?
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So sorry, but just one more “BTW” while I am thinking about this:
I’ve never been a “pink in the middle” boy. While I like tender and juicy, looser pink meat in the center of my burger turns me off, and a reason why I never order/make a half pound burger (I’d order/make it med/well, and it would be dry, grey, and tasteless on the inside).
But these smash burgers… there is no pink (and no grey). They’re brown with a great crust, and amazingly tender, juicy, and flavorful. To be honest, since they are seared to within an inch of their lives, I have no idea how they come out so tender and juicy (although I do understand why they are so flavorful).
Wished I discovered this years ago. Yeah… I had heard of them, but it wasn’t a trend in So Cal when I lived there. And up here it is quite a trip to hit up a place that does them this way so I never bothered.
Thinking of opening a restaurant in town called “SmashVille” as there is no place left here that can do a decent (let alone stellar) burger. (c;
OK… I’ll climb down from my soap box now. Just wanted to underline/reiterate/obnoxiously harp about how great these are. (c;
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I’m with you. I can’t bring myself to order a half pound burger oozing red blood. I’d rather have a Sloppy Joe…
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Nothing to apologize for.
I’m team pink though.
You’ll find smashed thin burgers, frequently with grilled onions smushed in, east of the Rockies.
I don’t see em up here in Oregon.
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We used to get these at a drive-in in El Paso in 1963. Double patties in fact. Seared yet juicy. I used to copy them at home, rolling out the patties between waxed paper to probably 3/16". 5 inch buns, all the trimmings. Need to revisit these. Thanks for the memory nudge.
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Hi Scott, coming in late to your thread but rather than calling what you are making a Philly cheese steak, just call it a cheese steak sandwich. That way you can go in whatever direction you please and not worry about how it compares to the original especially if you haven’t had it in Philly. I’m not from or have lived in Philadelphia but my son goes to school there so we have had several occasions to try it. Its not a fancy sandwich, but a greasy slippery mess. Tasty but when you start adding mushrooms and peppers and fancy cheese with sauce, you’ve deviated enough that Philly is far back in the rear view mirror as you drive west. It sort of like clam chowder. There are three primary regional variants where I am. New England, Manhattan and Rhode Island with Rhode Island being the simplest and my favorite for the clean essence of clams. Throw in tomatoes or cream and its something different. Chowder family, but the thing that gave it the regional touch is now gone. Getting back to Philly, a much better sandwich is the roast pork with greens and provolone. Beats the cheese steak but a mile.
As to chili, try making it with chunks of meat, not ground, which you can give a good hard sear. Cook the meat with lots of dried chilis that you soak and then blend. No tomatoes. Will be a revelation.
As to smash burgers, its a pretty established alternative for burgers these days. So much so that there is a chain called Smashburger.
I guess you’re not a fan of steak tartar?
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Yeah… never been to Philadelphia, but there “was” a place up here that made what I thought was a pretty authentic one (she got the bread and steak from there), and I used that to go by as it was delicious. But the shrooms and peppers were always at my request (and don’t remember where that desire originated). I assumed that in Philly (like in most markets/genres) there are offerings that vary greatly regarding quality and the end result. And calling it a cheese steak is probably a misnomer, but IMHO it is still seriously delicious.
As for chili, I do use dried anchos, along with fresh peppers, but prefer my coarse grind of short rib and chuck as opposed to cut steak… and it has to have my San Marzano tomatoes. I have made tomato and bean-less chili in the past for things like chili burgers/dogs, but in a bowl or over pasta I much prefer tomatoes and beans.
I have heard of SmashBurger (there are a few around here), but the closest one is 90 minutes round trip in an area I rarely go to for any reason so it was just not something I explored.
Steak Tartar… not a fan of steak or raw anything (except maybe oysters and ceviche), Carne Asada (although I love Mexican), prime rib, or any steak like form of beef, lamb, or pork. When my parents served steak or chops up (which was all too often) I would have hot dogs or fish sticks as a replacement. I think this is attributable to the fact that they did a lousy job of it, as well as me being uncomfortable with cuts of animals that look like cuts of animals. And working with this kind of stuff for the ground/shredded result I enjoy in dishes is my least favorite aspect of cooking.
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I think this would be considered a chopped cheese, which is definitely delicious in its own way and very close to a cheesesteak in spirit.
Edit: Read the recipe and it looks like OP keeps the patties in tact… so in this case… smash burger.
OP you really ought to try making an actual cheese steak.
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I think you may have missed step 11.
Back to chopped cheese then! 
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