Hot Plate: The Burnham's Philly Cheesesteak Bowl

We’ve all swooned for a bite of a street-corner Philly sandwich with its mountain of meat overflowing with cheese crevassed tightly inside a hoagie bun. It’s those kind of cherished cravings that inspire the chefs at the Burnham to turn our favorite comfort foods into modern-day memories such as the Philly cheesesteak bowl ($14). “A lot of people think of a Philly cheesesteak as a greasy gigundo sandwich that you can just mow down,” says Burnham’s chef de cuisine Justin Ofandiski. ”This is kind of refined.” Our beloved heart-attack-on-a-bun comes deconstructed in a stack with a crispy butter-toasted brioche bun as the base. Submerged in a pimento cheese and beef jus sauce, it’s then topped with caramelized onions, sauteed bell peppers and 8 ounces of pulled beef shoulder that’s been braised for eight hours and doused with sherry vinegar for that familiar melt-in-your-mouth grease feeling without all the fat. “It’s got that sharp bite that hits you right in the back of the mouth,” says Ofandiski. 100 Lakeside Ave. E, Cleveland, 216-413-5120, theburnhamrestaurant.com