In celebration of our relaunch, Untossed teamed up with PYT’s Tommy Up to introduce what might just be the finest salad creation Philly has ever seen. It’s the PYT Bacon Cheeseburger Slider Salad and we had a chance to stop in yesterday for an exclusive bite.

The basis for this salad is fresh, never frozen, chopped iceberg lettuce. Mixed into the greens are diced onions, pickles and tomatoes, with shredded cheddar cheese and plentiful crispy bites of bacon. All of this is topped with miniature versions of PYT’s signature burger, cooked to a perfect medium-well and draped in melted cheddar. A drizzle of the housemade mustard vinaigrette, seals the deal; but next time around, I think I’ll add some ketchup to really round off that burger experience.

“This salad is pretty healthy” said Up, standing alongside Kimberly Malcolm, who helped develop the dish. PYT has really done it again and with a salad offering like this, we’re expecting to see a Up tweeting about a “Salad of the Week” in no time.

PYT
1050 N. Hancock Street – Philadelphia, PA 19123 (Google Map)

Just before Thanksgiving PYT’s Tommy Up announced plans to introduce a new specialty burger each week. The menu kicked off with a Thanksgiving burger made from ground turkey topped with stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce. Following that, Up collaborated with neighboring restaurant El Camino Real to create a pastrami special burger topped with Texas smoked brisket and smeared with Thousand Island dressing. Yesterday, the Tijuana burger dropped with housemade guacamole, chipotle mayo and tortilla strips.

Check out Fries With That Shake, where self-proclaimed burger baroness Jess has full ongoing coverage of the PYT burger of the week.

PYT
1050 N. Hancock Street – Philadelphia, PA 19123 (Google Map)

A round up of exciting sandwich news and links from around the web.

• The Great American Smokeout 2009 is today and hopes to help people kick their tobacco habit. The American Cancer Society suggests restaurants and work places to offer “cold turkey sandwiches” to remind people it’s time to quit. [American Cancer Society]

• The excellent With Love Letters series continues, this time featuring James Beard Award-winning chef Marc Vetri. When he’s not at Vetri, Osteria or working on his new concept, the chef enjoys a Geno’s cheesesteak whiz wit’. [Uwishunu]

• Tweeting fiend Tommy Up let it drop last night that his burger joint PYT will begin a burger of the week special. First up: The Thanksgivin’ which features a turkey burger, topped with stuffing, cranberry relish and smothered in gravy, served next Monday through Sunday (they are closed on Thanksgiving day). We’ve heard rumors of a Wagyu beef burger with pickled daikon and wasabi mayo hitting the menu in coming weeks. [Tommy Up/Twitter]

• Royal Tavern’s Beer and Burger Bash was such a hit last night, that an encore production will play out this evening. Grab special burgers and craft beers starting at 5pm. [Uwishunu]

Ask Tommy Up for the real meaning behind the initials in P.Y.T., his new burger joint at The Piazza, and you won’t get a straight answer. Most will immediately make a connection to the song by the late King of Pop, but Up won’t admit where it’s from, sarcastically offering suggestions like: Pad Your Tummy and Pick Your Toppings. Still, after one look of the sleek space and its pale wood bar, retro green vinyl stools. and crowd of tenants from the apartments that surround, you’ll realize that it all feels pretty and young. Since becoming Philadelphia’s most well known party promoter in recent years through his company PaperStreet, opening a lounge was a logical next step for Up. It was his love for California style burgers that led him to develop the space as not just a bar and dance floor, but a full fledged restaurant.

During his most recent tenure throwing parties at the upstairs lounge of Time Restaurant, Up became friendly with Chef Josh McCullough. After casually pitching the idea of P.Y.T., they started working on a menu of a variety of sandwiches and desserts. The pair did research by eating some of the best burgers in America, citing New York, Miami, and Los Angeles as especially inspiring. Eventually Up and McCullough settled on a menu composed of a variety of sandwiches, hand cut fries, beer battered onion rings, lobster fishsticks, and milkshakes – both virgin and alcoholic.

The namesake P.Y.T. Burger is a five ounce proprietary Ashley Foods patty topped with bacon, lettuce, tomato, onions, kettle chips and a house made garlic mayo on a Martin’s potato roll. Even with the overwhelming crowd, McCullough’s kitchen staff was sending out expertly cooked burgers; ours, ordered medium, was the perfect combination of a crispy exterior and juicy, pink middle. Chef McCullough attributes this killer grill job to a very hot griddle and a well-trained staff that’s been instructed to treat the burgers as they would a steak – by probing each one for exact temperature.

Burgers are also offered with more patties: the Royale With Cheese topped with two is for the Jules Winnfield in you and for those with an even large appetite, The Big Mic offers a towering three. One can also customize their burger to taste, with a variety of cheeses including goat, blue and Boursin toppings like a fried egg, jalapeños, avocado and more. The TLC Burger, does indeed taste like chicken, because it is: lean chicken breasts are ground and formed into a patty. The consistency gives that perfect burger bite, with a peppery seasoning and unmistakably grilled chicken taste.

Vegetarian offerings are aptly named “Bogus Burgers” but are delicious none the less. The Calibunga Burger is a patty formed from white beans, basil, tomatoes and garlic held together by garlic bread crumbs. The refreshing departure from the typical black bean burger and fresh flavors impressed us. For those shy to meat and not necessarily focused on health concerns will love the Shroom Burger. Shredded cheddar cheese is sandwiched between two Portobello mushrooms which are beer battered then fried and topped with special sauce. Never before have we encountered a mushroom burger that was such an artery clogger, but damn was it good.

For the kid in you, the menu offers the P.Y.T. Dog, a Hebrew National jumbo beef frank topped with homemade chili, diced onions and blanketed in cheddar cheese. There’s also no fooling around with the Pretty Serious Grilled Cheese, a smathering of Boursin, mushrooms and tomatoes that can be ordered with or without bacon. We can’t say we tried the Peanut Butter Jelly Time but there’s no going wrong with a grilled PB&J with bananas. An ice cream sandwich is still being toyed around with, but we did get to sample the current incarnation of vanilla ice cream dotted with chocolate chips, sandwiched between chocolate peanut butter cookies from Brown Betty Desserts and sprinkled with ground coffee beans.

This past weekend, P.Y.T. launched to much fanfare, with hordes of people coming out to taste free burgers offered by Tommy Up on Twitter. It’s a realization of what he does best, bring the people to the party. Now that he can feed, intoxicate and entertain his guests, Up is going to find himself with a new problem: getting them to leave when it’s closing time.

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P.Y.T.
1050 N Hancock Street Philadelphia, PA 19123 (Google Map)