Thomson, Phillies find slice of home in London pub

This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki’s Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The Phillies had finished a team event in the Tower of London on Thursday night, when manager Rob Thomson suggested a group of his coaches and others grab a pint at a spot just a stone’s throw from the London Eye.

But this wasn’t a traditional English pub.

This was Passyunk Avenue.

“We found out that there was a Philly bar,” Thomson said Friday afternoon at London Stadium. “So I said, ‘Well, let’s head over. We’ll take everybody with us.’ We had a great time. It was amazing how many people from Philadelphia were there. And then, obviously, the Phillies fan from Great Britain. It was just a lot of fun.”

Passyunk Avenue has been a popular spot for Phillies fans before this weekend’s 2024 London Series between the Phillies and Mets at London Stadium. JP Teti founded Passyunk Avenue a few years ago. He moved to London in 2008 for a big-time corporate gig with Xerox, but he eventually left that corporate world behind.

Why? Well, one reason is Teti kept asking himself, “Why can’t I find a good hoagie in London? Why can’t I find a good cheesesteak? Why can’t I find that Italian-American fusion food that fueled me as a kid?”

Teti started a Philly-inspired food truck that turned into three Passyunk Avenue locations in London. Business has gone so well that Teti has plans for expansion in Dublin, Amsterdam and elsewhere.

Teti grew up in Lawrenceville, N.J., a little more than an hour from Citizens Bank Park. The Teti family immigrated to the United States from Italy in the early 1900s. They settled in South Philadelphia.

Think 9th and Dickinson and 8th and Greenwich.

Italian families in South Philadelphia take food seriously, which can be said for pretty much everybody in the Delaware Valley. Consider the cheesesteak. If you want to rile up a Philadelphian, post a photo of a janky cheesesteak served outside of Philly.

Philadelphians will lose their minds every time.

Teti serves a cheesesteak at Passyunk Avenue. It’s legit.

“I spent literally months working on the recipes,” he said. “We developed a bread recipe, we developed a Cheese Whiz recipe. You can’t just go into a supermarket here and buy shaved ribeye steaks like you can do in Philly. We went through great pains to get it right. Because I’m that guy. I’m the guy that won’t order a cheesesteak 45 minutes outside Philly because I know it’s going to be bogus. I knew if I didn’t get this right and I called it a cheesesteak and it wasn’t a true cheesesteak, I’d get kicked out of the Sons of Italy’s Philadelphia chapter. I wasn’t going to do that.”