Guinness World Record for longest line of cheesesteaks is set at Philadelphia International Airport

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia steaked its claim on the sandwich that bears its name by setting the Guinness World Record for longest line of cheesesteaks — 1,291 lined up end to end — at Philadelphia International Airport on Tuesday, National Cheesesteak Day.

“We are the world champions of cheesesteaks, baby!” yelled MarketPlace PHL operating partner Clarence LeJeune as he accepted the award on behalf of the airport.

Wit or witout the title, there’s no question Philly is the cheesesteak capital of the world, but now that we have the receipts, nobody better start any beef.

As a live DJ played bangers like Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” and Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” in the connector between Terminals B and C, more than 100 airport employees and volunteers stuffed the foot-long Amoroso’s rolls with 990 pounds of Philly’s Best Steak, then drizzled 225 pounds of Cooper Sharp cheese sauce all over them.

On hand to help set the record were Kosuke and Tomomi Chujo, owners of the Tokyo bar Nihonbashi Philly, who have gone viral for the authentic cheesesteaks they make in Japan and for their love of all things Philly.

“We came just for this event. We have to join, otherwise we can’t say we’re a cheesesteak restaurant,” Tomomi Chujo said.

As proud as she was to participate in the world record, Chujo — who wore a green baseball cap that said “BIRDS” and socks that read “PHL Cheesesteak” — was equally proud of experiencing a different Philly rite of passage on this trip.

“I got a PPA ticket! I am so happy!” she said, marking perhaps another record for the first time anyone has ever been happy with the Philadelphia Parking Authority.

In the hour or so it took to create the cheesesteaks, a drone continually flew over the assembly line as travelers from the around the world stopped to ask about the commotion and the placards set up that said: “HISTORY IN PROGRESS.”

The signs seemed to take on a dual meaning given that it was the first day Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were visibly deployed in the airport at the behest of the Trump administration as TSA wait times skyrocket across the country due to the partial government shutdown.

But the wait times weren’t bad at the Philly airport Tuesday. Desiree Cruz, 33, of Los Angeles, who was flying home from a wedding in Philly, arrived several hours before her flight but only had to wait five minutes to get through her TSA PreCheck screening.

She was ecstatic to stumble upon the record-setting event as she killed time in the airport, especially since she hadn’t grabbed a cheesesteak while she was in town.

“This is extraordinary! This is surreal!” she said. “I was just thinking about getting a cheesesteak and now I am about to witness history.”

Once the assembly was done, Guinness World Record official adjudicator Michael Empric — who was dressed in a very official Guinness World Record blue blazer and armed with a very official blue Guinness World Record clipboard — walked the line with his tally counter to make sure all the cheesesteaks meat expectations.

Every steak was required to be on a roll 30 centimeters long and had to be filled with chopped beef and “some cheese product.” Each cheesesteak also had to touch the next one, end to end, resulting in a total length of about 1,271 feet.

The record-setting attempt was not without its misteaks. When announcing his findings, Empric noted that a few holes in the line were filled with partial pieces of cheesesteaks. While that very Philly workaround did not disqualify the attempt, those partial steaks were deducted from the total.

Philly’s cheesesteak line was a first-time category creator, according to Empric. As such, Guinness World Records set a baseline of 500 cheesesteaks to be considered for the record, a bar Philly easily beat.

While others have claimed to set Guinness World Records for longest line of cheesesteaks — like the Main Street Grill in Lewiston, Idaho, which made a 722-foot line of cheesesteaks in 2023 — they either didn’t follow through, didn’t make the cut, or never submitted their paperwork to officially be considered a Guinness World Record holder, Empric said.

This isn’t the first time a massive line of cheesesteaks has been assembled in Philadelphia, either. In 2015, Steve’s Prince of Steaks created a 480-foot cheesesteak for the Philadelphia Cheesesteak Festival, and in 2021, more than a dozen Philly restaurateurs and establishments worked together to build a 510-foot line of cheesesteaks that ran three blocks through the Italian Market.

Given that Tuesday was the first official cheesesteak Guinness World Record attempt for Philly, twin sisters Kala and Maya Johnstone, who are food influencers and the owners of FoodChasers’ Kitchen, came from Glenside to witness it.

“We want to be here for this moment so when we visit other cities we can talk trash, like Baltimore, who is giving us hell talking about they got the better cheesesteak,” Kala Johnstone said. “Well, we got the world record. We have the pictures and evidence. We were here today and Philly made history.”

A final requirement to obtain the Guinness World Record, according to Empric, was that all of the cheesesteaks must be donated or consumed on site. In accordance, cheesesteaks were freely given out to participants, volunteers, and airport workers, while others were hand-delivered to TSA employees, who have gone without a paycheck since the partial shutdown began last month.

Peter Ciarrocchi, CEO of Chickie’s & Pete’s, whose four airport restaurants provided the kitchen equipment and prep space for the event, said he loved watching so many people work together to make this record a reality.

“Breaking the world record is always awesome,” he said. “But one of my favorite things today was feeding the TSA with the cheesesteaks, because this city is the City of Brotherly Love and these people are working without pay. Without them, nobody can be in this airport.”