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Strip T’s…What’s in a name?

In 1986, Just about the same time the ball was going through Bill Buckner’s legs, I was putting the finishing touches on my new sirloin strip sandwich concept, “Strip-T’s” Yes, that’s where that name that gets all the funny looks comes from….Well over the years, as the price of sirloin strip kept rising, that signature sandwich became too pricey for our otherwise affordable menu and was gone. As new signage is very costly, and we had already built a solid customer base the name stayed, and let’s face it you tend to remember it.

But to me, Strip-t’s was always more than a steak sandwich shop with a quirky name. It was about creating a fun, creative, affordable and quality restaurant. Homemade food served by personable wait staff to great customers. The type of creative food, that people couldn’t find in the area at the time. To those early regulars, and thankfully we still have many, they will remember our early innovations of putting a variety of toppings on our Caesar salads such as grilled scallops, soft-shell crabs, turkey tips (I think we invented the grilled chicken Caesar) our over the top soup selections, paper thin onion rings, steak tips, fresh seafood po’boy’s and awesome pockets. We still carry many of those same items 25 years later and yes, still have customer abuse Fridays (at the insistence of our customers of course).

The addition of my son Tim into the business is an exciting recent realization for me. Tim, who was a toddler when we opened, is recently back from a five year stint with David Chang’s Restaurant group in NYC, most recently as Chef de Cuisine at Momofuku Ssam Bar. Keeping our lunch time menu mostly “old school Strip- t’s” Tim has taken over the night time menu and is putting out the type of world class dishes I couldn’t dream of producing. Please stop over for a try…I promise you will leave saying “great food” but “what’s up with that name?”. Thanks, Paul