May 01, 2025
Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images
Actor Bradley Cooper and Danny DiGiampietro, who owns Angelo's Pizzeria in South Philly, opened Danny & Coop's cheesesteak shop in New York's East Village in December. The duo stopped by the NovaCare Complex in South Philly on Thursday to cook and serve their cheesesteaks to the Eagles staff.
Bradley Cooper's headlong dive into the cheesesteak business is starting to look like more than a bit of moonlighting at the griddle.
Cooper and his business partner Danny DiGiampietro — baker and owner of Angelo's Pizzeria in South Philly — took over the Eagles' kitchen at the NovaCare Complex on Thursday to serve their Danny & Coop's cheesesteaks to the team's staff. The sandwiches are essentially the same as Angelo's cheesesteaks — sliced rib-eye steak and Cooper sharp cheese served on DiGiampietro's house-made rolls — but infused with Cooper's intangible charm as the Eagles' biggest celebrity superfan.
MORE: Tokyo's Nihonbashi Philly is serving its cheesesteaks at a Nothern Liberties block party
Cooper was cookin' 🔥 pic.twitter.com/NxTBJ9LO59
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) May 1, 2025
The Maestro of cheesesteaks paid us a visit pic.twitter.com/auGDljEA2j
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) May 1, 2025
Danny & Coop's started two years ago as a pop-up food truck in New York City. Their first storefront opened in the East Village in December to fill Manhattan's void of authentic Philly cheesesteaks. The shop earned a rave review from the New Yorker's Helen Rosner, who called DiGiampietro's rolls the "graceful torpedoes" that set his sandwiches apart.
"Most bread used for cheesesteaks tastes like nothing; it serves as a container and a handhold," Rosner wrote. "DiGiampietro’s bread tastes like bread, like sun on a wheat field, like the mysteries of fermentation, like salt and steam and the hot, mysterious darkness of the oven."
It helps that DiGiampietro pulls back the curtains on social media, posting almost daily videos from Angelo's that show off his freshly baked rolls that tempt customers to South Philly.
Cooper seems to be having the same magnetic effect with his kitchen and food truck appearances, including his stop in New Orleans to serve cheesesteaks ahead of the Eagles' Super Bowl victory in February.
In the five or so years since Angelo's opened on South 9th Street, the takeout-only shop has catapulted into the conversation for best Philly cheesesteak. Considering the decades of history behind some of their competitors, that's no small feat. And when the daily lines outside the shop are causing neighbors to complain, it's as clear a sign as any that Angelo's has graduated to the upper echelon.
For New Yorkers, Danny & Coop's has a more modest proposition. The storefront, also takeout only, is open three days a week with sporadic hours. The business serves cheesesteaks only and tends to have long lines. Rosner said she waited over an hour for her cheesesteak during one visit, but considered it well worth her time.
DiGiampietro is expected to soon expand his reach in the Philly dining scene. Last month, he teamed up with Joey Nicolosi of Tommy DiNic’s and Dave Braunstein of Pearl’s Oyster Bar to open Uncle Gus’ Steaks at Reading Terminal Market. And DiGiampietro told the Inquirer in December he's planning multiple new Angelo's locations in the Philly region.
For Cooper, who grew up in Jenkintown and attended high school at Germantown Academy, maybe opening up a Danny & Coop's back home will be the logical next step.
