You Can Try Bradley Cooper's Cheesesteak Restaurant Danny & Coop's This Weekend Before It Opens in 2025 (We Did!)
12/21/2024 03:20 PM
Cooper is soft opening the Danny & Coop's brick-and-mortar store in New York City in December — so PEOPLE tried it out
Bradley Cooper can add restaurateur to his already stacked résumé!
The Maestro actor teamed up with Danny DiGiampietro, the owner of Philadelphia's beloved Angelo's Pizzeria, to open the very first brick-and-mortar store of their new food venture, Danny & Coop's, in New York City's Alphabet City neighborhood in January 2025.
But people can try the restaurant during its soft open on Dec. 20, 21 and 22 — at 151 Ave. A in a lively spot facing Tompkins Square Park. During these dates, the store is serving up just one meal: its Philly cheesesteak.
Danny & Coop's made its first post on its Instagram page on Dec. 20, announcing the soft open and letting hungry cheesesteak fans know they were open on Friday and will be open again at 3 p.m. on Saturday and 5 p.m. on Sunday — until they run out of cheesesteaks.
So, of course, I, as a local cheesesteak and Cooper fan, made my way to the new spot on Friday evening to experience Danny & Coop's in person.
For the soft launch, the restaurant was being run by family, with DiGiampietro's daughter and niece at the cash register taking orders. They let me know there was a line waiting for an hour before they opened at 6 p.m., though by 6:45, it had mainly cleared out.
Content creators online documented Cooper hard at work in the kitchen, with Mike Chau writing, "Coop was on the line out of sight of the dining area, turning out these top notch cheesesteaks."
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Knowing there would be a line at open, I tried to avoid the wait by getting there at 7 p.m. and, to my surprise, the room was clear. I was greeted Cooper before he hopped right back into the kitchen. There was only one menu option — a hearty, classic Philly cheesesteak — and within minutes, I got my order in a nice to-go box branded with the company's logo.
Eager to eat, I rushed home and took out what looked like a foot-long sandwich. Still warm, the bread was filled to the brim with "Cooper Sharp and onions," or a cheesy, oniony mixture. On the first bite, I was obsessed: the gooey texture melted perfectly, and the steak was cooked to perfection. What more could a girl ask for on a rainy Friday night?
Cooper's girlfriend, model Gigi Hadid, also promoted the soft open on her Instagram Stories the same day.
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This isn't the first time Cooper has taken the beloved Philadelphia delight to the city. A year ago, in December 2023, Cooper joined DiGiampietro at a pop-up food truck in the West Village neighborhood, handing out the $18 cheesesteaks.
DiGiampietro told The Philadelphia Inquirer at the time that the two had been searching for a permanent spot to call home for their cheesesteak venture for two years, but rent prices proved to be an obstacle. "You know what they want in this neighborhood for 700 square feet?" DiGiampietro said. "Eighteen thousand a month!"
A year later, the duo has found a home for Danny & Coop's.