Max Solomons turned grief into Toronto's best Philly cheesesteaks

Max Solomons never set out to become a cheesesteak evangelist. The Toronto corporate lawyer grew up watching Philadelphia Eagles games with his father, Hayden, and the family tradition always ended the same way: cheesesteaks at Angelo's Pizzeria.

When Hayden passed away in 2020, his passion for Philadelphia and its iconic sandwich lived on in Max, his sister, mother, and wife. It wasn't until a friend asked where to find good cheesesteaks in Toronto that Max realized the answer: nowhere. In late 2025, he launched Hayden's Cheesesteaks as both a business and a tribute.

"My dad and I got to go to Angelo's together, and we just fell in love with it. It was like a gourmet sandwich in place of something that a lot of people don't associate with gourmet," Max told blogTO.

With no formal cooking training, Max spent months developing his recipe, going through upwards of 50 prototypes before settling on his final version. The sandwich layers seeded baguette from Circles and Squares bakery with Castello Tickler sharp cheese and premium meats, built on Angelo's use of Cooper Sharp cheese instead of the tourist-trap standard Cheez Whiz.

Right now, Hayden's operates as a pop-up with sparse appearances across the city — a scarcity that has only fueled obsession. "There really wasn't anything similar [to Angelo's] in Toronto, which was strange, because Toronto has this vibrant food scene," Max said. "We've got amazing burgers, amazing pizza, amazing bars, and other restaurants, and we just, you know, cheesesteaks aren't really a thing that Toronto has in a signature way."

The mission was twofold: make Hayden's name synonymous with damn-good cheesesteaks and create sandwiches that would satisfy even discerning Philadelphia natives.

The pop-up model keeps lines long and availability scarce — a formula that seems to be working.