How one Toronto man turned grief into the best Philly cheesesteaks in the city
Has a sandwich ever made you cry? I don't mean the first-bite-so-tasty-it-brings-a-tear-to-your-eye experience, but the type of sandwich that was so evidently created from a place of such palpable passion, a true love, that it actually makes you emotional, aside from being both eye- and mouth-wateringly good?
The Philly cheesesteaks from Toronto-based sandwich pop-up Hayden's Cheesesteaks may just provide you with both experiences.
Founded by Toronto resident (and full-time corporate lawyer, the underachiever), Max Solomons, Hayden's has rapidly become the city's go-to business for Philly cheesesteaks; even though, as of now, you can only score one of the sandwiches at one of the sparse business' pop-ups. Hey, as they say, scarcity breeds obsession.
It was that very scarcity, fostered by an evident lack of businesses that expressly deal in cheesesteaks, that prompted Max to start Hayden's in the first place, but the story goes a lot deeper than that.
Max and his father, Hayden Solomons, cheer on the Philadelphia Eagles. Photo courtesy of Max Solomons.
Max tells blogTO that when he and his Halle were growing up, his father, the eponymous Hayden, was a die-hard fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, and every family trip to watch the team play in Philly would, inevitably, end in the consumption of at least one (but usually more) cheesesteak sandwich.
"We were diehard season ticket holders, travelled to Philadelphia all the time, just fell in love with the city, and one of the things we fell in love with on our many, many trips to Philadelphia was Philly cheesesteaks," Max says.
Originally trying the sandwiches at Pat's, which Max admits could be seen as a tourist trap, he eventually found his holy grail in Angelo's Pizzeria (the difference, he says, is that they popularized the use of Cooper Sharp cheese instead of Cheez Whiz), though he wouldn't say no to a cheesesteak from anywhere.
"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 explains.
Hayden Solomons passed away in 2020, but his passion for all things Philadelphia — namely the Eagles and cheesesteak sandwiches — lived on in his two children and wife, Robin.
It wasn't until Max found himself drawing a blank when a friend asked where he likes to go for cheesesteaks in Toronto that he realized the perfect way to pay homage to his father. In late 2025, Hayden's Cheesesteaks was born.
"I realized a couple years ago that there really wasn't anything similar [to Angelo's] in Toronto, which was strange, because Toronto has this vibrant food scene. 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," he explains.
So, Max, with the help of his sister, mom, and wife, took it upon himself to fix that. The mission was twofold: make Hayden's name one that everyone in the city immediately associates with a damn-good cheesesteak, and create cheesesteaks that would please even the discerning palates of Philly natives.
No pressure.
With no formal cooking training or experience, just a lifetime of market research, Max got to work on formulating his perfect cheesesteak. He admits that he probably went through upwards of 50 prototypes before settling on his recipe, but finally, all the pieces came together.
Listed in Max's personal order of importance, the sandwiches consist of seeded baguette from Circles and Squares bakery, Castello Tickler sharp cheese (a perfect Canadian-made stand-in for the much-loved Coopers Sharp) and AAA beef chuck, all topped with three-hour caramelized onions to cut through the salty, salty sandwich.
Hayden's launched its first pop-up in November 2025 and sold 100 sandwiches in hours. At the next pop-up, they sold 200. If Max wasn't confident in his recipe before, the uproarious reception from the city's foodie base was confirmation, and subsequent pop-ups at the likes of Brunswick Bierworks and Golden Horseshoe BBQ.
To have a venture with such a deeply personal backstory be received so enthusiastically and so immediately, Max tells blogTO, has been nothing short of "amazing."
"It feels amazing because there's no one that's more deserving of a legacy like this than my dad. He was my hero. I learned everything from him," Max explains.
"I think that the most important thing to us is that our sandwich is able to tell the story in and of itself. It would be one thing if we had this emotional connection to what we were doing, but the product didn't hold up, and I could never think of putting something out there with my dad's name on it, like he would kill me, so I knew if we're going to name it Hayden's, it's got to be good, and so the fact that people love it in sort of the same way that we do, it's amazing."
Now the proud father of a 12-week-old son named Hayden ("he's going to grow up thinking this is about him," Max jokes), Max's ambitions for the business go far beyond pop-ups, although he's got plenty of those planned for the summer ahead, too.
"Big picture, I hope that this spawns a brick-and-mortar one day," Max tells blogTO, "I think that necessarily is in the future as we grow, and we continue to seek out good partners to help us realize that reality."
But it won't be until he opens a location in Philadelphia — one that's received with positive regard from the community despite being an out-of-town cheesesteak business — that Max will really know he's made it.
You can keep up with Hayden's Cheesesteaks by following them on Instagram.
