PHILADELPHIA — Ismail Muhammad grabbed a handful of chopped chicken last week as the grill behind him sizzled. He used those hands — the ones that were crafting a cheesesteak egg roll — a few days earlier to knock out another foe, sprinkling more promise on his boxing career. And now he was back in the kitchen at Essie’s Steaks, the spot he owns on a corner in East Germantown.
Boxing and cheesesteaks have long been two of Philadelphia’s greatest exports. Muhammad, a 21-year-old who has won his first two professional fights and has owned Essie’s since 2019, is trying to master both.
“I don’t want to say I didn’t have a choice but boxing was one of the first things I knew,” Muhammad said. “And my dad always had a restaurant growing up. I was always in the store with my dad so I always wanted to be like my dad.”
Muhammad grew up about 10 houses from the corner of Crittenden and Price Streets, where customers order cheesesteak egg rolls and lemonade from a walk-up window while a portrait of the owner’s smiling face is painted on the door. He started learning how to cook when he was 5 years old as his father, Suetwedien, had him working the grill and deep fryer of his restaurant — also called Essie’s — as soon as he was tall enough to reach them.
For Muhammad, cooking is a way of life. So is boxing. He threw punches in front of the TV as an infant, hung around his father’s gym, and watched almost every other member of his family get in the ring.
He debuted as a professional in March after a successful amateur career. Muhammad fights with an Essie’s logo stitched on his trunks and is fittingly nicknamed “The Chef.”
The super lightweight is promoted by Jaron “Boots” Ennis, the IBF interim welterweight champion whom Muhammad met when they were just kids goofing around in the gym. They drive to the gym together, work out three times a day, and train under Ennis’ father, Bozy.
Ennis has the potential to be the sport’s next big star and Muhammad is one of the city’s top prospects.
“Boots came up with it,” Muhammad said of his nickname. “I hated it when he first came up with it. I was like, ‘That’s weird; it’s corny. I actually cook, don’t call me that. I don’t want to be called a chef as a boxer.’ He said, ‘No, you go in the ring and you cook people.’ I said, ‘Nah, I don’t like that.’ But as time went by, everyone started saying ‘The Chef, The Chef.’ So it was like ‘Whatever.’ It kind of grew on me.”
“He’s kind of like my little brother,” said Ennis, 26. “He’s been around since he was a baby. I always knew he was going to be an animal. He’s smart; he’s smooth, he’s powerful. He does everything and does everything good.”
Something different
Muhammad wanted to set Essie’s apart when he opened the restaurant, so he decided to try egg rolls. It is a traditional egg roll, but the inside is stuffed with steak and cheese. Muhammad knew of other shops selling cheesesteak egg rolls, but they weren’t homemade.
“They were frozen. You can get packaged egg rolls where you just drop it in there and it’s done,” Muhammad said. “I had to be one of the first couple people in the city selling homemade ones and then they just blew up. Food is like a wave; homemade egg rolls are interesting. ‘Oh, it’s a cheesesteak but it’s not a cheesesteak. It’s in a wrap.’ People get attracted to it and once I saw it was something that would sell and be in demand, we just ran with it. It worked for us.”
Muhammad gets to the boxing gym every morning around 11:30, finishes at 2:30, and heads straight to Essie’s, which one of his friends opens at 2 p.m. It gets busy but everyone knows their roles, Muhammad said, and the operation runs smoothly. Muhammad stays each night until Essie’s closes at 10 and does it all again — punches and jabs followed by cheese and steak — the next day.
“He has potential,” Bozy Ennis said “And man, he makes a nice steak.”
Essie’s is staffed by Muhammad’s closest friends as they sell beef and chicken cheesesteaks. They’ve added buffalo chicken and jerk chicken and even seafood varieties. Muhammad will scroll social media at night for ideas about what else he can stuff inside an egg roll. He’s always experimenting. They make their own fries, sell chicken wings, and grill burgers.
“We put love into it,” Muhammad said.
Muhammad wants his place to be known for more than just egg rolls. A group of teenagers hung outside last week as adults in their 20s mingled nearby. The Chef still lives in Germantown and loves that his spot has become a place where the neighborhood gathers.
“It’s like a safe haven,” said Muhammad, who graduated from nearby Imhotep Charter High. “It’s a place people can come to with good vibes and good conversations. Everyone is cool and everyone grew up here. Growing up in this neighborhood showed me who I wanted to be and who I didn’t want to be. I learned a lot growing up here. It means the world to me, so I love to make change back here. I love to show people that there’s more to life than this, showing them a difference.”
Dedicated in the kitchen and ring
Muhammad’s first fight ended with a knockout in the first round. His second fight ended earlier this month with a KO in the third round. The Chef was cooking. He plans to fight three more times this year, and Ennis said he’s trying to build his fighter into a world champion.
Muhammad’s father followed a successful 96-fight amateur career with a brief pro turn but said he lacked the discipline that his son has. It takes more than passion to balance a boxing career with a restaurant. And Muhammad — who keeps up the inventory, licensees, and other monotony that allows Essie’s to run — has what it takes.
“In a way, it’s almost shocking,” Suetwedien Muhammad said. “Not shocking in a way that he couldn’t do it but shocking in the way that he stayed focused enough and continued to do it all of this time and be able to master it. I tell everyone that he’s better than me in everything that he does.”
His father is the imam at Masjid Muhammad of Philadelphia, the mosque he owns in Germantown near the corner of Belfield Avenue and Penn Street. A boxing gym is on the third floor and his restaurant is across the street. He raised his son there in the Islamic faith, taught him how to cook, and ignited his passion for boxing. Suetwedien Muhammad is now seeing his son chart his own path.
“I’m selling $10 platters and he’s getting $30 a platter,” Suetwedien Muhammad said. “This guy is better than me in everything. He’s better than me in boxing. He’s better than me in the restaurant business. He’s better than me in religion, and religion has really been my whole life. I came into the religion when I was 10 years old and I’ve been the imam for almost 40 years yet I still can’t touch him in that.”
“In boxing, he’s showing the same dedication that he shows in religion. He studies the religion four or five hours a day by himself. I don’t even have that kind of discipline.”
Muhammad’s fight earlier this month was at Boardwalk Hall on the undercard of Ennis’ main event on Showtime. It was a taste of what his career could look like if he wins the way Ennis has. And the weekend in Atlantic City also gave him some motivation for the kitchen.
Maybe, Muhammad wondered, he could open an Essie’s down the shore. Perhaps he can even turn his East Germantown spot into a franchise and sell cheesesteak egg rolls around the country. More success in the ring, Muhammad said, will bring more success to Essie’s. More people will know his name and he’ll earn more money to invest back into his business. Each knockout is a win for cheesesteak egg rolls.
His quick knockout in Atlantic City was a great night for his boxing career. But it may have been just as important for his kitchen. Is Muhammad a cheesesteak chef who happens to be a pro boxer? Or a pro boxer who happens to be a cheesesteak chef? He wants to be both.
“The more you box, the better you get at it,” Muhammad said. “The more you cook, the more things you find to cook, and the better you’ll get at it. I’m just having fun.”
“A guy came up to me one day, a real street guy,” his father said. “He said ‘Man, it’s unbelievable the name your son is building out here and it’s not even off of your name. This boy is making his own way.’ This guy found his own way and made his own way. The stuff he’s doing over there ... I can’t take any credit for that.”
