LA Historic Restaurant Downtown, French Dip in Cole, is set to close
One of the oldest restaurants in LA, Cole’s French Dip, is scheduled to close in August.
FOX -LA
LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles’ oldest restaurant is set to close with the latest blow to the historic dining scene of Angel City.
Cole’s French dip will be closed on August 3rd after 117 surgery, including the ban, two world wars and the rise of Hollywood.
The news was first reported by DTLA Weekly and confirmed by USA Today on a visit on July 7th.
Owner Cedd Moses cited the continued impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the 2023 writers and actors in a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times, from rising labor and rent costs.
“The reason for the closure is not unique to Cole alone. They have an impact on most independent restaurants in Los Angeles,” Moses said in a statement.
USA Today reached out to Heart With Heart, the parent company of Cole’s, which operates other restaurants in California, Colorado and Texas, and received no immediate response.
The restaurant follows the recent closure of the original pantry, which closed in March 101 years later, and the demolition of the Pacific Dining Car in the same month.
“By the time the Olympics come here, all these moms and pops will be gone,” Moses said in a statement. “Hopefully it’s awakening call for the right people to step up and get a grasp of their plans.”
Restaurants intertwined with Los Angeles history
Coles was opened in 1908 by Harry Cole at the Pacific Electric Building.
“Situated near the city’s financial center, this location has become a haunt of bankers, lawyers, newspapers, politicians and more respectable people,” writes Steve Harvey of the Los Angeles Times about the restaurant’s early days in 2009.
It was closed before being purchased in 2007 at Moses’ 213 Nightlife.
The company has completed a $1.6 million restoration focused on maintaining the historic environment.
“There’s no more Mickey Cohen, which is too bad,” Harvey wrote. “You can imagine a gangster praising the bartender’s handiwork with an ice pick.”
Built in a former storage room, Varnish, opened in 2009 and redefines the Los Angeles nightlife scene. The bar was closed in 2024 with the haunting of Jonathan Gold, a dean of Los Angeles food writer.
Cole’s claims of French dip invention challenged
It is one of two restaurants in Los Angeles and claims to be the founder of French dip sandwiches. The other is the original Philip is less than two miles from Cole.
Cole’s claims in 1908 the chef soaked sandwiches in Aus Juss and the gum softened it for bad customers.
Fillepe’s claims that in 1918, Philip Matthew dropped French rolls into a juice-filled roasting pot. The officer took the sandwich and returned with a friend the next day to order more.
However, Phillepe’s offers various versions of that claim, with co-owner Marksengill saying in a 2014 episode of “Cheap Eats” that the sandwich was born in 1917 when Mathieu dropped a roll while making sandwiches for firefighters.
In 1951, Matthew told the Los Angeles Times that the story of the police officers currently on offer at the restaurant is half the story.
“One day, a police officer asked if they could split one of these big breads and fill it up with ‘some delicious roasted pork’,” Matthew said.
The dip portion came later.
“One day, a customer saw gravy at the bottom of a large pot of roasted meat. He asked if I was concerned about soaking one side of the French roll in the gravy. I did.
The debate over who invented the French dip and who made a better sandwich was a long-term part of Los Angeles food culture.
The March 2016 thrillist delves deep into the origins of Sandwich Point, where Matthew’s 1951 narrative is the most likely origin story.
