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USA Today
09-07-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Oldest restaurant in Los Angeles, claimed creator of French dip, to close
LOS ANGELES – The oldest restaurant in Los Angeles is set to close in the latest blow to the historic dining scene in the City of Angels. Cole's French Dip will close on Aug. 3 after 117 years of operation that included prohibition, two world wars and the rise of Hollywood. The news was first reported by DTLA Weekly and confirmed by USA TODAY in a July 7 visit. Owner Cedd Moses cited ongoing impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2023 writers and actors strikes as well as rising labor and rent costs in a statement provided to The Los Angeles Times. "The litany of reasons for closing are not unique to Cole's alone; they are affecting most independent restaurants in Los Angeles," Moses said in the statement. USA TODAY reached out to Pouring With Heart, the parent company of Cole's which operates other restaurants in California, Colorado and Texas, and did not receive an immediate response. The restaurant follows in the recent closure of The Original Pantry, which closed in March after 101 years, and the demolition of the Pacific Dining Car the same month. "By the time the Olympics get here, all these mom and pops will be gone," Moses said in the statement. "Hopefully it's a wake up call for the right people to step up and figure out a plan." Restaurant intertwined with Los Angeles history Cole's was opened by Harry Cole in 1908 in the Pacific Electric Building, once the terminus of the city's once ubiquitous Red Car trolley line. "Located near the financial center of the city, the place became a haunt for bankers, attorneys, newspaper types and politicians – as well as more respectable folks," Steve Harvey of the Los Angeles Times wrote of the restaurant's early days in 2009. It closed in 2007 before being purchased by Moses's 213 Nightlife, which would become Pouring With Heart, in 2008. The company completed a $1.6 million restoration which focused on keeping the historic environment. "Too bad Mickey Cohen isn't around anymore," Harvey wrote. "One can imagine the mobster admiring the handiwork of the bartenders with their ice picks." The Varnish, a speakeasy built in a former storage room, opened in 2009 and would redefine the Los Angeles nightlife scene. The bar, once a haunt of the dean of Los Angeles food writing Jonathan Gold, closed in 2024. Cole's claim of French dip invention challenged It is one of two restaurants in Los Angeles that claims to be the originator of the French dip sandwich. The other, Phillipe the Original, is less than two miles from Cole's. Cole's claims that in 1908, the chef dipped a sandwich in aus-jus to soften it for a customer who had bad gums. Phillepe's claims that in 1918, Philippe Mathieu dropped a French roll into a roasting pan filled with juices. The officer took the sandwich and returned the next day with friends to order more. However, Phillepe's has offered different versions of its claim, with co-owner Mark Massengill saying on a 2014 episode of "Cheap Eats" that the sandwich was born when in 1917, when Mathieu dropped the roll while making a sandwich for a firefighter. In 1951, Mathieu told the Los Angeles Times that the police officer story now offered by the restaurant is one half of the tale. "One day a police officer asked me if I would mind splitting one of these large loaves of French bread and filling it with 'some of the delicious roast pork,'" Mathieu said. The dip part came later. "One day a customer saw some gravy in the bottom of a large pan of roast meat. He asked me if I would mind dipping one side of the French roll in that gravy. I did, and right away five or six others wanted the same," Mathieu told the Times. The debate over who invented the French dip – and who makes the better sandwich – has been a long-running part of Los Angeles food culture. A March 2016 Thrillist deep dive into the origins of the sandwich point toward Mathieu's 1951 retelling being the likeliest origin story.
Los Angeles Times
07-07-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
After more than 100 years in operation, Cole's French Dip to close permanently
Cole's French Dip, the oldest restaurant and saloon in Los Angeles, is slated to close its doors on August 3. The last day of service for the landmark restaurant, which claims to have invented the French dip, will be August 2. 'The litany of reasons for closing are not unique to Cole's alone; they are affecting most independent restaurants in Los Angeles,' said owner Cedd Moses in a press release announcing the restaurant's closure. 'The global pandemic, the actors and writers strikes, overall crime, as well as the consistently rising costs of labor and goods, unsustainably high rents and mounting bureaucracy and legal exposure have all led to this unfortunate outcome.' Founded by Henry Cole in 1908, Cole's French Dip opened as Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet, named after the Pacific Electric Building in which it's housed. Lore has it that the eponymous dish originated when a customer with a bad case of sore gums asked for his sandwich to be lowered into the jus because the French roll was too crunchy for him. (In Chinatown, Philippe the Original also claims to have created the dish.) The 21st century iteration of Cole's French dip sandwich comes with a choice of roast beef, braised pork or lamb, or pastrami, served on a crusty roll lined with melted cheese (Swiss, cheddar, American or goat), a pickle spear and a cup of au jus for dipping. It's still one of the most popular items on the menu. 'We have cherished our time serving the Downtown community, and will continue to craft great drinks and our renowned French dip sandwiches until we shutter,' the press release stated. 'We care deeply about our family of staff and are immensely grateful for our amazing guests who have supported Cole's over the years. We invite you to come in to see us this month before our departure, to laugh, to cry, to raise glasses, to eat, and to say your goodbyes right alongside us.' Despite its long-standing ties to the local food scene, Brian Lenzo, the senior vice president of operations for Pouring With Heart, the ownership group which took over the restaurant in 2008, said the 'writing was on the wall for a long time.' In addition to rising costs of labor and rent, the historic core of downtown has increasingly deteriorated, he said; nearly every other day Cole's employees have to clean human feces from the storefront. Lenzo said he hopes the fate of Cole's — like other historic L.A. restaurants that have recently shuttered permanently — will serve as a 'catalyst' for the community to rally behind local businesses. 'By the time the Olympics get here, all these mom and pops will be gone,' he said. 'Hopefully it's a wake up call for the right people to step up and figure out a plan.' As news of the impending closure spread on social media, patrons began sharing their favorite memories at the iconic diner. But the announcement has rocked the downtown L.A. community in particular. DTLA Insider was also one of the first to announce the closure on Instagram on Sunday. Media Moussavy, who runs the popular account, said, 'You have to improve the environment before anyone wants to open up a business here. ' 'This [restaurant] has lasted the Great Depression, World Wars, every economic downturn, and it's sad to see that this is the final straw that brings it down,' he added. Cole's has seen such a surge in business since the closing announcement that it had to pull in bartenders from sister establishments, said Lenzo. The restaurant also plans to invite past bartenders to come serve the community for a final time. 'We've seen a lot of outreach, people in L.A. love L.A., they have pride in L.A.,' said Lenzo. 'To have to say goodbye, it's something that scars the city a little bit.' At this time, there are no plans to save Cole's — though Moses, who has been a fan of the restaurant since childhood, said he is feeling 'hopeful that someone will buy Cole's and can carry on the tradition.' This story is developing.
Time Out
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
After 117 years, Downtown L.A.'s iconic Cole's French Dip is shutting down
It's one of the oldest restaurants in Los Angeles, one of two debated originators of the French Dip and the birthplace of a cornerstones of the city's contemporary cocktail scene. But come next month, Cole's will permanently close its doors. The Downtown L.A. restaurant, a 6th Street mainstay since 1908 that's easily spotted by its neon sign, will cease operations on August 3, 2025. The news surfaced over the weekend—first spotted by DTLA Weekly —and since then, Eater spoke with owner Cedd Moses, who confirmed the plans and cited the lingering impacts of the pandemic, the dual writers and actors strikes, rising costs and local bureaucracy. 'We have cherished our time serving the Downtown community, and will continue to craft great drinks and our renowned French dip sandwiches until we shutter,' Moses said in a statement shared with the publication. If you ever sat in one of Cole's shiny red booths over a late-night plate of garlic fries and an old-fashioned, then you already probably have some sense of the history here, from its famed French dip to its frequent appearances in film and TV (perhaps most beautifully shot on Mad Men) to its purported regulars: Plaques in the men's room boast that gangster Mickey Cohen and novelist Charles Bukowski 'pissed here' (as seen in my photo below from a 2014 visit—so excuse the decade-old smartphone quality). Cole's started service in 1908 as a sandwich shop and bar on the ground floor of the Pacific Electric Building, then a terminal on L.A.'s extensive streetcar system. Though the Red Car eventually went away, Cole's persisted, and as it entered its second century in service, it found a new place in L.A.'s culinary scene. Moses's ownership group Pouring With Heart (then 213 Hospitality) scooped up the venue in the aughts and unveiled its renovation in 2008; a year later, the Varnish began serving some of the city's finest cocktails in the backroom, an early entry among L.A.'s contemporary crop of speakeasy-style bars (it shuttered last year). But its biggest claim to fame just might be as the inventor of the French dip—supposedly. As the story goes, back in 1908 chef Jack Garlinghouse dipped a hand-carved sandwich into the meat's juices to soften up the French bread, and thus the French dip was born. But Chinatown's Philippe the Original, which opened in 1908 as well, also lays claim to the French dip, when a decade later one was accidentally dropped into a roasting pan. So which is the actual originator? Because there's no hard evidence in either's camp, we'll likely never know.
Eater
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
Cole's French Dip, the Oldest Restaurant in Los Angeles, Is Closing After 117 Years
Downtown LA's Cole's, one of the purported inventors of the French dip sandwich, will close permanently on August 3, 2025 after 117 years of business due to what owner Cedd Moses tells Eater is a 'litany of reasons,' including ongoing impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2023 writers and actors strikes, rising labor and rent costs, and local bureaucracy. Moses, the main partner in hospitality company Pouring With Heart, also closed iconic cocktail bar the Varnish in 2024, a speakeasy hidden inside of a former back storage room of Cole's. 'Many historical independent restaurants are struggling under the weight of these issues and have already closed, while those remaining are fighting to survive,' Moses said in an emailed statement to Eater. Cole's first opened in 1908 from entrepreneur Harry Cole, who operated the sandwich shop and bar — called the Red Car Bar — inside the hub of Los Angeles's busy Pacific Electric Building, where the city's famed and now defunct street car served more than 100,000 passengers daily. At some point, its chef Jack Garlinghouse dipped bread onto jus to soften it for customers with bad gums. Los Angeles's Philippe the Original, which also claimed to have invented the French dip sandwich, has competed with Cole's for the title of originator for more than a century. In 2008, Moses's 213 Nightlife (which eventually became Pouring With Heart), acquired Cole's and restored it after a $1.6 million interior restoration. The interior sported a faux vintage eating and drinking house from the early 1900s, with plush leather banquettes, and vinyl dark red ceilings, serving as a film venue for numerous television shows and movies. Cole's was also a regular hangout for mobster Mickey Cohen, who, along with famed writer Charles Bukowski, became memorialized with golden plaques in the bathrooms stating they had 'pissed' there. Moses hired chef Neal Fraser (Redbird) to improve the French dip sandwiches with more dialed-in preparation and higher-quality ingredients that included prime-grade beef, and they remained some of the best ones in the city. Moses's group established the Cole's (and the Varnish) as one of its flagship nightlife outlets alongside other historical Downtown bars the Golden Gopher and Seven Grand. Over the past 17 years, Cole's has been a part of Downtown LA's greater resurgence as a nightlife and dining destination, with the late critic Jonathan Gold praising the Old Fashioned at Cole's and classic cocktails at its sibling bar the Varnish. Moses thanks the community and Cole's workers in his statement: 'We have cherished our time serving the Downtown community, and will continue to craft great drinks and our renowned French dip sandwiches until we shutter. We care deeply about our family of staff and are immensely grateful for our amazing guests who have supported Cole's over the years. We invite you to come in and see us this month before our departure, to laugh, to cry, to raise glasses, to eat, and to say your goodbyes right alongside us.' Moses and his group Pouring With Heart continue to operate numerous nightlife locations in Downtown, including Las Perlas across the street from Cole's, as well as Tony's Saloon in the Arts District. There are currently no plans to reopen Cole's elsewhere. See More: LA Restaurant Closings LA Restaurant News
