{"id":46866,"date":"2025-07-07T20:33:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T20:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/46866\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T20:33:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T20:33:13","slug":"coles-french-dip-will-shut-its-doors-in-downtown-l-a-after-117-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/46866\/","title":{"rendered":"Cole\u2019s French Dip will shut its doors in Downtown L.A. after 117 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s one of the oldest restaurants in Los Angeles, one of two debated originators of the French Dip and\u00a0the birthplace of a cornerstones of the city\u2019s contemporary cocktail scene. But come next month, Cole\u2019s<\/a> will permanently close its doors.<\/p>\n

The Downtown L.A. restaurant, a 6th Street mainstay since 1908 that\u2019s easily spotted by its neon sign, will cease operations on August 3, 2025.<\/p>\n

The news surfaced over the weekend\u2014first spotted\u00a0by DTLA Weekly<\/a>\u2014and since then, Eater<\/a>\u00a0spoke 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. \u201cWe have cherished our time serving the Downtown community, and will continue to craft great drinks and our renowned French dip sandwiches until we shutter,\u201d Moses said in a statement shared with the publication.<\/p>\n

If you ever sat in one of Cole\u2019s 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<\/a>) to its purported regulars: Plaques in the men\u2019s room boast that gangster Mickey Cohen and novelist\u00a0Charles Bukowski \u201cpissed here\u201d (as seen in my photo below from a 2014 visit\u2014so excuse the decade-old smartphone quality).<\/p>\n

\"Charles
\nPhotograph: Michael Juliano for Time Out <\/p>\n

Cole\u2019s 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.\u2019s extensive streetcar system. Though the Red Car eventually went away, Cole\u2019s persisted, and as it entered its second century in service, it found a new place in L.A.\u2019s culinary scene. Moses\u2019s ownership group Pouring With Heart (then 213 Hospitality) scooped up the venue in the aughts and unveiled its renovation in 2008; a year\u00a0later, the Varnish<\/a> began serving some of the city\u2019s finest cocktails in the backroom, an early entry among L.A.\u2019s contemporary crop of speakeasy-style bars<\/a>\u00a0(it shuttered last year).<\/p>\n

\"Cole's\"
\nPhotograph: Courtesy 213 Hospitality <\/p>\n

But its biggest claim to fame just might be as the inventor of the French dip\u2014supposedly. As the story goes<\/a>, back in 1908 chef Jack Garlinghouse dipped a hand-carved sandwich into the meat\u2019s juices to soften up the French bread, and thus the French dip was born. But Chinatown\u2019s\u00a0Philippe the Original<\/a>, which\u00a0opened 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\u00a0actual originator? Because there\u2019s no hard evidence in either\u2019s camp, we\u2019ll likely never know.<\/p>\n

As for the future of the Cole\u2019s space, since it\u2019s a designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, any\u00a0major modifications or threats of demolition will need to be approved by a city commission.<\/p>\n