{"id":547615,"date":"2026-01-27T20:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T20:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/547615\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T20:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T20:54:12","slug":"free-chili-day-at-philippe-the-original-in-downtown-la","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/547615\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Chili Day at Philippe The Original in Downtown LA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The downtown landmark is handing out 500 cups of Dolores Chili <\/p>\n

Today is Free Chili Day at Philippe\u2019s. The iconic downtown sandwich shop is teaming up with Dolores Chili to give away 500 delicious cups (straight or add beans) at no charge with the purchase of a French Dip sandwich. \u00a0Vouchers available at the front door while they last.<\/p>\n

\"\"Philippe\u2019s owner Richard Binder serves the lunchtime crowd in 1986Credit: Michael Haering\/ Herald Examiner Collection\/Los Angeles Public Library<\/p>\n

When (and if) Downtown\u2019s Cole\u2019s French Dip<\/a> closes this weekend, their longtime rival, Philippe the Original,<\/a> will become the oldest restaurant in the city of Los Angeles. French immigrant Philippe Mathieu opened the long-lived restaurant in 1908 and moved to multiple downtown locations before selling out to the present owners, the Martin and Binder families, who parked it at the brick landmark we know today in 1951.<\/p>\n

\"\"The noonday lunch rush at Philippe\u2019sCredit: Photo by Bobak Ha\u2019Eri<\/p>\n

Around that same time, Basilio Munoz started his Mexican food company, named for his wife, Dolores, in East Los Angeles. Dolores Canning Company has been churning out pickled pork, canned menudo and pork rinds next door to the L.A. County Sheriff\u2019s Department compound ever since. In 1973, they added their famous frozen chili brick<\/a> to the roster.\u00a0\u201cGrandpa started out distributing meat and canning menudo,\u201d co-owner Bert Munoz told the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. \u201cBut his baby project was to make chili that wasn\u2019t canned.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

You can order Dolores Chili at Philippe\u2019s every day of the year, but every January since 2010, the two legendary family-run businesses join forces for the fun giveaway at Philippe\u2019s. Dolores folks will be handing out free chili samples and giveaways. If you want to take home an entire brick, you\u2019ll have to stop at Ralphs, Vons or Smart & Final.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Mary Lou Obregon behind the candy counter at Philippe\u2019s in 1986Credit: Michael Haering\/ Herald Examiner Collection\/Los Angeles Public Library<\/p>\n

\u201cPhilippe\u2019s appears to be hewn from the very rock on which L.A. is built.,\u201d Los Angeles restaurant critic Patric Kuh wrote in 2008<\/a>. \u201cThe restaurant\u2019s history isn\u2019t what attracts us; the continuity is. Philippe\u2019s is that rare marker with which we can measure time. To pause in the upstairs rooms is to understand what a hundred years in L.A. means.\u00a0 Sitting at Philippe\u2019s, you\u2019re eating with Angelenos from other decades\u2014the porters and the masons, the shopgirls with dreams who took the streetcar from Bullock\u2019s. Like them, you have felt the need to get back to what has lasted in this city, and like them, you strengthen the bond between Philippe\u2019s and Los Angeles when you enter its crowded halls and take your place in line.\u201d<\/p>\n

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