Historic restaurant that claims it created French dip learns fate after fight to stay open

The claimed creator of the French dip sandwich is bidding Los Angels adieu.

Cole’s, one of the city’s oldest and most famous restaurants, will close this weekend after several attempts to stay open in downtown LA.

The 118-year-old eatery will serve its last meal on March 29, capping off its historic run with a weekend-long celebration featuring chefs creating their own versions of Cole’s iconic bites.

Proceeds will go to the Independent Hospitality Coalition, which tries to save independent restaurant operators from shuttering.

It was a fate Cole’s couldn’t save itself from despite attempts to stave off closing.

“We delayed the closure because we got such a great, big response of people coming out to support the restaurant, which we really appreciate,” Cedd Moses, founder of Cole’s owner Pouring with Heart, told the Los Angeles Times.

“But then business started receding again, so now at this point, we’re forced to close. We just can’t keep the doors open and keep hemorrhaging money.”

Cole’s was initially set to close in August last year, but the announcement led to long lines of customers wanting to support the business, Eater reported.

As a result, Pouring with Heart extended Cole’s run to September and then again to March 2026.

Some customers still couldn’t believe Cole’s was actually closing — a perception the restaurant acknowledged was akin to a “boy cries wolf” situation on its website.

“It’s like those farewell concerts The Who has been doing for forty years,” one Instagram user commented.

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Moses cited several reasons for the closure, including the COVID-19 pandemic, labor strikes, city bureaucracy and inflation, according to Eater.

The owners still hopes to find a buyer, with an estimated price tag of $500,000, but several interested parties have failed to follow through on a deal, Moses told the Times.

“We’re close to signing on the dotted line, so we’re still hopeful,” he said. “But either way, we just need to close the doors at month’s end. We’ll see if something materializes.”

Cole’s was established in 1908 inside the Pacific Electric building on East Sixth Street. Both the restaurant and Philippe the Original in Chinatown lay claims to inventing the French dip.

According to lore, restaurant founder Henry Cole first dipped French bread into au jus to soften it at the request of a customer who had recent dental work.