Classic cocktails and food at Cole's French Dip

April 19, 12:42 PMLA Cocktails ExaminerAaron Vanek

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Follow the arrow to Cole's French Dip on Sixth and Main, downtown Los Angeles

Cole's French Dip: 118 E. 6th St. LA, 90014  213-622-4090

Map

If I lived downtown, I’d be at Cole’s French Dip almost every night, nursing a classic cocktail and relishing an old-school sandwich.

Cole’s reopened in 2008 under the auspices of Cedd Moses’ 213 corporation, which includes five of the best downtown watering holes: the Seven Grand, the Broadway Bar, the Golden Gopher, Casey’s Irish Bar & Grill, and the revamped Cole’s (at a cost of $1.6 mil and a year of restoration).

Styled as a saloon, Cole’s is Los Angeles’ oldest public house and features the original 40-foot mahogany bar, a Penny tile floor, period photos, wooden signs about loose women and stockbrokers not being trustworthy, ragtime and jazz music, and illumed by original Tiffany glass lamps.

Above are nine stories of the historic Pacific Electric (a.k.a. Huntington) Building, built in 1905 by trolley mogul Henry Huntington, who moved out and sold the premises to Southern Pacific in 1911. It’s the first skyscraper built in our fair city, and used to be the largest building west of the Mississippi River. The space was needed, for this was the Main Street station, the central terminal for the Red Car trolleys traveling east and south across the basin. At the peak of LA’s mass transit period, more than 100,000 passengers would move through the depot. Some of the artifacts from rails can be seen on the second floor. 

Cole’s also ran a check cashing business out the backdoor, and on payday the line of wage-earners would extend down the block, waiting to exchange their pay stubs for a beer with a shot of bitters or some sliced meat on a French roll, with a bread-softening side of au jus, a trend apparently started when a customer had trouble biting through the roll after a trip to the dentist. There’s a long-standing debate between Cole’s and Phillipe’s over who originated and has the better French dip sandwich. Express your opinion by asking for a voting ballot from Cole’s hostess.

Naturally, the cocktails are from the Pre-Repeal Prohibition days, and their menu tells you a little bit about the history of each mixed drink. If you think you’re going to get vodka, cranberry juice, triple sec and lime in a martini glass when you order a Cosmopolitan, you’re both wrong and gauche. I chose a vintage English libation:

Pimm’s Cup No. 1: Gin and Pimm’s, a secret blend of herbs and spices

This cocktail is a staple of the Wimbledon Championships, invented at the Oyster Bar in London in 1840. It has a unique taste you can’t find anywhere else, almost like barely alcoholic tea with a hint of cinnamon. It’s a great afternoon aperitif to stimulate the digestion of the dip sandwich, which is offered with beef, pastrami, pork, turkey or lamb (cheese optional). They also have simple sides: fries, potato salad, cole slaw, etc. The pickle slices are labeled “Atomic” for a reason, and their Famous Bourbon pecan pie is deservedly named. But their chocolate cream pie might be the dessert that launched a thousand ships—if it wasn’t so filling that we had to split our slice, my wife and I would have dueled for it.

The restaurant is kid friendly and fun, and around the corner from the bar. But if you’re at Cole’s in the evening and wonder where all the women in spaghetti strap dresses, heels, and men in suits are going, it’s to Varnish, the speakeasy in the back. More about that coming up next.
 

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