Several Los Angeles restaurants claim to have created the ‘French dip’ sandwich. Philippe The Original near the north end of Olivera Street is possibly the most famous with its long deli counter and steady stream of customers, concrete floor scattered with sawdust and long barracks-style tables. Jonathan Gold of the L.A. Weekly believes another local establishment actually first built the French Dip and I defer to his research. I’ll track down that other spot on some future trip. This time around it was Philippe The Original we visited after buying in the shops on Olivera both a small cherry snow cone ($1.75) and a ‘portrait on a plank’ of St. Jude (patron saint of impossible cases).
Philippe The Original accepts only cash so we forked over $5.35 for a ‘special French dipped beef sandwich.’ 80 cents more gets you Bleu cheese. Maybe next time on the cheese.
The sandwich itself was smaller than I expected and they dip the sliced side of the French roll in broth for you. The result was simple and satifying, though a side of more au jus for dipping would have been welcome.
