The signature dish of Cole’s French Dip landmark restaurant in Los Angeles.

The story of Cole’s French Dip over the past eight months has had more twists and turns than an episode of a daytime soap opera. In July 2025, the 117-year-old Downtown Los Angeles restaurant — which claims to have invented the French dip sandwich and is among the oldest operating restaurants in LA — announced that it would close its doors for good in early August. Sadly, the news didn’t come as a shock to many, as legacy LA restaurants have been shuttering left and right in recent years.

Yet now it’s more than half a year later, and the closure has simply never happened.

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At first, worried and nostalgic diners flocked to the restaurant, lining up for its signature roast beef sandwiches served with a side of jus. Photos of block-long lines covered Southern California social media feeds. Spurred on by the last big boost in business (which is common for closing restaurants), owner Cedd Moses of hospitality group Pouring With Heart pushed back the closure to mid-September.

Then the company pushed it back again until Nov. 1, and again to Dec. 31, announcing a last New Year’s Eve blowout fit for a grand finale.

Then that changed, too, and the company promised to keep pushing sandwiches and cocktails through the end of January. And now, as of early March, the restaurant is still operating at normal hours.

Don't let Google decide who you trust.

So, what’s actually going on?

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Cole's French Dip in Downtown Los Angeles, Dec. 6, 2008.

According to co-owner Mark Verge, Cole’s is still going away — at least in its current form, under Pouring With Heart’s stewardship. The 6th Street restaurant is slated to cease operations on March 29 to make way for a new buyer to take it over, which has long been the hope for fans and current ownership. 

And that new buyer just might be another LA sandwich legend.

“LA saved us,” Verge tells SFGATE of the continued support Cole’s has gotten over the past several months. “We have so many offers from people who want to buy it. We all want the same thing.”

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According to Verge, some of the potential buyers include sandwich icon Bay Cities Italian Deli in Santa Monica (his top choice to take the reins), legendary beach volleyball player Sinjin Smith and chef Jeremy Fall, who previously ran a slew of concepts around Los Angeles but has been working out of New York City as of late.

Cole’s will be hosting a series of chef collaborations before it closes, Verge says. They are to include chef Sang Yoon of Father’s Office fame, as well as longtime Santa Monica chefs Josiah Citrin and Raphael Lunetta. A collab with Bay Cities is also in the works. 

“They want to come and do the French dip on their bread,” Verge says, referring to the crusty Italian rolls the deli uses for its famous Godmother sandwiches stuffed with Genoa salami, mortadella, capicola, ham, prosciutto and provolone.

Spokesperson Joan McCraw also tells SFGATE that Cole’s will host a fundraiser on March 30 to benefit continued wildfire relief and recovery efforts from the Eaton Fire in Altadena.

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She says of the event, “It’s a thank-you to LA. They’ve been so incredible to us.”

Locals flocked to Cole’s French Dip iconic landmark restaurant in Los Angeles to wait in line for an hour to get seated in July 2025.

As Downtown LA continues to struggle in the aftermath of last January’s wildfires, as well as ICE raids and protests during the summer of 2025, the sale of and continued operation of Cole’s should be a much-needed boost for the local restaurant community. If the sale is finalized, it will join longstanding restaurants like downtown greasy spoon the Original Pantry Cafe and diner-to-the-stars Saugus Cafe in Santa Clarita, which both threatened closure before ownership changes brought in new life.

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