Cole's French Dip Plans a Downtown Comeback, Minus the Pool Tables

Jeremy Fall and Sean Maloney are aiming for late November, keeping the prime rib dip's recipe and Bukowski's plaque but adding tablecloths.

Jeremy Fall grew up two blocks from Cole's and spent a lot of his childhood inside the downtown L.A. French dip house. Now he and partner Sean Maloney are aiming to reopen it in late November at 118 E. 6th St. What Now Los Angeles reported Wednesday, and Maloney told What Now the team is in the middle of getting ready.

Cole's closed in March. Its operator, Cedd Moses of Pouring With Heart, had announced the closure in July 2025, citing the pandemic, the Hollywood strikes, crime, rent and operating costs, LAist reported. Fans kept lining up, so he kept pushing the last day back. The new owners are betting on keeping the sandwich and changing the room.

Start with the sandwich. The Original is still prime rib, now dry-brined, with au jus that simmers for 24 hours and a custom roll from Clark Street Bread, Time Out reported. In a press release, Fall said the recipe didn't change and only the ingredients got better, What Now reported. Four more dips join it, including thin-sliced pastrami from RC Provisions, plus a vegan mushroom-and-onion dip.

That roll has a century of argument riding on it. Cole's opened in 1908 as Cole's P.E. Buffet, feeding people who rode the Pacific Electric streetcars. It's long claimed it invented the French dip, a title Philippe the Original in Chinatown still fights it for, LAist noted. With that fight still going, leaving the Original's recipe alone is the smartest call on the new menu.

The room is where you'll see the change. The pool tables are going to make room for more seats, and white tablecloths and a piano are coming in, Time Out reported. The owners' models include New York's 4 Charles Prime Rib and Hollywood's Musso & Frank Grill. What survives untouched: the gangster Mickey Cohen's old booth and, down in the restroom, a memorial plaque to the poet Charles Bukowski.

Executive chef Daniel Nguyen, from Osteria Mozza and Lolo Wine Bar, is adding prime rib frites, fresh ravioli, salmon with trout roe and a martini made with au jus. It's a dressier pitch for a place that won a Los Angeles Conservancy preservation award after a reported $1.6 million restoration in 2007, according to LAist.

Maloney comes from Nancy Silverton's Mozza group. Speaking on LAist's AirTalk, he jokingly blamed Fall for roping him in, then added that Cole's would've been his rescue anyway had no one else stepped up. He wants a "Cheers"-style room that also pays its bills, and many former staffers are coming back, LAist reported.

As of Oct. 22, the reopening still depended on the sale closing and on liquor license approval, Time Out reported. The back room that held the Varnish, the hidden bar that helped start downtown's cocktail revival, will host private events through the end of the year, and the partners have also planned a new concept there that they haven't described yet.

Fall's pitch on AirTalk was about everybody else in L.A.: he wants Cole's to be one more reason for people across the city to head downtown. Cole's did the same job in 1908, when its customers came in on streetcars.

Source: whatnow.com, retrieved November 5, 2026. Other sources: LAist, timeout.com.