On the impending loss of Cole's French Dip and the threat to legacy businesses
Plus, dozens of more headlines from the Great American Retro Roadside. Let's go!
UPDATE: Since the publication of this newsletter, Cole’s French Dip has announced they will stay in business through mid-September, Eater reports, bolstered by the dramatic outpouring of support from patrons eager to tear into their signature French dips one last time. Once can hope even better news will follow in due course. Stay hungry — for French dips and a happy outcome.
Original post below:
***
Every so often, a closure comes along that wanders into the turf of the unthinkable. The recent news from Downtown Los Angeles that Cole’s French Dip was closing for good on Aug. 2 after 117 years was a gut punch.
The loss of Cole’s is unthinkable because of its unparalleled status in the firmament of Los Angeles restaurants. There is not a person alive today who knows a world before Cole’s. Opened in 1908 by Harry Cole, the restaurant enjoyed a 117-year run — making it LA’s oldest — that will end on Saturday.
Cole’s status is unassailable because of its place in culinary history. It has long claimed, along with Philippe the Original near LA’s Chinatown, to be the creator of the French Dip sandwich. The two restaurants have engaged in what the Los Angeles Conservancy calls a “friendly rivalry” over the dueling boasts that are an enduring part of LA foodie lore.
Cole’s has early 20th-century design chops, sharpened in a 2008 renovation by the current owners that played to those roots. It sits on the first floor of the former Pacific Electric Building, which was once the terminal of the long-defunct Pacific Electric Railway Co., and the restaurant’s former tabletops (no longer in use, sadly) were said to be made from the wooden doors of those cherished streetcars known as the Red Cars. The restaurant’s old name was a nod to Pacific Electric, Cole’s PE Buffet.
Cole’s attracted luminaries of all measure and variety — plaques over the urinals remind us, for instance, that the poet and writer “Charles Bukowski Pissed Here.”
Cedd Moses (and his company Pouring with Heart) owns Cole’s, and explained in a statement why they were closing. He cited a litany of maladies, from the lingering debility of COVID-19, the lasting economic sting of the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild strikes, inflation, crime … need I go on?
Moses also offered a Cassandra-like warning that the cancer that claimed Cole’s is one to which other legacy restaurants are not immune.
There were rumblings before Moses officially confirmed the closure that Cole’s was going to be sold instead. That was not to be. I just can’t imagine Cole’s being stripped to the studs. Could somebody with deep pockets, deeper imagination and the deepest patience step in and avert this disaster at the last moment? (If you are that person, or know of such a benefactor, call Derrick Moore at 213-613-3334 or email him at derrick.moore@cbre.com.)
It boggles the mind that we are here, and Cole’s will soon not be. I agreed with Esotouric’s Secret Los Angeles’ take on the existential crises faced by these beloved legacy businesses. Their closures redound to the detriment of the city and its residents, who must now live in a community whose historic layers have been stripped of one very vital one.
Per Esotouric:
Here’s the thing, though: Cole’s P.E. Buffet / French Dip doesn’t belong to Cedd Moses and Pouring With Heart. It never did. Cedd is just the latest steward in a 117 year old golden thread of Angeleno entrepreneurs, and if he’s done with Cole’s, he ought to know it’s time to hand the place off to someone who loves it, too.
I couldn’t agree more with that sentiment.
I’ve long thought that when a business reaches a certain age and has made a significant contribution to a community’s culture and identity, it becomes bigger than itself, or whoever happens to be the owner.
And should the owner decide to close and not sell it to others who will carry on as good custodians, or simply can’t, as appears to be the case here, then a community-facilitated system should exist to either step in and support the owner or arrange a sale to a new owner committed to preserving the business.
Establishments like Cole’s are a kind of accidental public utility. We expect them to be there, just like the light turns on when you flip the wall switch and the water runs when you twist the faucet handle. But they are not utilities, and collectively, we must do more to support them.
City leadership and the private sector, or perhaps a combination of both, should consider the preservation of iconic businesses as an essential part of good governance or corporate citizenship. Imagine if a landmarked building came not only with regulatory strings but with serious financial ones, though those would not be strings but lifelines?
What if a philanthropist were to establish a national trust to support these places in perpetuity? Goodness knows, we live in a moment when so much wealth is concentrated in so few hands. There must be numerous ways to create a resilient safety net for our legacy businesses, as well as our beloved mom-and-pop establishments.
Patrons are now turning out in such numbers at Cole’s that they have to stop accepting food orders for periods to let the kitchen catch up, KCRW reports. We see this far too often when an iconic establishment announces its demise. Suddenly, there are crowds. Glowing press. Influencers swarming about. Of course, it’s too little too late.
That’s why I appreciate groups like the Diner Preservation Society, as quoted in the KCRW piece, which are continuously focused on preserving legacy businesses, especially when they are quietly operating and often overlooked, free from the headlines and crowds they attract only when they announce their impending demise.
"It's really cool being part of a group that's trying to combat the sterilization of L.A.," says Marina Aligh, who discovered the group on Instagram and has been attending meet-ups ever since. "We've lost so many very cool historic spots this year and, you know, the best way that we can kind of prevent that is with our dollars."
I’m often told this newsletter has too much bad news. Sadly, it’s mostly unavoidable. But thankfully, there’s not always bad news to report.
I shared the news on my Instagram last month that Cheese N Stuff, a Phoenix delicatessen with a rockin’ globe neon sign, would stay in business. The shop closed in April when the owners, Stan Zawatski, and his daughter, Crystal Zawatski, whose family had been running it since 1972, decided to hang up their white aprons.
But now, the local institution is set to reopen — with a refresh, not a rebrand — thanks to some longtime customers.
“We’re just a group of friends that grew up around here,” says Julie Palmer, who, along with her husband, Tom Palmer, is one of the new owners. “We all went to Brophy or Xavier, and Cheese 'n Stuff was a huge part of our school days, our parents’ routines, even our grandparents."When the Palmers heard the restaurant, which opened in 1949, was closing, Tom immediately called Crystal and said, "We’re buying it.”
With other friends who are partnering with them, the new owners are looking to revive the historic landmark and have the neon sign restored by Christie Signs, run by the son of the man who helped install the sign originally.
Can you handle another serving of good news? I bet you can! Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington, D.C., is briefly closing for repairs and upgrades, which are expected to take four months. I can’t think of D.C. without Ben’s, and its half-smokes and shakes. That’s good eating in a place replete with history. If you MUST have Ben’s now, there is a pop-up location at 1208 U St., which is right across the street from the restaurant itself.
Cole’s and Ben’s Chili Bowl are both featured in my book, which I hope you can check out if you haven’t already had a chance to do so.
I’ve had the good fortune of receiving kind press for the book, which is gratifying, a feeling you especially understand if you’ve written a book. Here on Substack, I was delighted recently to chat with Amy Cavanaugh of “American Weekender,” who runs a great newsletter I suspect you’ll like if you find yourself enjoying this one.
Please check out my interview with Amy below:
And here’s even more good news! I’m so proud of my friends at Noble Signs, whose work in running the New York Sign Museum (and creating modern signs with museum-worthy vintage flair at the sign shop) received a glowing — pun very intended — review in the New York Times.
I’m proud to say that a sign at the museum, Barney’s Shoes, is one I helped save, and it is a joy to know it sits in the company of so many others. Read my piece on the Barney’s saga here.
I am long overdue in updating you on the progress at the sign museum, and I hope to share more later this summer after I visit again.
Please enjoy the Emmy-winning profile I helped produce on Noble Signs for Localish/WABC-TV back in 2022. This piece focuses less on the museum and more on the fascinating work of the sign shop.
From the piece:
Radio City Music Hall. Katz's Delicatessen. Nathan's in Coney Island.
If you close your eyes and picture New York City's most beloved locations, that picture will invariably feature iconic signage, often glowing with neon.
But somewhere along the line, a lot of New York signage grew dull and predictable. The creative spark was gone, replaced with functional if bland creations, often just a vinyl awning.
"The city we grew up in was full of really amazing signs," says David Barnett, co-founder of Noble Signs in Brooklyn, "and by the time we got out of college, the city was headed in a very different direction."
Barnett, who was paying the bills as a graphic designer post-college, and his friend Mac Pohanka, who worked in fabrication, both lamented the loss of the storefront heritage that gave New York City so much of its character. They took their nostalgia for the way things were as, well, a sign.
Speaking of signs, let’s get to our news roundup. It’s been a while since my last post, so there’s a lot to catch up on!
Retrologist Roadside Roundup
While traveling to research my book last year, one of my big disappointments was missing the Ernest Tubb Record Store sign in Nashville. The sign was undergoing restoration, and it was not at its usual perch on Broadway. I’m happy to report it has been restored, and here’s a look at how it turned out. The record store, which was opened by country star Ernest Tubb in 1947 and closed in 2022, is set to reopen soon, with the Tubb family involved in the business.
Go on a delicious tour of New Jersey’s historic pizza restaurants, in order of when they opened. Included are two of my favorites: Pizza Land, from 1965, below, and Luigi’s, from 1948, above, both photographed by me.
Recently, on my Instagram, I took you on a tour of the Birthplace of Pepsi, in New Bern, North Carolina. Now, the North Carolina History Center in the town where Pepsi was founded has a new exhibit of Pepsi signage and memorabilia. New Bern is an excellent place to visit, and before you leave town, you should pay your respects to the founder, Caleb Bradham, at his grave, which is marked with the Pepsi-Cola logo, as mentioned in my book.
Armand Vaillancourt’s Brutalist sculpture, Vaillancourt Fountain, in San Francisco’s Embarcadero Plaza, is facing demolition. And this time, the long-troubled 1971 sculpture, in a plaza designed by the masterful landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, appears doomed, the main concern being rehabilitation and maintenance costs. DOCOMOMO, says, in part: “Sadly, public spaces such as this one continue to be endangered, threatened by years of deferred maintenance and a lack of understanding of twentieth century design and landscapes.” That’s quite the truth bomb.
The historic La Serre restaurant, a stage for political power brokers in Albany, New York, is poised to reopen as a member-only club.
The site of the first supermarket in Westminster, Colorado, will be revitalized as a taphouse. If only they’d recreate the neon for the Rodeo Supermarket.
The Daily Meal has listed its picks for best hole-in-the-wall restaurants in every state, a fun undertaking that captivates the completist in me.
P&F Giordano Fruit & Produce, a mainstay of South Philadelphia’s Italian Market for a century, has closed. It will carry on as a wholesale business.
The former Land Park Lanes building in Sacramento received historic designation. It was recently shuttered by fire. The building was built by Japanese American developer Gonzo Sakai, and played a vital role in serving the Japanese-American community.
Riverhead, New York’s iconic Star Confectionery will close next month. It opened in 1917 and has been in the same family since 1921. (I hope to get out to “Papa Nick’s” for a report soon.)
Not roadside Americana, but Veeraswamy, the UK’s oldest Indian restaurant, since 1926, could close amid a lease dispute with the Crown Estate, controlled by King Charles.
A new business, Small Cheval, has taken over Chicago’s The Freeze, which closed in 2023, which itself operated out of the old Tastee-Freez. The vintage signage will happily be preserved.
The Food Network names Elmo’s Diner in Durham, above, as the best diner in North Carolina. See the full list here for every state, which includes one of the last stand-alone diners in Manhattan, Square Diner, in TriBeCa, below.
Square Diner is a TriBeCa mainstay (Rolando Pujol) Paterson, New Jersey has allowed a new restaurant to open in the space of the old Libby’s Lunch, a historic and shuttered hot-dog hut, near the Great Falls, without state approvals concerning the use of a historic space.
A block of Figueroa and the Highland Theater is being transformed into a 1970s streetscape for a follow-up to the 2019 film “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.” See Instagram post, below.
The city of Auburn, New York, is seeking a buyer for the historic Schine’s Theater, where I stopped by in 2019.
Montclair, New Jersey’s historic Bellevue Theatre is poised to reopen this fall. The theater has been closed since 2017.
Jack in the Box is making inroads again in Chicagoland, decades after retreating.
The history of the “Welcome to North Bend neon sign on the South Oregon Coast. The sign, rebuilt twice in its history, was repaired last month, and is still shining bright.
The glorious Fifth Avenue Floral Co. in Columbus, Ohio, is no more. It will forever shine in the pages of my book. The sign was saved, but we are likely never to see it again.
The Frontier Auto Museum in Gillette, Wyoming, is already a go-to stop for classic cars and Americana. Starting next year, its garden of neon signs will be buzzing, with campers who wish to sleep under stars and be warmed by the neon glow.
Here’s a handy new roundup of Old Florida restaurants. I’ve shot one, the Reececliff Family Diner in Lakeland, but I didn't have the chance to break bread there.
Here’s a guide to five charming Victorian towns in Northern California. Included are favorites, including Ferndale and Eureka, which I visited back in 2003. (Which is to say, much too long ago!)
I worked for several years not far from Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, and remember how lovely autumn can be in the so-called Switzerland of America. World Atlas makes a case to go out of your way to visit this quirky beauty, any time of year. (But … maybe go on the peak-foliage weekend fall.)
AFOLs, or Adult Fans of Lego, Jeff Esler (and a gifted artist, too!) is re-creating some of Minnesota’s favorite roadside landmarks in Lego form.
The Hurricane Helene-ravaged fancy McDonald’s in Biltmore Village in Asheville, North Carolina, has been demolished. It will be replaced, along with the beloved piano, which was also deemed unsalvageable.
Danville, Illinois, gave the world many celebrities, including Dick and Jerry Van Dyke and Bobby Short. A town with that many luminaries should have a movie theater to match. The restored Fischer Theatre in town is looking for donations to keep it shining, and will screen films in a festival celebrating yet another native son — the late actor Gene Hackman.
WHO WANTS TO BUY A DINER? (And not just ANY diner!)
The streamlined Modern Diner in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, is for sale for the first time in 40 years. Nick Demou has decided to sell the diner, which he rescued and bought with his father, Arthur, in the mid-1980s, restored, and moved here. This Sterling Streamliner is a favorite of road-eats fans. Looking for a big life change? Ring Brian LaFauci of Won Strategy at 401-533-3991.
Who wants another diner? Philadelphia’s Mayfair Diner has hit the market. The diner opened in 1932, although it has undergone substantial changes since then.
Can we talk?
I’m proud to announce that I’ll be presenting virtually before the Society for Commercial Archaeology next month, on Wednesday, Aug. 13, at 8:00 p.m., to discuss my book. The chat is free! All you have to do is sign up at the Evite here.
I