Last Call for Cole's
A conversation with Cedd Moses, Owner of Cole’s, Which Will Close After 117 Years.
The recent announcement that Cole’s, the Los Angeles institution credited with inventing the French Dip sandwich, is closing on Aug. 2 was awful news on a colossal scale. [UPDATE: SINCE THE PUBLICATION OF THIS STORY, COLE’S HAS ANNOUNCED IT WILL STAY OPEN UNTIL MID-SEPTEMBER.] It is surely the most significant restaurant closing to occur this year as of yet. To learn how things came to this sorry pass, we caught up with owner Cedd Moses, who has owned the landmark since 2007. For those of you lucky enough to live close to Cole’s, please take the time to pay one final visit. Order a French Dip for me.
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THE MIX: Can you share why you decided to buy Cole’s in the first place?
Cedd Moses: Back in 2007, I was hellbent on building a bar district in Downtown L.A. —the kind of place you could stumble from one watering hole to the next and feel like you owned the night. Cole’s didn’t exactly fit that plan on paper. It was famous for inventing the French Dip, not slinging cocktails. But the soul of that place grabbed me by the collar. Gangsters, burlesque queens, hookers, artists, drunks, scribes—the ghosts in those booths were goddamn irresistible. Mickey Cohen had his name on a booth there. Charles Bukowski drank there. Then I met Jimmy Barela, the barman who’d held court behind that bar for 65 damn years. He told me wild stories that made it impossible not to fall for Cole’s. I was hooked for life.
THE MIX: What did Cole’s mean to you, and what do you think it meant to the city?
CM: Every bar I’ve touched gets a piece of my heart. That’s the only way these joints work—they demand sacrifice and stubborn love. But Cole’s…Cole’s was special to me. I’ve had a soft spot for it since the ‘80s, long before I held the keys. I can’t pretend to know exactly what it meant to L.A., but judging by the line down the block and the flood of brokenhearted messages since we announced the closure, seems like I’m not the only fool in love with the place.
THE MIX: You spoke to Eater about the myriad challenges facing LA restaurants in recent years, including COVID, the strike, and rising costs. Can you elaborate a bit? Has Cole’s been fighting an uphill battle for more than five years now?
CM: Cole’s has been on life support since COVID-19 hit. Restaurants in Downtown L.A. just never bounced back the way we prayed it would. Meanwhile, every single cost that keeps a restaurant alive—labor, product, insurance—shot through the roof. We tried to keep the lights on but, truth be told, the numbers never penciled out after the pandemic sucker-punched us.
THE MIX: You also mentioned local bureaucracy. What does that mean exactly? How has the city made things harder for restaurants? Did you reach out to City Hall to help save Cole’s?
CM: Bureaucracy is the extra mile of red tape the city and county have been rolling out like a dirty carpet for years. Coming out of the pandemic they made big promises about helping small business and restaurants stay afloat—but instead they stacked on new fees, new restrictions, new ways to fine you for just trying to pour someone a drink. We asked for help, and, like everyone else, we mostly got ghosted.
THE MIX: What made you decide to close now, instead of last year when you shuttered The Varnish? Was there a last straw?
CM: The Varnish was actually helping to float Cole’s for a while, but when labor costs shot up, we couldn’t keep the level of service that made The Varnish what it was without bleeding cash. So we had to pull the plug on it. We hoped Downtown restaurants would find their feet again and bail Cole’s out. But then we got shellacked by the L.A. fires, the film industry strikes, curfews from immigration protests—just one gut punch after another. At some point, you run out of rope. We feel fortunate that our other historical Downtown bars have been resilient and are doing relatively well.
THE MIX: Is there any hope that someone else will step in and reopen Cole’s?
CM: I’d love nothing more. We put the place up for sale, but so far no serious takers. Downtown’s still rough, and the numbers scare off most folks. Plus, I’m not about to hand over the keys to someone who’d trash its history for a quick buck. If the right caretaker comes along, hell yes, I’d love to see Cole’s live on.
THE MIX: If it does close for good, what happens to the inside and the iconic neon sign outside?
CM: If we can’t find someone worthy, the landlord gets it all—the bar, the booths, that legendary neon. Odds are they’ll try to lease it out again as Cole’s. But once you shut the lights, who knows what the future holds? I would just hope someone keeps the sign burning. It deserves better than the scrap heap.
Cole’s Bloody Mary
Angela Gomez, Cole’s, Los Angeles, CA
We asked Cedd Moses to share a recipe from Cole’s bar and he sent this formula for the house Bloody Mary.
1 1/2 ounces vodka
5 1/2 ounces Cole’s tomato blend**
3/4 ounce lemon juice
Dash salt
Dash pepper
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Cole’s Bloody Mary supplement*
Combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker tin and toss back and forth before that tin and another. Serve in pint glass over ice. Garnish with spicy pickle, pickled quail egg, and olive.
*Cole’s Bloody Mary Supplement
9 teaspoons Cole's meat rub (use a meat rub of your liking)
3 teaspoons horseradish
3 teaspoons Cole’s fry spice (use a spice mix of your liking)
6 ounces pickle juice
3 ounces Tabasco hot sauce
**Cole’s Tomato Blend
1 can tomatoes
3 cans tomato juice
3 teaspoons celery seed
Mix together in a blender until smooth.
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This is terrible. I wish we could fly there for a final dip.
Awful news.