An Institution

After visiting the Bunker Hill area, we were getting a bit hungry.  Other than some fast food places our options were limited in that neighborhood.  I mentioned that Philippe’s was nearby, so we checked our phones’ GPS and walked north towards Chinatown.   

We passed by the Los Angeles Times building

  

and LA City Hall.

An interesting fact - The concrete from this 1920’s building was supposedly made with the sand from each of California’s 58 counties and water from our 21 missions.

A few blocks later, we arrived at our lunch destination.  Philippe’s is an institution in LA.  It has been a sandwich restaurant since 1908 and at this location on the corner of Alameda and Ord since 1951. Anyone who has been here for any length of time, knows about Philippe’s

Philippe’s claims to be the originator of the French Dip sandwich.  It is a no-frills place with a huge clientele. 

The lunchtime crowds come in droves – downtown professionals, tourists, shoppers.    The lines are always this long, or longer.

Customers order at the counter, and one of the 10 counter servers takes your order and prepares your meal while you wait.  They are most known for their French Dip sandwiches with roast beef, pork, turkey, lamb, or ham. 

Philippe’s has some inexpensive beverage choices. 

Especially their coffee.They were the home of the 5 cent cup of coffee for years, and then in 1977 it increased to 10 cents.  Just this year, they quadrupled their price – a cup of coffee is now a pricey 45 cents!

Jason and I took a little break and enjoyed our French dips.  They don’t look like much, but are pretty good sandwiches and, even better, part of our city’s history.

After our lunch, we cut through the edge of Chinatown. 
 

Our Chinatown isn’t as impressive as let’s say San Francisco’s.  It’s got the typical markets and restaurants, but on a much smaller scale.  We hurried through the outer edge, just taking a peak.  The thought of the freeway turning into a parking lot in the near future sent us back towards our car in Bunker Hill in order to head home. 

It was a fun way to spend part of the day, even more so that it was low key and unplanned.