One Saturday in 2004 we took a trip south from our Central Coast home to our old stomping grounds of Los Angeles to visit my wife’s then 90-year-old aunt. Although in declining health, she decided that she would like to go for a drive, and so we elected to do a little nostalgia tour of some of the old neighborhoods in which she had lived after coming to LA from Chicago just prior to WWII. Late in the afternoon we stopped for lunch at Philippe Home of the French Dip Sandwich. Aunt Florence had not been to Philippe’s as it is better known in several years, and our visit brought back a lot of memories, as this was one of the first Southern California eateries she was introduced to after her move west.
It also brought back some memories for me as well. A group of railroad enthusiast buddies and I used to eat here nearly every weekend in the 60’s as part of our swing through the yards and engine facilities between LA and the harbor. A double dip roast beef sandwich, chocolate pie, Coke or a 5-cent coffee was the perfect complement to a day’s rail photography. Today, some 50 plus years later, the sandwich has increased in price, from 45 cents to $6.00, but coffee is still a bargain at 45 cents.
Although it has moved from its original 1908 location, this famous eatery on Alameda Street has always been within walking distance of LA Union Passenger Terminal. As a switchman for the Santa Fe working the depot job in the mid 1960’s, we would tie up our loco on one of the station tracks and walk over for beans. The Southern Pacific and Union Pacific crews on their depot jobs would do the same. But the guys that really had it made were the SP crews that switched River Station Yard and the industries along Alameda Street itself. They could tie their loco up at the curb, just short of the driveway leading into the Philippe parking Lot! Today the little SP Alco switcher and the rails it used to use are long gone, but Philippe’s remains to delight locals and visitors alike.
Here is a bit of trivia for the reader. Does anyone know the name andoriginal use for the building that currently houses Philippe’s? Hint. The company name and its products figured heavily in LA’s oil Industry.
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