(Rail) Road Trip – Two Landmarks; Philippe the Original & Cielito Lindo- Los Angeles

On the final day of my LA Railroad trip, we headed off to find some sustenance for the long and grueling train ride back to San Diego…..a two hour trip on an empty stomach can be pure hell! On this day, Captain Jack and I had decided to walk on over to the one and only Philippe The Original….say that quickly and dramatically "Philippe THE Orrr-iginal", and suddenly pictures of tumblers, clowns, and other circus performers dance in your head…..

Which sometimes ain’t too far from the truth…..it gets pretty crowded at Philippe’s, even at 830 am on a Sunday morning, the line is a good 6 deep. You may need a Ringmaster to maneuver around the 3 ring circus breakfast rush.

Some of Philippe’s fame is based on the claim that Philippe Mathieu(the original Philippe) created the French Dip sandwich by accident in 1918. You can read it all here. In the original "you got peanut butter on my chocolate" moment Philippe apparently came up with a bad case of fumble-itis when making a sandwich, dropping the roll into a roasting pan full of juice (let’s all say it together, ahhhh-jus!), and the rest so they say is history. But as with many of these type of claims, it is not without some controversy…..right up the street resides Cole’s Pacific Electric Buffet, who claim to have invented the French Dip sandwich in 1908!

Most of the customers on this morning were having breakfast. But, I wasn’t standing in line on the sawdust lined floors at Philippe’s for breakfast. Though I must say, watching a petite Asian girl wolf down a huge ham steak, easy over eggs, biscuits, cole slaw, and potato salad, is quite a sight to behold.

Not knowing the next time I’d be in the area, I went for my favorite sandwich at Philippe’s…the Double Dipped Lamb Sandwich. ($5.95) Ahhh Lamb, it’s not just for breakfast anymore…….  A leg of lamb was removed from one of the heating drawers, the meat cut off, the whole sandwich dipped, twice in jus.  Oh, and of course a cup o’ Joe…believe it or not, coffee at Philippe’s is still 10 cents a cup.                                    

And though the lamb was a bit tougher and not as rich as the version I had on my previous visit , the jus was oh so good. In fact I remember telling Captain Jack, that if Philippe’s sold rolls in jus, I’d be tempted to order that. I know I could have gotten the Classic French Dip, but I’d found it to be on the salty side……

Still Philippe’s is quite the landmark…in business since 1908, that says something about a place.

Philippe the Original
1001 N Alameda St
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Open Daily 6am – 10pm

And of course breakfast is just not complete without something from that special food group, taquitos. We made it a point to stop by Cielito Lindo on DietChiliCheeseFries recommendation. According to DCCF, the taquitos at Cielito Lindo was a must eat item.

Much like Philippe’s, Cielito Lindo has a long and interesting history, and has been around and selling taquitos since 1934! That’s alot of taquitos…….

So of course we had to stop by and order some Burritos! Hah, just kidding, I ordered 3 taquitos($3.60). The taquitos arrived, and were very tasty, the "shell" had a nice corn flavor, though I thought the really tightly packed meat to be somewhat tough and flavorless. The avocado sauce, was like a runny guacamole, or maybe a thicker salsa verde? Kind of on the bland side.

Still these taquitos had that "something special", and were about a perfect a taquito as one could come across.

As we ate, we watched taquitos being cooked, and noticed that the taquitos weren’t deep fried in the conventional sense, but fried up in a pan that looked sort of like a wok, without a ton of oil.

As we watched the taquitos cook, I nudged Captain Jack….I had found the ingredient that made these taquitos so good….it was the special, thick, white liquid being poured into the pans from the "coffee pots" lining the stove area! Yes, that magical elixir…Lard! No wonder they tasted so good!

Cielito Lindo
23 Olvera St # E
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Open Sun – Thurs 9am – 11pm
     Fri – Sat 9am – Midnight

A Lamb Dip Sandwich, with a taquito chaser…….now that’s a breakfast!