Dueling dips: The claim of Philippe the...

Dueling dips: The claim of Philippe the Original sandwich shop that it is responsible for one of history’s greatest luncheon breakthroughs is not going unchallenged. Cole’s, at 85 the oldest eatery in L.A., advertises itself as “The Originators of the French Dip.”

You may recall that Philippe’s, located near Union Station, asserted during a recent anniversary celebration that the invention came about accidentally in 1918, when a chef there dropped a French roll into the juice of the meat.

Not so, says Jimmy Barela, a former bartender at Cole’s in the old Pacific Electric Building at 118 E. 6th Street. Barela insists that longtime Cole’s chef Jack Garlinghouse made the first dunker some years earlier--and by request.

“A fellow came in and asked, ‘Can you tip that bun into the juice,” Barela recalled. “He said, ‘They (the buns) are too hard. They hurt my gums.’

“ ‘Do you want the rest of it dipped too?’ Jack asked.

“He said, ‘Sure.’

“There was a long line of people behind him. Everyone was watching. Pretty soon someone else said, ‘Can you make me one of those?’ ”

And, as Martin Beheshti, the current owner of Cole’s, put it: “The word spread.”

Even, perhaps, to Philippe’s.

Living landmark: In case you were wondering how Barela claims to know such history, we might note that he is 90. He worked at Cole’s (full and part time) from 1925 to 1988, before embarking on a life of leisure. He was a bartender for 56 of those years. When did he pour his first drink?

“April 7, 1933,” he answered. “When President Roosevelt legalized beer. Beer was 10 cents a glass back then. The first day, one fellow ordered five beers. I tried to take them back to him on a tray and people were grabbing them off. I didn’t have any left when I got back to him. I poured five more. Same thing happened. We sold 58 32-gallon kegs of beer that first day. People were thirsty for good beer.”

Barela returns to Cole’s each May 23 for a birthday celebration.

“I always eat a big filet mignon steak before I get there,” he said, “because I know once I’m there everyone’s going to want to buy me a drink.”

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A revised formula for the casting couch: How best to prepare for “the casting director, the first person to see the actor?” Why, by learning his or her astrological sign, of course. Hence, actress Taaffe O’Connell’s “Astro Caster” ($7.95), a booklet listing the casting directors according to their signs. O’Connell also dispenses advice on what to expect from each sign, as, for instance, any Sagittarius male casting director: “Beware of his sometimes tactless speech. He’ll be the first to say, ‘Love your new nose job.’ ”

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Will they mark the packages “L” and “R”?Sam Hollander of Studio City received an invoice for a purchase that seems to indicate he’ll be putting his pants on one leg at a time, though not necessarily on the same day.

miscelLAny:

The magazine USC Business estimates that graduates of the university’s business school own 12,240 Oriental rugs.