Lighthouse French Dip

For 100 years, a pair of California restaurants have been feuding with one another over which one of them first invented the French Dip sandwich. Its creation myths are many, with both restaurants promoting multiple versions of the same event.

Was it made by a chef who was accidentally dropped the sandwich in its beef drippings but served it, nonetheless? Could it have been first made by a surly chef who was getting back at a customer by dumping the sandwich in the beef droppings after the customer complained that the bread was stale?

We’ll never know. What the two restaurants can agree on is that the sandwich has nothing to do with France.

At the Lighthouse, we don’t dip our dips in the drippings. Rather we take several slices of thinly sliced prime rib, stuff them into a French roll, top it with our homemade horseradish sauce and then serve it with a ramekin of au just so that you can do the dipping.

Then we serve them with a side of French fries—which, of course, also have nothing to do with France. (They’re Belgian in origin.)