Forget the tennis. Everyone at the US Open is talking about this $38 sandwich.

Salt Hank's French dip makes nary apologies astir being exactly what it is: a drippy, delightful excuse to bargain a summons to the US Open.

I attended a media preview connected August 27 to effort the US Open's caller nutrient offerings for 2026. I tried almost each nutrient point available, from handrolls to thing called "Pasta Ramen," a decadent transverse betwixt shrimp scampi and ramen noodles.

I realized past that the nutrient is arsenic overmuch of a tie arsenic the arena itself, along pinch the merch, and tennis, of course. Still, 1 point was the prima of the show.

This year, the nutrient point connected everybody's lips is the French dip sandwich from Salt Hank's

The sandwich retails for $38 astatine the Salt Hank's guidelines successful the nutrient village, conscionable crossed from Arthur Ashe Stadium.

It's made pinch premier rib from New York City butcher Pat LaFrieda, saccharine caramelized onions, gooey provolone, and horseradish aioli served connected a baguette pinch housemade jus.

The sandwich was rich | and messy successful the champion way, pinch tender premier rib and a soft-but-sturdy baguette that held up good against the profoundly savory jus. The horseradish condiment added a flimsy footwear astatine the end.

At Salt Hank's West Village flagship, the French dip costs $34, while an bid of the shop's crispy shoestring fries adds $6. At the 2026 US Open, the sandwich is priced astatine $38 and comes pinch a broadside of matchstick fries and the jus.

The sandwich was filling, particularly aft eating my measurement done immoderate of the different items connected connection astatine the tournament: a basking pastrami sandwich from Carnegie Deli ($38), a Mission-style burrito from Dos Toros Taqueria ($24), the original chickenhearted sando ($19) from Fuku, which is celebrating its 10th twelvemonth astatine the US Open, and chilled lobster rotation ($39) from Red Hook Lobster Pound.

It's a batch of nutrient — and could easy separator connected excessively overmuch if you were trying to eat astatine aggregate stands passim the nutrient village.

If you're unfamiliar pinch Salt Hank's, you're 1 of the few

The New York City restaurant is helmed by Henry Laporte, who built an assemblage pinch indulgent TikTok cooking videos earlier turning his astir celebrated creation into a business.

In 2025, Laporte and cook Daniel Rubenfeld opened Salt Hank's successful the West Village astir the French dip, which quickly drew regular lines down Bleecker Street and helped propel Laporte's pursuing into the millions connected societal media.

Salt Hank's has since expanded beyond the West Village. It debuted astatine the US Open this year, and successful August, Wonder, a food-delivery level that lets customers bid from aggregate edifice brands astatine once, acquired Salt Hank's.

The Bleecker Street edifice is closed during the Open, pinch Laporte telling Business Insider it was intolerable to give adjacent attraction to some endeavors astatine once.

"We wanted the value to enactment for illustration a restaurant-quality sandwich astatine the US Open, successful the concession stand, which I deliberation we've beautiful overmuch achieved astatine this point," he said. "And that was only because we brought virtually each of our equipment, each of our staff, and put them successful the booth."

At the media nutrient preview, it was clear that the sandwich was the 1 point group were eager to try. When I told different cook I was hoping to rank nutrient items astatine the tournament, he brought maine 1 of the sandwiches and joked that he mightiness beryllium sabotaging himself.

One attendee told maine she had tried the sandwich astatine the existent edifice and called the 1 astatine the US Open "pretty spot on."

Salt Hank's fans person concerns astir retaining the sandwich's value arsenic the marque expands

When it was announced that Laporte had sold Salt Hank's to Wonder, immoderate fans connected societal media expressed concern.

"Too bad I ne'er sewage to eat it while it was still bully and earlier the ingredients and processes get degraded successful the sanction of the mighty gods, Scalability and Profit Margin," a personification commented connected an Eater Instagram post announcing the partnership.

Laporte said he's heard concerns astir imaginable differences successful value betwixt the sandwich served astatine his ain restaurant, the 1 served done Wonder, and the 1 served astatine the Open.

"We're still getting each constituent from the aforesaid suppliers. Pat LaFrieda 850 scored premier rib," he said. "And everything we're serving correct now is prepped successful a Wonder Kitchen for the US Open. And it's been indistinguishable from the restaurant."

When I asked Laporte if he intended to usage immoderate of the money he earned from the Wonder acquisition to unfastened immoderate caller restaurants aliases displacement gears distant from Salt Hank's, he said he's not stepping distant from Salt Hank's anytime soon. "The scheme is conscionable to make judge the sandwich stays the nonstop aforesaid and doesn't get screwed up," he said.

The sandwich now rivals the buzz of the viral caviar 'Happy Meal' from 2025

Last year, the point everyone was talking astir was the $100 caviar chicken-nugget box. First introduced astatine the US Open successful 2025 for fans pinch courtside Club Level seats, it is now disposable much broadly.

It includes six Korean-inspired fried chickenhearted nuggets topped pinch crème fraîche, chives, pickled daikon, and 30 grams of Petrossian caviar; a plain six-piece bid costs $26.

Some fans likened the value of the nuggets to thing much than a McDonald's nugget pinch a fancier position and griped astir really the value tag came retired to $16.67 per nugget.

Others noted that the circumstantial marque and size of caviar itself retails for complete $100, meaning you're not only getting a discounted complaint connected the caviar but besides that the nuggets and different toppings are fundamentally free.

That statement complete whether the ingredients justified the costs made maine reconsider the worth of Salt Hank's French dip, too.

As I near the tourney grounds, the sandwich didn't look for illustration a bad woody — moreover if astir $40 for a sandwich still sounds a small ludicrous.