I spent August 27 working through the US Open's new 2026 bites, from handrolls to something dubbed Pasta Ramen, a luxe mashup of shrimp scampi and ramen. The food scene felt like a co-headliner alongside tennis and merch, and one thing clearly stole the show.
Salt Hank's French dip was the conversation starter. Chefs and guests kept pointing me toward it. One chef even handed me a sandwich, laughing that he might be sabotaging himself if I ranked the offerings.
I also sampled a $38 hot pastrami from Carnegie Deli, a $24 Mission-style burrito at Dos Toros Taqueria, Fuku's original chicken sando for $19 as the brand marks its 10th year at the Open, and a $39 chilled lobster roll from Red Hook Lobster Pound. It is a meat-heavy lineup, and if you try to hop stand to stand in the food village, it can feel like too much of a good thing.
The sandwich is sold from Salt Hank's kiosk in the food village, positioned right across from Arthur Ashe Stadium. The build is classic comfort with premium parts: prime rib from New York butcher Pat LaFrieda, sweet caramelized onions, melted provolone, and horseradish aioli on a baguette, served with housemade jus. At the Open it runs $38 and includes matchstick fries and the jus.
Bite for bite, it is rich and unapologetically messy. The prime rib is tender, the baguette stays intact even after soaking, and the horseradish gives a gentle pop at the finish. One attendee who had eaten it at the brick-and-mortar told me the Open version was "pretty spot on."
For context, the West Village flagship prices the French dip at $34, with crispy shoestring fries adding $6. During the tournament, the Bleecker Street restaurant is closed. As Henry Laporte put it, it was impossible to split focus between the restaurant and the Open, so "we brought literally all of our equipment, all of our staff, and put them in the booth." His goal: "We wanted the quality to stay like a restaurant-quality sandwich at the US Open, in the concession stand, which I think we've pretty much achieved at this point."
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Salt Hank's is the brainchild of Henry Laporte, who built a fan base with indulgent TikTok cooking videos, then turned his breakout hit into a business. In 2025, he and chef Daniel Rubenfeld opened the West Village shop anchored by the French dip. Lines formed daily down Bleecker Street, and Laporte's social following grew into the millions.
The brand has since gone beyond the original address. This year marked its first appearance at the US Open, and in August, Wonder acquired Salt Hank's; its service allows people to place a single delivery that pulls from several different restaurant brands. That deal sparked some online skepticism. As one commenter wrote on Eater's Instagram, "Too bad I never got to eat it while it was still good and before the ingredients and processes get degraded in the name of the mighty gods, Scalability and Profit Margin."
Laporte knows the worry. "We're still getting every ingredient from the same suppliers. Pat LaFrieda 850 scored prime rib," he said. "And everything we're serving right now is prepped in a Wonder Kitchen for the US Open. And it's been indistinguishable from the restaurant." Asked what comes next, he was blunt: "The plan is just to make sure the sandwich stays the exact same and doesn't get screwed up."
A $100 caviar chicken-nugget box grabbed the spotlight last year. It first appeared at the US Open in 2025 and was limited to attendees holding Club Level courtside tickets, but it has since been expanded to broader availability. Inside the box are six Korean-inspired fried chicken nuggets finished with crème fraîche, chives, pickled daikon, plus 30 grams of Petrossian caviar. Opting for a caviar-free six-piece runs $26.
Fans split into two camps. Some said the nuggets felt no better than a fast-food classic in fancier clothes, and they balked at the math of $16.67 per nugget. Others pointed out that the specific Petrossian caviar and quantity included retail for over $100 by themselves, suggesting the box effectively prices the nuggets and toppings at zero.
That tug-of-war on perceived value puts Salt Hank's $38 French dip in perspective. Nearly forty bucks for a sandwich sounds wild, but after eating it, it did not feel out of step with the experience the Open is selling. If you are budgeting for a day at a marquee event, food is now part of the draw, not an afterthought, and the must-try item may be as memorable as the match you came to see.
