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

Forget the tennis. Everyone at the US Open is talking about this $38 sandwich. Salt Hank's fan-favorite French dip sandwich rivals last year's chicken nuggets-and-caviar meal. Erin McDowell/Business Insider Salt Hank's French dip makes no apologies about being exactly what it is: a drippy, delightful excuse to buy a ticket to the US Open.I attended a media preview on August 27 to try the US Open's new food offerings for 2026. I tried almost every food item available, from handrolls to something called "Pasta Ramen," a decadent cross between shrimp scampi and ramen noodles.I realized then that the food is as much of a draw as the event itself, along with the merch, and tennis, of course. Still, one item was the star of the show.This year, the food item on everybody's lips is the French dip sandwich from Salt Hank's The sandwich impressed me. Erin McDowell/Business Insider The sandwich retails for $38 at the Salt Hank's stand in the food village, just across from Arthur Ashe Stadium.It's made with prime rib from New York City butcher Pat LaFrieda, sweet caramelized onions, gooey provolone, and horseradish aioli served on a baguette with housemade jus.The sandwich was rich and messy in the best way, with tender prime rib and a soft-but-sturdy baguette that held up well against the deeply savory jus. The horseradish sauce added a slight kick at the end.At Salt Hank's West Village flagship, the French dip costs $34, while an order of the shop's crispy shoestring fries adds $6. At the 2026 US Open, the sandwich is priced at $38 and comes with a side of matchstick fries and the jus.The sandwich was filling, especially after eating my way through some of the other items on offer at the tournament: a hot pastrami sandwich from Carnegie Deli ($38), a Mission-style burrito from Dos Toros Taqueria ($24), the original chicken sando ($19) from Fuku, which is celebrating its 10th year at the US Open, and chilled lobster roll ($39) from Red Hook Lobster Pound.It's a lot of meat — and could easily border on too much if you were trying to eat at multiple stands throughout the food village. If you're unfamiliar with Salt Hank's, you're one of the few Laporte opened his restaurant Salt Hank's in 2025 with chef Daniel Rubenfeld. Charles Sykes/Bravo/Getty Images The New York City restaurant is helmed by Henry Laporte, who built an audience with indulgent TikTok cooking videos before turning his most popular creation into a business.In 2025, Laporte and chef Daniel Rubenfeld opened Salt Hank's in the West Village around the French dip, which quickly drew daily lines down Bleecker Street and helped propel Laporte's following into the millions on social media.Salt Hank's has since expanded beyond the West Village. It debuted at the US Open this year, and in August, Wonder, a food-delivery platform that lets customers order from multiple restaurant brands at once, acquired Salt Hank's.The Bleecker Street restaurant is closed during the Open, with Laporte telling Business Insider it was impossible to devote equal attention to both endeavors at once."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," he said. "And that was only because we brought literally all of our equipment, all of our staff, and put them in the booth."At the media food preview, it was clear that the sandwich was the one item people were eager to try. When I told another chef I was hoping to rank food items at the tournament, he brought me one of the sandwiches and joked that he might be sabotaging himself.One attendee told me she had tried the sandwich at the actual restaurant and called the one at the US Open "pretty spot on."Salt Hank's fans have concerns about retaining the sandwich's quality as the brand expands Salt Hank's was open in the food village during the US Open. Erin McDowell/Business Insider When it was announced that Laporte had sold Salt Hank's to Wonder, some fans on social media expressed concern."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," a user commented on an Eater Instagram post announcing the partnership.Laporte said he's heard concerns about potential differences in quality between the sandwich served at his own restaurant, the one served through Wonder, and the one served at the Open."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."When I asked Laporte if he intended to use any of the money he earned from the Wonder acquisition to open any new restaurants or shift gears away from Salt Hank's, he said he's not stepping away from Salt Hank's anytime soon. "The plan is just to make sure the sandwich stays the exact same and doesn't get screwed up," he said.The sandwich now rivals the buzz of the viral caviar 'Happy Meal' from 2025 The chicken nuggets come in a well-designed box. Erin McDowell/Business Insider Last year, the item everyone was talking about was the $100 caviar chicken-nugget box. First introduced at the US Open in 2025 for fans with courtside Club Level seats, it is now available more broadly.It includes six Korean-inspired fried chicken nuggets topped with crème fraîche, chives, pickled daikon, and 30 grams of Petrossian caviar; a plain six-piece order costs $26.Some fans likened the quality of the nuggets to nothing more than a McDonald's nugget with a fancier presentation and griped about how the price tag came out to $16.67 per nugget.Others noted that the specific brand and size of caviar itself retails for over $100, meaning you're not only getting a discounted rate on the caviar but also that the nuggets and other toppings are essentially free.That debate over whether the ingredients justified the cost made me reconsider the value of Salt Hank's French dip, too.As I left the tournament grounds, the sandwich didn't seem like a bad deal — even if nearly $40 for a sandwich still sounds a little ludicrous. Read next Erin McDowell is a reporter on Business Insider's editorial partnerships team. She covers food, lifestyle, and entertainment for Business Insider and its partner sites, including MSN, Apple News, and Yahoo.She graduated from Elon University in January 2019, where she studied strategic communications and digital art. She has written for V Magazine, Milk.XYZ, OUT.com, Brides Magazine, and more. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and can be found on LinkedIn. Please send all inquiries, comments, or tips to emcdowell@businessinsider.com.Selected stories:Celebrity-chef restaurants and Applebee's are using the same playbookChain restaurants like Chili's are coming for fast-food giants in the latest bout of the value warsI tried double cheeseburgers from 13 fast-food chains. I thought the best burger was also the best deal.I ate at the first Applebee's and IHOP hybrid restaurant in the US. Its plan to attract younger diners could just work.The chicken sandwich wars are over. 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