Ben Shenassafar has a knack for knowing what exactly the people want. First, it was the perfect graphic hoodie, courtesy of his streetstyle brand the Hundreds. Now, it’s the refined American dining Los Angeles didn't realize it was missing. The clothing line co-founder swore he’d never open a restaurant, but after pulling off Family Style Food Festival, a first-of-its-kind fusion of fashion and food, his denials stopped making sense.
Two years later, the Benjamin arrived: a love letter to classic American dining with a throwback sensibility, housed in a classic 1930s Art Deco space that nods to Hollywood’s decadent Golden Age. A glossy, cavern-like hideaway, the Benjamin's barstools are prime real estate, the martinis are ice cold, and the Benjamin Burger is an old faithful. But beyond the luxe banquettes and clubby charm, it’s also a new community pillar in a city still recovering.
In the wake of devastating wildfires, Los Angeles’s restaurants have emerged as venues for bringing people together, or for tapping into a long-standing network of Angelenos. Now, Shenassafar is inviting locals into his newly opened joint, made possible by that same network of culinary creatives. If you'd like to try out the Benjamin, just do what Shenassafar does when he tests out a new spot: order the entire menu and a martini.
Where are you at the moment, and what have you had to eat today?
I'm in Los Angeles, California. I'm home right now. It's funny you ask what I ate because most days I don't eat before two or three o'clock [in the afternoon], but I went on a big hike this morning. I just got a haircut and came home to do this, so I was hungry. I snacked on some turkey, cheese, and Dijon mustard.
You did something for yourself, you got your hair cut! Maybe you can set the scene and tell me a bit about the food world you grew up in.
Well, I grew up in a house where my mom cooked five or six nights a week. We would have family dinner almost every single night. We would go out to dinner maybe once a week—maybe twice a week if we were lucky. My dad would bring home pizza cookery or Persian food once a week, too. I grew up eating a lot of Persian food. My mom's a great cook; we all loved eating her food. When we would go out to restaurants, we would go to a lot of the Persian restaurants in LA, or we'd go to the random Chinese restaurant down the street, or Red Lobster, Sizzler, or Tony Roma's, those kinds of restaurants. But honestly, the majority of the food I grew up eating was my mom's cooking.
You learn at a certain age how uncommon it is for a family to eat together and have that be a real priority. Does that play a role in how you approach eating, or restaurants?
It definitely plays a role in my parenting! I think people would expect me to take my children out to big lavish dinners, but when I have my kids, I just want to cook at home. Family dinners are important, especially when kids are young. I look back on those times with my family—those were really nice memories that I had. I'm hoping that I'm creating the same memories with my kids. It's nice to hear them say, “Daddy, I like this. I like when we have dinner at home, just us.”
What made you say to yourself, It's time to open a restaurant?
I've been getting asked for years—10 years, maybe—When are you going to open a restaurant? It was never in the cards for me. I’ve seen too many of my best and closest friends who are chefs and restaurateurs struggle. I've seen how hard it is to open a restaurant and be successful at it. Look, I've built a career off of selling clothing. It's something I was very passionate about. As time went on, I felt the urge to do the Family Style Food Festival. Our first one was in 2019 ... It was a festival that no one had seen before, bringing, in my opinion, the best restaurants in LA together—from the taco stand down the street to the LA Times’s number one ranked restaurant, and everything in between.
Everyone was like, "All right, when do you open a restaurant?" About two years ago, I was looking for something new to do. Something inside of me was like, Maybe you should explore this. I had a few conversations with friends of mine that are very successful chefs and restaurateurs here in town. I called one, and he was like, “You're an idiot, you should not get into this world. It's a lot of work. It's a pain in the ass. It's really hard to make money, and you're really good at what you do. You don't need to add this headache onto everything else you're doing.”
So then I call his business partner, and he was like, and I remember this very clearly, “If anyone can do it, it's you. It's gonna be really hard, it's a lot of work, but you're good at business. You have a better palate than most chefs and restaurateurs here in town. You know what you like, and that's a big part of it. It's gonna be hard, but I'm gonna be here for you. Everyone you know in town is gonna be here to help you.” Then I went to my third friend that's in the business, and asked him “What do you think?” At the end of it he was like, “Fuck yeah, 100 percent you should do it, and whatever you need, I'm here for you, and I want to invest too.” So the vote went two to one, and I leaned into it.
Was there a gap you felt you were experiencing when you were going out to eat?
I have a very strong point of view on how I like to eat and what I like to eat. A big part of that is sitting at a bar and eating. If I'm with one other person, maybe even two other people, I prefer to eat at a bar than at a table. I knew I wanted to build a restaurant around sitting at a bar. I [felt] that Los Angeles is missing a high-level American restaurant. Here in LA, you don't find refined American food. That’s not to say there aren't some good American restaurants, but they’re not at the level that I like to eat at or not executed the way that I want to eat. It’s been seven months since we’ve opened. In New York, I feel like there's a new [high-end American restaurant] every other couple weeks in the city that's opening up, and that's great, right? But here in LA, you just don't see it.
I want to talk about the decor and how that flows with the menu. In some ways it feels like there's such heavy nostalgia with the Art Deco trappings of the space.
The building we're in is a '30s art-deco building from the outside. When we saw it, my partner Jared [Meisler] and I knew right away that we're gonna play right into this. The goal was to build a room that felt like it's been there for 60 years. Also, at the same time, we wanted to transport you somewhere else. You're not in Los Angeles anymore. You feel like you walk into that room for the first time and you're like, Oh, I didn't expect this, where did this come from?
I really think we accomplished it. I mean, every night, someone is like, “This feels like I'm in Paris!” Or, “This feels like I'm in New York!” Those are definitely influences on the design of the restaurant. Originally, when we talked about it, our goal was to build a room that was Old Hollywood glamour. That played really well into the cuisine we have.
What are some of you rules of thumb that you feel like one must do if they're testing out a new place?
I always order the same cocktail, just to see the way they make a gin martini, but that's my personal choice. Whether I'm with one person or four people or six people, I'm still gonna order a majority of the menu. Hospitality is very important and service is very important, and the room, the music, the energy—those all play a significant role. But first and foremost, food is most important. I'm gonna order more than I probably should. I'm gonna take a few bites of everything, and I'll take more bites of the things that I like. I'll build an opinion on a restaurant based on that.
So you go wide.
I don't know if I'm gonna come back to that place again or not, so I wanna try it all. I don't mind taking food to-go or giving it to somebody. I like to try food, sit at the bar, order all the dessert, and probably go on a long walk after that.
That feels like an important last step. What are a few of the places to eat in LA that you're excited about right now?
I love eating at Dunsmoor. I love Brian [Dunsmoor]. I could argue that it's the best restaurant in the city if you wanted me to. I'm still a very big fan of [Evan] Funke’s food, Felix Trattoria, Mother Wolf. I love pasta, and I feel like his pasta is the best.
I'm a very big fan of Ori [Menashe] and Genevieve [Gergis], and so Bavel might be my favorite restaurant in the city. I love Bavel. I eat at Saffy's almost every week. Those are two of my favorites. I also love eating at Park's BBQ in Koreatown. It's my favorite Korean barbecue spot. I love eating Persian food at Raffi’s Place in Glendale. That's like home for me and the best comfort food that I can find.
I love eating tacos in LA at places like Mariscos Jalisco and El Ruso. Those are just two of my favorites. I haven't eaten at all the taco spots in the city, but fuck, I've eaten at a lot of them. I just had pizza at Apollonia's and it might be the best pizza in LA. I eat all over the place.
You have a big list of favorites.
I do. This is just my short version that I'm giving you.
