Benihana Goes Hip-Hop

Meeting a colleague for lunch recently at the Benihana in Golden Valley, we bumped into a young mother in the foyer quizzing her young son on a photograph of a celebrity hanging on the wall.

“Do you know who that is, baby?” she cooed, pointing to a photograph hanging between shots of Gerald Ford and Doug Mientkiewicz. 

He shook his head, no.

“That’s Martin Lawrence!”

Benihana has gone hip-hop. On this afternoon, we would be sharing a teppanyaki (Japanese for “steel broiler”) with a white man and woman, an Asian couple, and a black woman with two children. And a quick scan of the crowded dining room—equal parts Golden Valley cubicle dwellers, girlfriends meeting for sushi, and do-ragged playas in Evisu jeans—confirmed it: Benihana’s lunch hour is the most diverse dining experience in the Twin Cities.

The multicultural collision is explained by Benihana protocol—the restaurant only seats full tables of eight; a practice that started when founder Rocky Aoiki opened the first ersatz Japanese steak house in 1964, off Broadway in Manhattan, with four tables and thirty-two seats.

But that doesn’t explain why Benihana gets name-dropped in rap songs by artists such as Young Jeezy and Obie Trice. Or why Escalades on rims jostle Honda Accords for space in the overcrowded parking lot. When reached for comment, Benihana officials acknowledged a hip-hop fan base around the country. Even, perhaps, at the just-opened Maple Grove location.

Is it the food? Is it the Hispanic chefs (our guy: Francisco) in teppanyaki regalia banging on the grilles and flipping steel spatulas behind their backs? My lunch companion, a marketing employee, had a theory of her own. “I think it’s perceived luxury,” she explained. “I think it’s ‘nice’—$20 for lunch—but not intimidating in a white tablecloth way.”

I asked the young mother sitting to my left if she was a regular. She said that it was her children’s favorite place. I interrupted the ten-year-old, spearing his shrimp with gusto, to ask what he liked about Beni. “I love everything,” he gushed, “except the wait.”