Beyoncé is the queen of many issues — Texas, good style in eating places and whiskey, and so forth. Now, as a part of her ongoing marketing campaign with denim model Levi’s, she’s embracing retro eating by stunningly lounging on a mid-century diner counter. Beyoncé’s co-star within the commercial is Bendix Diner. Sadly, the 40-year-old restaurant in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, formally closed this 12 months.
Initially, Bendix briefly closed in January due to fireplace and well being code violations. Co-owner John Diakakis — who’s legally blind and ran the diner — tells Eater that the “constructing was very, very previous,” and that he was making an attempt to replace the fireplace suppression techniques since 2020, however that will’ve required a whole lot of development for such an previous constructing, which was “nearly at this level, falling aside on the seams.” He sums up: “It was simply an uphill battle.”
Within the fall of 2024, he needed to cope with his mom dying after which town making an attempt to shut down the restaurant because it was working with outdated techniques. He tried slimming down the menu to easier meals like sandwiches and salads, which didn’t go over effectively for a crowd used to diner pancakes, burgers, and French toast. So, he reverted to cooking with the out-of-code system till the well being division pressured him to shut in January.
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In the end, Diakakis is trying to promote Bendix as a result of he co-owns it along with his two siblings — one among whom was inflicting points whereas he was taking good care of his mom, he candidly explains to Eater. The diner opened in 1947, and the Diakakis household took over in 1985. “If it was simply my inheritance and my property,” Diakakis would wish to maintain the diner going, however “as a lot as my household owned it, I simply at all times felt like I needed to go in there and make my dwelling and deal with my youngsters. I’ve at all times been approachable with the general public as a result of it’s a distinctive state of affairs that I’m completely blind and am ready on individuals.”
In the summertime of 2024, Levi location scouts got here to Bendix (which has additionally been utilized in films like Jersey Woman, Boys on the Facet, and The Many Saints of Newark) to take a look at the house. Diakakis observed that they have been wanting particularly on the iced tea and condiment fridges. That finally is sensible whenever you watch the accompanying Levi’s industrial titled “Fridge,” the place Beyoncé pulls out a really chilly denim shirt from stated fridge.
In the course of the precise filming with Beyoncé, Diakakis says that safety was very tight. He wasn’t allowed contained in the constructing on the time, they usually coated his mobile phone digital camera. “If she needed to fear about me taking footage, she by no means would have had an image taken,” he jokes.
Concerning the sale of Bendix, Diakakis tells Eater there have been just a few individuals however with “lowball” presents. NorthJersey.com reviews that it’s listed for $2.5 million. “I believe we’re simply going to hold in there and never make any form of loopy selections,” he says.
However now that Bendix Diner acquired some free advertising and marketing courtesy of Mrs. Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (who can also be bringing her Cowboy Carter tour to New Jersey in late Could over Memorial Day weekend), Diakakis may be capable of promote the restaurant and settle into a brand new life. He’s on the lookout for work and would like to get away from the Northeast winters.
“I’ll most likely attempt to discover some new place to only coexist and simply do what I’ve been doing all of my life. As a result of I do like that complete environment of simply having a spot with meals,” he says, as a blind individual working the restaurant flooring. “That may be my final objective.”
