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 yr.
Initially, Bendix briefly closed in January due to hearth 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 Co-owner John Diakakis — who’s legally blind and ran the diner — tells Eater that the “constructing was very, very outdated,” and that he was attempting to replace the hearth suppression programs since 2020, however that will’ve required a whole lot of building for such an outdated constructing, which was “virtually at this level, falling aside on the seams.”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to take care of his mom dying after which town attempting to shut down the restaurant because it was working with outdated programs. 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.
Finally, Diakakis is seeking to promote Bendix as a result of he co-owns it together with his two siblings — one in every of 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 hold the diner going, however “as a lot as my household owned it, I simply all the time felt like I wished to go in there and make my residing and care for my kids. I’ve all the time 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 seen that they have been trying particularly on the iced tea and condiment fridges. That ultimately is smart while 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, and so they lined his cellular phone digital camera. “If she needed to fear about me taking photos, she by no means would have had an image taken,” he jokes.
Relating to the sale of Bendix, Diakakis tells Eater there have been a couple of individuals however with “lowball” presents. NorthJersey.com stories that it’s listed for $2.5 million. “I feel we’re simply going to hold in there and never make any sort of loopy selections,” he says.
However now that Bendix Diner received some free advertising courtesy of Mrs. Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (who can be bringing her Cowboy Carter tour to New Jersey in late Might over Memorial Day weekend), right here’s hoping that Diakakis can unload the restaurant and settle into a brand new life. He’s in search of work and would like to get away from the Northeast winters.
“I’ll most likely attempt to discover some new place to simply coexist and simply do what I’ve been doing all of my life. As a result of I do like that complete ambiance of simply having a spot with meals,” he says, as a blind particular person working the restaurant flooring. “That might be my final purpose.”
