Chicken soup with matzo balls or kreplach,...
Chicken soup with matzo balls or kreplach, hot corned beef or pastrami on rye bread, chopped liver, knishes, brisket of beef, knackwurst, lox and cream cheese on a bagel, potato latkes (pancakes), kosher pickles, cheese blintzes: A visitor would think he or she was in a New York delicatessen (in unseasonably sunny, good weather) right here in Santa Ana.
Benjie’s has been around for a while--22 years--but it’s just had a face lift. Red and aqua vinyl now covers booth and counter seats, replacing the original olive green and gold; the dark wood has been whitewashed and antiqued. The booths are new, as are the carpeting and ceilings. Overhead fans circle briskly.
Menu favorites have remained the same over the years, although some items have been added. Only the prices have changed, as might be expected.
Stan Weinstein, co-owner with his wife, Ellie, says, “We’re a true New York deli, but we have enough American dishes” to appeal to most customers. Indeed, hamburgers or cheeseburgers, turkey breasts, Southern fried chicken, short ribs of beef and Dr. Brown’s sodas fill out the menu. Egg creams (a drink of soda water with chocolate or vanilla syrup)--rare on the West Coast--are a welcome find on this menu.
Benjie’s Restaurant is a family-run business. Stan and Ellie Weinstein were the founders, along with two partners whom they subsequently bought out. Now the entrance placard reading “The Weinsteins, your hosts” includes sons Lloyd and Larry as well as daughter-in-law Noriko.
But the Benjie’s family has members beyond the Weinsteins. Some waitresses have stayed on for close to 16 years. The cook, Pete Erdogan, is a shareholder. And they have steady customers who have remained faithful over time, some patronizing the restaurant daily, others coming even three times a day.
Benjie’s celebrated its 18th birthday in 1985 by rolling back its prices to those on its original menu. “From 9 in the morning to 10 at night there was a line outside of people waiting to get in, and people were having a good time,” Stan Weinstein recalls. People arrived with folding chairs ready for the wait. Two people even met on the line and later became engaged, Weinstein remembers.
Weinstein grew up in Crown Heights in Brooklyn, down the street from Ebbets Field, where he and his friends would sneak in and watch the Dodgers. And the Dodgers didn’t let their fan down: Weinstein arrived on the West Coast in 1953 and the Dodgers followed suit five years later.
Benjie’s “is a landmark today, an institution,” Weinstein says. He says the Auto Club, across the street on Tustin Avenue, often directs its clients with these directions: “We’re right across from Benjie’s.”
But more often, customers come to the quiet street specifically for Benjie’s, whose motto is “To Life: Happy, Healthy and Long.” It’s that kind of place.
Hours: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday through Thursday; 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday
Address: 1828 N. Tustin Ave., Santa Ana
Telephone: (714) 541-6263 or (714) 541-6230
Miscellaneous: Benjie’s also has a bar, which has become a sports bar. A satellite dish allows reception of most games on a wide-screen television. Catering is also available.
