Ben’s, a beloved hole-in-the-wall in the Jack London District, plans to renovate and reopen.
The off-menu ‘David Special’ at Ben’s is one of the East Bay’s great comfort dishes. The Jack London standby expects to reopen in two or three months. (Luke Tsai/KQED)
As it turns out, reports on the demise of Ben’s, a spot I once called “the best Chinese restaurant in Oakland that you haven’t heard of,” were a little bit premature.
Local news outlets reported that the Jack London staple had closed after a Reddit poster found the restaurant shuttered unexpectedly last week. A sign in the window read, “Since 1986, thank you for a great 40 years.” There was no previous warning that Ben’s had been planning to close.
When reached by phone, however, second-generation owner David Fung clarified that Ben’s wasn’t closing permanently after all. Instead, the restaurant will be taking extended break with the goal of reopening in two or three months.
“Pops needed a break,” David explained, referring to his father, Ben Fung, the restaurant’s lone chef and namesake since he opened the place in 1986.
As a regular at Ben’s when I worked down the street in the early 2010s, I fell in love with the restaurant’s homey, unpretentious Cantonese American lunch plates, which at the time were priced at around just $6 a pop: heaping portions of garlic fried chicken, shrimp and scrambled egg over rice, and curry-spiced Singapore rice noodles, all laden with an abundance of fresh vegetables.
The restaurant’s housemade black bean chili sauce might be even more famous and beloved than its actual dishes.
My favorite is the off-menu “David Special” rice plate, which folds plump shrimp and tender beef into a fluffy, golden-brown egg omelet. Paired with heaping dollops of Ben’s fiendishly delicious housemade black bean chili sauce, it’s one of my favorite comfort meals.
While the restaurant’s temporary closure happened all of a sudden, the Fungs will take the time off to make some much-needed updates. First, they’ve transferred ownership to David’s name. At 76 years old, the elder Fung has long contemplated retirement. The idea, David says, is that when Ben’s reopens, his father can just come in and cook for a few hours every day. Meanwhile, David himself will take over all of the other day-to-day responsibilities.
The restaurant itself also needs a fairly significant renovation — new floors, a new fire escape, an updated bathroom. For the entirety of its 40-year history, Ben’s has been the very definition of a tiny, barebones hole-in-the-wall. While David doesn’t expect that to change, he does hope to make the space a little bit more modern and inviting.
Part of what the family is beginning to prepare, then, is a succession plan for when Beneventually does retire. David says he’s already learned most of the recipes — in fact, when Ben’s reopens, he’s thinking about keeping the restaurant open in the evenings for the first time and cooking the dinner service himself. Eventually, though, they’ll need to hire and train a new chef they trust.
As for his father’s real retirement plan? They want to bottle and sell that famous chili sauce.
Ben’s has been serving a notably diverse range of customers since 1986.
David, for his part, was an infant when his father first opened Ben’s in 1986 — he literally grew up at the restaurant. Back in those early days, the nearby Port of Oakland and wholesale produce market were both a lot busier, and the railroad tracks used to go all the way through 3rd Street. (“At any given moment,” David recalls, “the freight trains would go through right in front of our store.”) The restaurant used to open at 4 a.m. to serve breakfast to folks finishing up a late-night shift.
Ben’s is located at 398 3rd St. in Oakland. The restaurant expects to be closed for renovation for at least two or three months.