Benihana

Mexican Benihana: hibachi-style tableside theater with Mexican food

Shaan argues Benihana already found the optimal social dining format, where the table is the stove and the chef performs, and Mexican is the best cuisine, so combine them: a table-skillet fajita, mariachis, a guac cannon and a 'salsa lazy river.' He notes Benihana does $300-500M a year; Ari voted it her favorite idea.

“The most fun dining environment is chef making food where the table is the stove. The guy's making it for you fresh as can be. Food to mouth doesn't even hit the plate. Unbelievable experience. Pre-canned jokes, magic tricks. Blah, blah, blah. You're sitting in a semicircle. So I think Benihana's has already found an optimal food social experience. I think Mexican food has found the ideal food. 1+ 1= 3.”

Steal thisPort a proven experience format onto a more popular category: the format is already validated, and the content is the upgrade.

Rocky Aoki: Benihana founder, powerboat racer, balloonist, SEC target

Benihana founder Rocky Aoki, father of DJ Steve Aoki, was an Olympic-level wrestler from Japan who started with an ice cream truck in New York, took Benihana public, raced powerboats, set a hot-air balloon distance record and got in trouble with the SEC for insider trading. Shaan calls his motto, 'Money's not everything, just 99%,' a tagline for the podcast.

“And then he eventually starts Benihana's, which goes public. And while he's doing this, he does all these weird competitions. Like, I think he was a professional powerboat racer at one point. He like set a record for like flying a fly, like a hot air balloon, like across some distance. And he even got in trouble by the SEC for insider trading because I think he was trying to like buy back Benihana and he like thought like, like a, a bad report was going to come out, something crazy like that.”