TV Restaurants

What Happened to Ben’s Best Gourmet Delicatessen After Food Paradise?

Food Paradise, Season 12 Rego Park, New York Closed June 2018

Current status

Closed

As of October 2026, Ben’s Best Gourmet Delicatessen has closed — confirmed via patch.com, June 2018.

What the source shows: News coverage from 2018 confirmed Ben's Best Delicatessen closed permanently after 73 years, and Yelp's listing still showed it as closed as of September 2026. How we decide a status →

What happened after Food Paradise?

The episode featured Ben's Best Gourmet Delicatessen's classic Jewish deli fare, including house-cured pastrami and corned beef served in a Rego Park, Queens dining room that had operated for 73 years. Ben's Best was a kosher-style delicatessen on Queens Boulevard, run by owner Jay Parker after he bought it from his father in 1984. Parker closed Ben's Best on June 30, 2018, according to Patch (2018-06). Parker said at the time, "I had every desire to continue the business through other hands," according to Forward (2018-06).

Ben's Best had been a fixture of the Rego Park dining scene since the 1940s, and its closure left no old-school kosher delicatessens remaining in Queens, according to Patch (2018-06). Yelp's listing for Ben's Best still carried a permanently-closed label and was last updated in September 2026, according to Yelp (2026-09).

The episode Food Paradise, Season 12

Episode 5
Air date not confirmed
Title: The Meatier The Better · What was featured: classic Jewish deli fare at a 73-year-old Rego Park delicatessen
How Food Paradise restaurants have fared: 27% closed →

Also in Season 12 Food Paradise

Season 12: 79 of 100 still open · 3 renamed, moved or under new owners

All 13 Season 12 episodes →

Nearest open restaurants By distance from 96-40 Queens Blvd

All 448 TV restaurants in New York →

Before you go: Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.

Sources we checked 3 references

  1. patch.com https://patch.com/new-york/foresthills/famed-bens-best-deli-close-after-73-years-rego-park
  2. forward.com https://forward.com/food/402883/bens-best-deli-is-closing-are-we-witnessing-the-end-of-the-jewish-deli/
  3. Yelp https://www.yelp.com/biz/bens-best-rego-park-2
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Record fp-0902 · checked by Cal Marchetti.