By Elizabeth Léka

On a sunny Friday at 3 p.m., the Benny’s Tacos on Manchester and Loyola is packed. Construction workers sit at one table, taking a late lunch. At the next table over, a sixth grade girl eats a burrito with her mom, celebrating a good test grade.

Escaping the wide-spread hunger in communist Romania gave Benny Borsakian, 62, a dream to feed people. In his 40s, he was inspired to open Benny’s Tacos, a fast-casual Mexican restaurant that has become a staple in Westchester for Loyola Marymount University students and long-term residents alike.

This is not just a story about one restaurant. Data from the 2023 American Community Survey showed that 34% of restaurant owners are immigrants. There is a class of small business owners, just like Borsakian who build community through sharing culture, and whose businesses take on a deeper meaning to those who rely on them.

“Because his heart was in it,” his daughter Alexis Borsakian said, “it became a success.”

There are about 1.3 million immigrant business owners in the United States, according to an analysis of American Community Survey data by the Immigrant Research Initiative. In fact, more than one in five business owners are immigrants.

Over the past couple decades, there has been incredible growth in this area. ACS data shows immigrants making up 12% of the population and 14% of business owners in 2000, where 2023 reports showed immigrants as 17% of the population and 21% of business owners.

Despite this, immigrant run businesses face significant challenges. The average annual profit of immigrant run businesses is $50,000, according to ACS data. In comparison, the average cost of living in the U.S., based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, is above $78,000.

Los Angeles has a higher cost of living than most American cities, which makes it even more difficult for a small business to succeed.

In April 2020, Borsakian had to take out two Paycheck Protection Program loans from the government to pay his employees and utility costs for the Culver City and Santa Monica locations, totalling around $330,000 in federal support.

This loan helped the restaurant stay afloat during the pandemic, but Borsakian says that without community support, his restaurant would not survive. Supporting Benny’s Tacos keeps a dream alive.

Benny Borsakian still gets flashbacks of having hunger pangs as a child growing up in the post World War II era. “Monday was go get bread, Tuesday was go get meat, Wednesday was go get toilet paper. We were hungry, and the worst feeling is to be hungry,” the 68-year-old said.

Before the 1989 Romanian revolution, ending 42 years of communism in the country, conditions in urban Romania were bleak. Under dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, the government purposely caused food shortages to pay off foreign debt (which, according to a 1985 Los Angeles Times article, stood at over $12 billion in 1981) and used surveillance techniques on citizens to maintain totalitarian control.

The government also began seizing individual property. This, for the Borsakians, was the final blow. Alexis Borsakian said, “Even though they were very wealthy over there, they had to leave everything behind and come to the United States in the ‘70s and start over.”

In 1972, the Borsakians entered the United States with the clothes on their backs, and $400 they had smuggled out of Romania hidden in a chocolate bar wrapper.

Despite the odds, the family thrived in the U.S.. Borsakian’s mother Jessica Vartoughian, the founder of Jessica Nails, became renowned for her natural nail manicure technique. She was even coined the “First Lady of Nails” in a 1974 New York Times article.

“She used to do celebrities’ nails all the time,” said Borsakian. “They used to fly her in and out.”

Borsakian spent his early career helping his mother with her cosmetics company. He even patented his own brand of ‘mood’ color-changing nail polish in 2003. At the same time, he owned and was operating a franchise of Johnny Rockets in Agoura Hills.

According to a 2025 interview with Voyage LA Magazine, Benny’s experience at Johnny Rockets gave him the solid foundation in the restaurant business he needed to start his next project, opening a restaurant of his own.

“I love Mexican food, so I figured I would do Mexican food,” said Borsakian.

Borsakian put out ads for a manager who also was versed in recipe development. Once he found one, they started testing recipes right in Borsakian’s home kitchen.

Before long, his housekeeper was fed up with the constant mess, and her new role as taste tester. Borsakian said, “At one point she said, ‘No, don’t make me taste things anymore, I can’t eat more!’”

They were going for recipes with universal appeal for a Mexican or American pallet. “We had to make it good for everybody,” he said.

He even chose colors with universal appeal: the signature red and yellow of Benny’s Tacos that appears on their logo, bags, and even burrito wrappers.

From his time in the cosmetic industry, Borsakian knew that advertising is the key to a businesses success. He needed a logo that was instantly recognizable. One day in the late 2000s while walking the Venice Boardwalk with his daughter, a simple line drawing caught his eye.

On his sketchpad, an unhoused man had drawn a picture of a guy with a taco in his hand. It was exactly what Borsakian had been looking for.

After sitting and talking with the artist for a while, they agreed on $400 for the drawing. However, Borsakian’s attorney told him the man would need to sign a contract before the logo purchase was made. Borsakian would have to come back the next day.

So, he did. But the man was not there.

“I looked for this guy for almost a month. Then I found him again,” Borsakian said.

Before buying the logo, Borsakian needed the artist to make one last adjustment.

Benny’s Tacos, while undoubtedly known for their tacos, is also a chicken rotisserie. Naturally, the famous chicken needed to be included in the logo. Looking closely, you can see the man on the logo holding both a taco and a chicken.
The first location of Benny’s Tacos on Lincoln and Sunset opened in June 2010 and was well received by the community, according to an article by the Santa Monica Mirror. Still, Borsakian was on the hunt for that perfect location with a big sign

In March 2014, he came across an article in the Argonaut paper about Jesus Delgado, a worker from T2 Tacos who saved a little boy from an attempted kidnapping. The cover image showed Delgado outside of the storefront, which happened to have a huge sign on the roof.

“I said, ‘Wow that’s a good sign,’ and it’s right by LMU so let me go talk to the owner,” Borsakian said. As it turned out, the storefront was about to go up for sale.

Borsakian was warned that the building, the future home of Benny’s Tacos in Westchester, was a mess inside and the location did not make money. Because of that huge sign out front, he was willing to take the chance.

According to data from Council District 11, around 50,000 people live in Westchester. LMU is home to just under 10,000 students. Even LAX is only 3.3 miles away, with a considerable number of potential customers.

“That’s our best store,” said Borsakian.

In 2016, the Benny’s Tacos won an inaugural Yelp Bizzie award, celebrating small businesses that go above and beyond for their customers. They won again in 2019 and 2021, showing continued community engagement.

For some LMU students, Benny’s Tacos is an inexpensive option only a few blocks away. For others, the restaurant means a lot more.

Oren Staniorski, an LMU student, lives off-campus right by Benny’s Tacos, “It does feel like part of campus a little bit… so it’s nice to feel like I’m not completely isolated.”

Carla Worrell, another LMU student, shared that she gets the same meal every time she goes there, the Benny’s Taco plate with shrimp.

Benny’s plays a large role in the LMU community. And that is intentional. Borsakian explained that a business cannot survive if the community does not support what you are doing. So, he does his best to return that support to the community that keeps him afloat, naturally by feeding them.

“I give a lot of food to schools, to synagogues, to veterans, hospitals, boys and girls clubs…,” said Borsakian.

Alexis Borsakian added, “Recently we helped the Writers Guild Association… and we were able to donate some burritos to them while they were on strike.”

According to articles from the Culver City Observer, Benny’s Tacos sponsored lunch at the 2018 and 2019 Culver City Relays for Life, supporting breast cancer research. According to LA Eater, who posted a list of restaurants supporting firefighters during the 2025 Los Angeles fires, Benny’s also offered free meals to all first responders.

“You’re in their community,” Borsakian said, “You have to support them just like they support you.”