The first time Deb Pirooz took her son Ben out to dinner as a child, he ordered escargot and Alaskan king crab legs. More than twenty years later, Ben’s love for food is still alive.

Pirooz said Ben aspired to attend culinary school after working for his dad at Easy Street Caf’eacute;. However, Ben became ill with bronchitis, and eventually doctors found a tumor on his trachea. In 2000, after almost a year of chemotherapy, Ben Pirooz died at 22 of Germ Cell Carcinoma, a rare form of cancer.

‘Ben had said to me, ‘Mom, please don’t let anyone forget me,” Pirooz said.

She set out to keep the legacy of her son alive by re-opening what was once Godfrey’s restaurant as a tribute to her son.

Pirooz said she wanted to open the restaurant but ‘couldn’t come up with a name, I didn’t know what to do.’

Ben’s Table got its name from the Pirooz family tradition of Sundays spent around the dinner table.

‘I always make a big deal out of Sundays to have family dinners and to sit around the table because we don’t do that enough now as a society,’ said Pirooz. She added that her favorite pastime with her son, Ben, was cooking new things together.

‘He liked to cook,’ she said.

Pirooz said opening Ben’s Table was about fulfilling her son’s dream because ‘he didn’t get to go to culinary school.’

The restaurant, which has been open since May 10, 2004, ‘kind of fell together,’ Deb said. ‘When you do something with love and passion, you do it on adrenaline.’

She said that opening the restaurant has aided in the healing process of dealing with death.

‘I get so many hugs every day, it’s amazing,’ she said.

Pirooz has turned the restaurant into a place of friends and family, complete with Ben’s picture on the wall. She said bringing the restaurant back to life as Ben’s Table was a different experience and more personal because ‘my heart was in it.’

‘There’s so many restaurants where you’re pushed in like cattle and it’s so cold,’ Pirooz said.

Annabelle Isaacs, a Ben’s Table regular, said she eats there everyday because ‘it’s more of a home environment… it’s like eating at home.’

Everyday the restaurant is buzzing with regulars who come for ‘the hospitality,’ Pirooz said.

Sandy Gilbert, also a restaurant regular, said dining at Ben’s Table feels ‘just like family.’

Everyone from young crowds to senior citizens dine at Ben’s Table for their favorite dish and a casual dining experience.

‘We cure a lot of hangovers on Saturdays and Sundays,’ Pirooz said. ‘And we get a lot of [University] ball players and their families.’

A variety of customers stream in to get a taste of Pirooz’s American-style food. The menu is made up entirely of Deb’s homemade recipes, with quality ingredients like organic produce, angus beef, and all-natural chicken. Pirooz takes pride in knowing that ‘what I’m feeding my customers is good healthy food.’

‘Her homemade soups are just delicious,’ Isaacs said. She said that devoting the restaurant to her late son is a ‘marvelous’ feat.

Waitress Tamara Baliles, 19, said ‘It’s a lot friendlier than any other place I’ve worked.’

Pirooz said besides pleasing her customers with a home-cooked meal, the best part about her restaurant is ‘not letting anyone forget about Ben.’

‘There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about him,’ Pirooz said. But by keeping Ben’s legacy alive through the restaurant, ‘It’s awesome, because it’s almost like he’s still here,’ she said.