I’m a couple weeks late on this, but it’s worth a note. Anyone have a Benihana experience they’d like to share?

Rocky Aoki, who founded the theatrical Benihana chain of steakhouses, where Japanese chefs with flashing knives double as performers, died Thursday night in Manhattan. He was 69.

The cause was pneumonia, said Nancy Bauer, a spokeswoman for the family.

In 1964, when Mr. Aoki opened his first Benihana steakhouse, on West 56th Street in Manhattan, he introduced New Yorkers to dining as theater, and chefs as culinary acrobats. Seated around a flat steel grill, customers watched chefs sharpen their knives, toss them in the air, drizzle the grill with oil, sizzle the chicken, shrimp or steak on the grill, and flip the food onto the plates. Children stared goggle-eyed.

When I was recently  in the states  I wanted to take my lady to one of these places. I think she’d get a kick out of it. I always thought these places were totally cheesy — until I actually sat down at one. Better than an Outback Steakhouse, that’s for sure.

Mr. Aoki also introduced many Americans to Japanese food. “He was the first one who made it accessible for non-Japanese people to enjoy the Japanese experience,” said Drew Nieporent, whose Myriad Restaurant Group runs a number of restaurants including Tribeca Grill and Nobu. “The key thing was he made it fun,” he said.

Before Benihana opened, most Japanese restaurants in New York were styled only for the Japanese population, Mr. Nieporent said. Mr. Aoki changed the environment.

Just for  fun I did a search  of the NYT archives on Benihana. In 2006 a woman named Jacqueline Colaitis tried to sue the chain for what she believed was its part in the death of her husband. I’m going to include the entire first third of the story — the lede really needs to be read in its entirety to be appreciated. I can’t believe this was actually printed by the New York Times.

MINEOLA, N.Y., Feb. 8 — Jerry Colaitis, a Long Island furrier known to his clients as Jerry Cola, had his health and his wealth, his family says. Physically, he was a rock of a man with a loving wife, two young sons, a thriving business and a large home on Long Island, a lawyer for his widow said.

But in January 2001, his charmed life was suddenly changed by a piece of sizzling shrimp flicked by a reckless chef at a Benihana in Munsey Park, N.Y., according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his widow.

That fateful flying shrimp has been at the center of a lawsuit playing out for more than three weeks in State Supreme Court here. On Wednesday, both sides presented closing arguments and a six-member jury will soon begin deciding the case. Mr. Colaitis injured his neck while dodging the shrimp, flung at him by a Benihana chef who was trying to emulate Jackie Chan in a movie, according to a lawsuit brought by Mr. Colaitis’s widow, Jacqueline Colaitis. After the Benihana dinner, Mr. Colaitis began complaining of neck pain. He eventually underwent two spinal operations, contracted a severe infection and died on Nov. 22, 2001, at the age of 46. Mrs. Colaitis is suing Benihana for $16 million, mostly for pain and suffering and the loss of Mr. Colaitis’s earning potential.

Colaitis lost  the case.