Ford's Filling Station

Ford's Filling Station was established in 2006 by chef Ben Ford in Culver City, California. Ford, who is the eldest son of actor Harrison Ford, developed the business as a gastropub rather than as a conventional fine-dining restaurant. The concept's name and visual identity referenced a filling station, but its operating model was based on chef-led food, drinks, and neighborhood hospitality. Culver City was an important part of the original concept. In a 2008 interview with LAist, Ford explained that he was attracted to the area because it combined a studio presence, a distinctive hotel, an attractive civic center, improving streets, and planned entertainment developments. He specifically anticipated the arrival of a movie theater and the Kirk Douglas Theatre, and viewed those projects as signs that the neighborhood could support a destination restaurant. This placed Ford's Filling Station within the broader redevelopment and cultural growth of central Culver City during the late 2000s. The restaurant's culinary profile gained outside recognition in 2012, when Ford's Filling Station won the Cochon 555 culinary competition. The award was a significant public achievement for the restaurant and reinforced its association with chef-driven, ingredient-focused gastropub cooking. The supplied sources do not provide a complete menu history or identify individual signature dishes, so the brand's products are best described at the category level rather than through unverified dish names. In 2014, Ford's Filling Station participated in a coordinated downtown Culver City promotion. Ford announced that the area's bars and restaurants would hold a neighborhood-wide Happy Hour on the third Wednesday of every month. The initiative functioned as a local marketing and community-building campaign, linking the restaurant to other hospitality businesses and encouraging visitors to treat downtown Culver City as a shared dining and entertainment destination. The original Culver City location closed in 2014. The brand was then repositioned in a hotel setting, reopening at the JW Marriott in Los Angeles in the fall of that year. This move shifted the concept from a standalone neighborhood restaurant toward a hospitality venue serving hotel guests and the wider Los Angeles market. The Los Angeles location eventually closed, although the reference material states that a Ford's Filling Station location remained at Los Angeles International Airport. The sources supplied here do not establish the opening date, operating status, ownership arrangements, or subsequent development of the airport location. Because the available information documents a sequence of restaurant locations but does not provide a current official website or recent operating announcement, the brand's present status cannot be confirmed. It is therefore treated as an historically documented restaurant brand with an unknown current status.

• 2014

  Culver City location closes

  [1]Ford's Filling Stationen.wikipedia.org

  The restaurant's original Culver City site closes.

• 2014

  Reopens at JW Marriott in Los Angeles

  [1]Ford's Filling Stationen.wikipedia.org

  Ford's Filling Station reopens at the JW Marriott hotel in Los Angeles during the fall.

• 2012

  Cochon 555 culinary competition victory

  [1]Ford's Filling Stationen.wikipedia.org

  Ford's Filling Station wins the Cochon 555 culinary competition.

• 2008

  Ben Ford discusses the Culver City location

  [1]Ford's Filling Stationen.wikipedia.org

  In an LAist interview, owner and head chef Ben Ford explains why the area's studios, civic setting, planned entertainment venues, and neighborhood improvements appealed to him.

• 2006

  Original Culver City restaurant opens

  [1]Ford's Filling Stationen.wikipedia.org

  Ben Ford opens Ford's Filling Station as a gastropub in Culver City, California.

A chef-led California gastropub combining neighborhood hospitality, food and beverage service, and a distinctive filling-station-themed identity.

• Restaurant food · 2006

  Ford's Filling Station gastropub menu

  The brand's core offering was a chef-led gastropub menu served in a casual restaurant setting. The supplied references identify the business as a gastropub but do not provide a sufficiently complete menu to name specific dishes. Its food offering was paired with a bar program and neighborhood-oriented service.

• Beverage and promotional service · 2014

  Happy Hour offerings

  In 2014, Ford's Filling Station participated in a recurring third-Wednesday Happy Hour held across downtown Culver City's bars and restaurants. The initiative represented a promotional service occasion rather than a separately branded packaged product.

• 2014Downtown Culver City Neighborhood-wide Happy Hour

  Culver City, California

  Ford announced that Ford's Filling Station and other downtown Culver City bars and restaurants would participate in a neighborhood-wide Happy Hour on the third Wednesday of each month.

  Outcome. The available sources document the recurring promotion but do not report participation figures, sales results, or a formal end date.

  Source

• 2014

  Relocation from Culver City to a Los Angeles hotelStrategy

  Background

  The original Culver City restaurant closed in 2014 after operating there since 2006.

  Action taken

  Ford's Filling Station reopened at the JW Marriott hotel in Los Angeles in the fall of 2014.

  Aftermath

  The JW Marriott location later closed, and the available reference describes a subsequent location at Los Angeles International Airport.

  Source

1. 1Ford's Filling Stationen.wikipedia.org