The true Tyrese Gibson-heads among us have known for years that the Fast/Furious comic relief character is so obsessed with Benihana’s that he had his own custom replica built in his backyard, an amenity known as “Gibsihana.” As Gibson told Uproxx back in June, “I’ve probably fed about 7,000 people in the last ten years and it’s like the favorite thing to do.”
My personal theory is that Gibson became Benihana-pilled when he starred alongside Devon Aoki in his first Fast film, 2 Fast 2 Furious; Aoki, of course, being the heir to the Benihana fortune — the daughter of Benihana’s founder, the Olympic wrestler turned restaurateur turned hot air balloon pioneer Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki. But who knows, one doesn’t necessarily need a personal connection to appreciate an onion volcano.
Before now, the only glimpses the world had to Gibsihana was through Aziz Ansari’s Instagram posts from 2016. But then this year, Tyrese put the house on the market. Having bought it for $1.385 million back in 2011, it was originally listed for $3.5 million in Spring of 2021. It was reportedly relisted in November for $2.895 million, by The Oppenheim Group, of Selling Sunset fame. (If your realtor doesn’t have a reality show what are you even doing?)
The Redfin listing, linked in Tyrese’s Instagram profile, describes the 7-bedroom, 7-bath house as: “A fully private and gated Mediterranean estate in the Walnut Acres neighborhood of Woodland Hills situated on nearly half an acre of land. This impressive compound features a beautifully appointed 5,415 sq. ft. main house with additional backyard structures totaling 2,980 sq. ft.”
Raise your hand if your entire house could fit inside Tyrese’s “additional backyard structures.” Anyway, we’re probably all here for the pictures, so let’s get to the entree. Here it is, Gibsihana’s:
There doesn’t appear to be a sign announcing it as “Gibsihana,” (perhaps it was removed for easier branding by the future owners, I like to imagine it will soon become a Frank Stallonihana’s) — though it is helpfully situated on “Visionary Lane.” What a great idea, I think I’ll be buying my wife a customized “Boss Bitch Blvd” street sign for her birthday.
Here we have the interior:
I’m not sure what the circular mirror next to the hot hibachi is for. Perhaps for fixing your lipstick after Tyrese’s personal chef flips a seared shrimp into your mouth.
The house, of course, has plenty of other unique features, like this life-sized Transformer presiding over a backyard grotto, and the spa situated above the pool house. Aziz apparently partook in its services during his visit:
If you’re wondering about the repeating flying V logo motif, it seems to be explained by Tyrese’s Instagram profile text, which reads, “Chairman | CEO of www.VoltronTravel.com.” The V is the logo for Voltron Travel. Upon discovering this, I had high hopes, of Uproxx letting me one day expense some kind of Gibsiventure. But upon closer inspection, Voltron Travel appears merely to be a branded web hub, a search engine “powered by Priceline.” Not really sure what that means, but I doubt Tyrese Gibson would be planning me some kind of Hibachi Walkabout through Abu Dhabi like the banner images seem to promise.
There’s also this room somewhere in the backyard, decorated with an antique Coca-Cola vending machine, a disco ball, a sexy Egyptian statuette. With such a surplus of couches that a few would seem to be non-functional. What kid doesn’t dream of one day being able to afford a layer cake of couches?
Most other parts of the house are pretty garden variety rich dude, styled in Russian oligarch-chic, like this bathroom that looks a hotel in Dubai. It has a recording studio, multiple screening rooms, and my favorite feature, this basketball hoop sans-backboard inexplicably situated in the middle of an outdoor screening area:
Why no backboard? As Brian Grubb pondered in Slack, “you go to shoot a bank shot and a f*ckin’ bird flies out?” Also, who has to sit on the free-throw line during viewings of Black & Blue?
In any case, if you have about $3 million burning a hole in your pocket, you can definitely own this teriyaki fever dream, where you can host your own pedicure pool parties with unlimited spicy beef and everyone gets their own bathroom. Sound pretty f*cking boss, honestly.
Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.