How an LA pastry chef and his Boston restaurateur mother accidentally created a family business

You’ve likely heard of Saltie Girl, the famed Boston seafood spot with an equally buzzy Los Angeles outpost. It’s known for its excellent tinned fish, classic New England-style dishes and A-list clientele – Margot Robbie, Jane Fonda and Beyoncé are all said to be fans. But what you might not know is that, since the opening of its West Hollywood location, in late 2022, it has accidentally turned into a family business. That’s down to the fact that the dessert menu is now helmed by Ben Sidell, Saltie Girl founder Kathy Sidell’s son – better known as the man behind Insta-famous bakery SweetBoy.

To understand how that collaboration came about, we need to go back to the start of the pandemic. Ben, an actor and keen amateur baker who was stuck at home with no auditions on the horizon, decided to spread a little joy by baking some chocolate chip cookies to send to his LA friends. A few weeks later, some of those cookies ended up in the hands of actress Busy Philipps, who went on to post about them to her 2.5 million Instagram followers.

The next morning, Ben woke up to 400 orders and a new business was born. But while Saltie Girl’s LA location didn’t open till later, Ben admits he started the business with the faint hope that he might one day be able to join his mother’s growing restaurant empire. 'I made my company with an inkling in the back of my head that there could be a sweet to the Saltie one day,' he says. 'That maybe I could be the yin to her yang.'

That inkling turned out to be spot on, with mother and son now working together to craft some of the most talked-about desserts in LA, dishing up everything from nostalgia-inspired soft serves and light-as-air baby cakes to those famous chocolate chip cookies, which come topped with a pinch of Maldon Sea Salt.

When I catch up with Kathy and Ben (before the recent LA fires), it’s immediately obvious how close they are. There are plenty of jokes – when I suggest to Kathy that Saltie Girl was just waiting for a gap to be filled (before Ben stepped in, they had no dessert concept at all), she deadpans, 'Little did I know I gave birth to it.' But there’s also the sort of good-natured bickering you’d expect from a mother and son who spend that much time together. Do things ever escalate into full-blown fights, I ask? 'There are moments where Ben gets overwhelmed and I'll step in and he's not ready to hear what I have to say, but that’s the worst it gets,' says Kathy. 'Overall, it’s been pretty damn magical.'

In 2024, Ben also assumed the role of executive pastry chef at the original Boston location, so he’s now heading up the pastry programmes on both coasts, and there are plans to bring SweetBoy even more into the Saltie Girl fold, though they’re still working out exactly what that looks like. 'Might there be a SweetBoy window in the next Saltie Girl? We’re figuring out how to take it to the next level,' says Kathy. For now, they’re just enjoying the ride. 'I feel so lucky and grateful to be able to work with my mom every day,' says Ben. 'It’s not lost on either of us how special that is.'

SweetBoy cookies are also available for shipping, and include a Valentine's tin, $50, with some of the proceeds going to the LA Food Bank Disaster Relief Fund in the wake of the LA fires.

All proceeds from fish and chips ordered at Saltie Girl in LA until 26 January 2025 will go to the Altadena Teen Boys and Teen Girls Fire Funds.

saltiegirl.com

sweetboy.com