Gabby Elan's Elan Pinhasov, Grillmaster to the Stars

Jeremy Clowney - GQ Magazine

New York City’s Diamond District is filled with shops angling to be the go-to destination for the stars, but few have risen to the top the way Gabby Elan Jewelry has. The low-key, family-run business—Gabby Pinhasov, a 40-year dental and jewelry veteran, works alongside his younger son, Elan—is known for their specialty in eye-popping custom grills. Name an ice-obsessed celebrity, and they probably have a unique piece that directly references their legacy—like LeBron James’ lion head grill—or a flashy set that’s just leaps and bounds ahead of the competition in terms of craft, like J Balvin’s rainbow array or Pharrell Williams’ diamond-and-gem-stone set.

On Gabby Elan’s instagram account, the pieces are presented more like art objects than glorified icy retainers. The Museum of Natural History agrees; Elan says they’ve been contacted about an upcoming modern jewelry exhibit. “They're going to have a hip-hop section where they're going to have a lot of pieces of Pharrell's, and they're going to include a lot of the old vintage grills that we have, and then two or three of the more showcase pieces with full diamonds,” Elan says. “When I was younger, I used to think about this shit and now it gives me goosebumps to see how I’ve—what's the word? Manifested it.”