Ben's Chili Bowl

Ben's Chili Bowlis a landmark restaurant inWashington, D.C., United States, located at 1213U Street, next toLincoln Theatre, in the U Street Corridor, also known as the Cardozo/Shaw neighborhood inNorthwest D.C.It is known locally for itschili dogs,half-smokes, andmilkshakes, and has been part of the U Street neighborhood since its founding in 1958. It was frequented by both police and protesters during the1968 Washington, D.C., riots, and is regularly visited by celebrities, such asAnthony BourdainandChris Tucker, and famously President-electBarack Obamain January 2009.
Ben's Chili Bowl was founded on August 22, 1958,byBen Ali, a Trinidadian-born immigrant ofIndiandescent who had studied dentistry at nearbyHoward University, and his fiancée,Virginia-bornVirginia Rollins. The two were married seven weeks after opening the restaurant.The building they chose was that of Washington's firstsilent moviehouse, the Minnehaha, which was established in 1911.The building is acontributing propertyto theGreater U Street Historic District.Most of the furniture in the restaurant is original to the 1950s.At the time, U Street was known as "BlackBroadway". Manyjazzgreats of the day, such asDuke Ellington,Miles Davis, andNat King Cole, would stop by the restaurant when they performed at U Street clubs.
The U Street corridor was devastated by theApril 1968 riotsthat followed theassassination of Martin Luther King Jr.During the riots, black activistStokely Carmichael, leader of theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, asked Ben to keep his restaurant open, and the Alis obtained permission to stay open pastcurfew.  The restaurant fed both the police officers and firefighters working to impose order on the neighborhood, as well as the black activists. The violence and arson reached such an extent that Ben wrote "Soul Brother" in soap on the front window in the hopes that it would stop the angry mobs.
The destruction of so many businesses led to the flight of residents towards the suburbs and the economic decline of the neighborhood through the mid-1970s to mid-1980s. As the area became known for itsdrug addicts, Ben's Chili Bowl reduced its staff to one employee.Ben and Virginia's son Kamal recalled, "We stayed and had a following, because the Chili Bowl was like the neighborhoodbarbershop. People would sit here and chat. There was always a family presence and the locals protected us."The restaurant stopped serving pies and cakes, which attracted addicts, while police conducted surveillance on drug dealers from an upstairs window of the building.
The extensive construction of theU Street Metro stationacross the street from the restaurant, completed in 1991, forced still more U Street businesses to close. However, Ben's Chili Bowl stayed open to feed the construction workers.The Washington Postcommented that Ben's Chili Bowl is "probably the only business on this strip that survived both the 1968 riots and the construction phase of theMetro Green Line".The Metro and lower crime rates helped the gradual revitalization andgentrificationof the neighborhood. From the early 1990s, business revenues grew by 10% annually, to $1.5 million in 2005, and the number of employees at the restaurant grew as well, to a staff of 20.
In the summer of 2007, the owners of Ben's led a coalition of ten small local businesses to broker a deal with a local energy company to convert operations to 100% wind energy.TheNew York Postquoted Nizam Ali as saying, "We see this as part of being involved in what is good for the neighborhood, what's good for the city....It's a good idea that helps the environment and, it turns out, makes economic sense for all of us."
In 2008, Ben's Chili Bowl opened a second location in the newly builtNationals Park,though it has a more limited selection than the original restaurant.
On October 7, 2009, Ben died at the age of 82.He and his wife, Virginia, had retired from the restaurant business, having passed daily operations of Ben's Chili Bowl to their sons, Kamal and Nizam.Ali's death was mourned in many ways throughout the city, including a written statement by Mayor Adrian Fenty, which read in part:
"I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of the founder and namesake of Ben's Chili Bowl, one of the greatest treasures in the District of Columbia. Ben Ali was a man who invested his life in a small business that weathered many storms and became the soul of a neighborhood and the pride of our city."
In 2009, Ben's sons, Nizam and Kamal, opened an upscale restaurant and bar, Ben's Next Door, at 1211 U St, NW, adjacent to the original building.Featuring alcohol (something not available in Ben's), the restaurant's goal is to "complement" Ben's, according to Nizam, who says that the goal is to stay "true to ourselves".The restaurant offers everything on the Ben's Chili Bowl menu from 11am to closing, in addition to its lunch, dinner, and a late-night menu.
The Boston Globedescribed Ben's diverse customers as "punk-looking kids and fashionable business people and everyone in between".In 2001, Ben and Virginia's son, Kamal, commented on the changes of what types of people were eating at the establishment: "You hear comments. Even the white customers. They want to think they're the only whites who'd been hip enough to go to the Chili Bowl. Now they look around and there are a lot of other whites and they are not so happy about it."
The most famous regular customer is comedianBill Cosby, who took his future wife to Ben's when they were dating.He recalls that he first became a frequent visitor while serving in the Navy and stationed inBethesda, Maryland, in 1958 and frequently visited the U Street jazz clubs.Cosby recalls that during some of his visits withCamille, who was then a student at theUniversity of Maryland, he would "eat as many as six half-smokes at a time."Cosby returned to Ben's in 1985 to hold a press conference in the restaurant to celebrate the success of his television series,The Cosby Show.He continues to stop by Ben's while in town for servings ofhalf-smokes. A sign posted in the restaurant proclaimed that Bill Cosby is the only person who eats for free at Ben's Chili Bowl.On November 3, 2008, a new sign was posted to add "the Obama family".Starting in 2012 a large mural featuring Cosby adorned the building, but was removed in January 2017 amid sexual assault allegations against the comedian.
Many other celebrities, includingChris TuckerandBono, have visited over the years. When journalistTed Koppelstopped hosting news programNightline, he held his 2005 farewell party at the restaurant.Then-President-electBarack Obamaate at Ben's on January 10, 2009.
The Washington Postasserts, "By the late 1990s, no D.C. politician would dream of running for office without dropping into Ben's."Anthony A. Williamsappeared at Ben's immediately after his successful mayoral election.
However, celebrities at Ben's are not limited to American citizens. In 1998, former DC mayorMarion Barrydescribed having traveled toGhanaand meeting theMayor of Accra, an alumnus ofHoward University, whose greeting was, "Glad to have you in Accra. Is Ben's Chili Bowl still there?"And when French PresidentNicolas Sarkozyand his wifeCarla Brunivisited Washington, D.C., in March 2010, they reportedly each had two of Ben's half smokes during their visit to the restaurant.
Scenes from films includingThe Pelican BriefandState of Playhave been filmed in the restaurant, and it has been in "dozens of TV shows."The short filmBreakfast At Ben'swas filmed almost entirely in the restaurant.The documentaryTraveling While Black, a virtual reality project about racism, makes use of the restaurant as the main filming location in 2019.  Additionally, it has been used in novelsas the setting for fictional meetings—especially meetings that involve individuals from "different sides of the law"—as it was inGeorge Pelecanos'sKing Suckerman.
Ben and Virginia Ali were inducted into the D.C. Hall of Fame, and in 1999, the alley adjacent to the restaurant was renamed "Ben Ali Way".On the occasion of Ben Ali's 2009 death, D.C. mayorAdrian Fentyreleased a statement calling the restaurant "one of the greatest treasures in the District of Columbia".
In 2004, theJames Beard Foundationnamed Ben's one of the "down-home eateries that have carved out a special place on the American culinary landscape".Michael Stern, a writer specializing in U.S. regional foods, penned a 2008 review raving "The half-smoke is sensational!" and "Ben's serves one of the best sweet potato pies anywhere", and describing the chili as "sensational stuff: thick, peppery, full-flavored and positively addictive".In January 2009, food magazineBon Appétitnamed Ben's one of the country's ten "Best Chili Spots", asserting, "No reasonable discussion of great chili joints can take place without mention of this U Street institution."In a 2016The Washington Postrestaurant review, Ben's received one star and the food was described as "awful."