Ben's Chili Bowl

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A former silent movie house has been the home of Ben's Chili Bowl since its establishment in 1958.

Ben's Chili Bowl is a venerable, casual restaurant located at 1213 U Street in the Shaw neighborhood of northwest Washington, D.C. It is known locally for its chili dogs, half-smokes, and milkshakes.

[edit] History

Ben's Chili Bowl was founded in 1958 by husband and wife team Ben and Virginia Ali. The building they chose was that of Washington's first silent movie house, the Minnehaha, which was established in 1911.^[1] Most of the furniture in the Bowl is original to this period.^[2] At the time, Washington was officially segregated, and U Street was known as "Black Broadway." Many jazz greats of the day, such as Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and Nat King Cole, would stop by when they performed at U Street clubs.

The U street corridor was devastated by the 1968 riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr..^[3] During the riots black activist Stokely Carmichael, leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, asked Ben to keep his restaurant open and the Alis obtained permission to stay open past curfew. The restaurant fed police officers and firemen 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.^[4] 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 its drug addicts, Ben's Chili Bowl went down to one employee.^[3] Ben and Virginia's son Kamal recalled, "We stayed and had a following, because the Chili Bowl was like the neighborhood barbershop. People would sit here and chat. There was always a family presence and the locals protected us."^[4]

The vast construction of the U St/Cardozo Metro Station across the street from the Bowl, completed in 1991, forced still more U Street businesses to close. Ben's Chili Bowl stayed open to feed the construction workers.^[2] The Washington Post commented that Ben's Chili Bowl is "probably the only business on this strip that survived both the 1968 riots and the construction phase of the Metro Green Line."^[5] The Metro and lower crime rates helped the gradual revitalization and gentrification of the neighborhood. From the early 1990s, business revenues grew by 10% annually, to $1.5 million in 2005. The same year the number of employees had risen to 20.^[4] The customers of Ben's are diverse, the Boston Globe describing them as "punk-looking kids and fashionable business people and everyone in between".^[2]

The most famous regular customer is comedian Bill Cosby, who took his future wife to Ben's on dates in the early 1960s.^[1] Cosby returned in 1985 to hold a press conference in the restaurant to celebrate the success of The Cosby Show TV series.^[2] He stops by Ben's while in town for servings of half-smokes. Other celebrities, including Chris Tucker, have visited over the years. A scene from the movie The Pelican Brief was filmed in the restaurant.^[6] Anthony A. Williams made a point of appearing at Ben's immediately after his successful mayoral election.^[7]

Ben and Virginia Ali have been honored by the city for their dedication. They both have been inducted into the D.C. Hall of Fame and the alley adjacent to the restaurant was named "Ben Ali Way". In 2004, the James Beard Foundation named it one of "four locally owned and operated regional restaurants that have withstood the test of time and are beloved in their communities."^[8] Ben and Virginia have retired from the restaurant business and have passed daily operations of Ben's Chili Bowl to their sons, Kamal and Nizam.