Sunday, March 8, 2009

Ben's Chili Bowl

What is Ben's Chili Bowl? That's what we wanted to find out. So, yesterday that was our mission.

Ben's Chili Bowl is purported to be a DC institution. We had heard about Ben's a couple of times during our first few months here, but it really became a curiosity to us in January. Just before his inauguration, Ben's was the first DC eating establishment to which Barack Obama made a public appearance. Then, when we went to the Bill Cosby performance ( "Christmas in January" post), he spent about ten minutes talking about his favorite Ben's Chili Bowl stories. Now we had to know!

So off we went in search of Ben's Chili Bowl, and after a little looking around, found it. For you Seattle-ites, it is reminiscent of Dicks Drive Inn. It has been around for fifty years, it is in a little, non-descript, unadorned building, they only take cash, serve "unhealthy" delicious food, and have lines of people all day long waiting to be served. We waited in line, sat at the counter and thoroughly enjoyed our Ben's chili dogs!

Now for the unveiling, here is Ben's Chili Bowl, outside:


and inside:

and here is Barb enjoying one of Ben's special chili dogs:

Mmmm, mmmmm, good!

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