WASHINGTON — If the rest of the world sees Washington as a place of large monuments and gleaming public buildings, many of the people who actually live in the city build their lives around smaller, more humble institutions. For them, one of the most important addresses in town is Ben’s Chili Bowl, a simple diner famous for its down-home menu of chili, half-smokes and fries.
Ben Ali, who founded the restaurant in 1958 and created its unmatched chili recipe, died Wednesday of congestive heart failure at his home in Washington. He was 82.
His family-run diner has been one of the most enduring institutions of black Washington, a place where families meet after church and where night owls come to talk, flirt and, not least, eat.
The landmark eatery opened when U Street was the city’s glittering “Black Broadway,” a strip of nightclubs and theaters that catered to Washington’s black middle class and helped define the city’s pulse and taste.
On Jan. 10, the restaurant received perhaps its greatest publicity boost when Mayor Adrian Fenty and President-elect Barack Obama dropped by for a half-smoke — a smoked sausage that is often called the signature food of Washington. Mindful of a sign that warned, “Who eats free at Ben’s: Bill Cosby. No one else,” Obama paid for his $12 tab with a $20 bill, leaving the change as a tip. The president’s name has been added to Cosby’s as the only patrons allowed to dine without paying.
Ali, a Trinidadian immigrant who had studied dentistry at Howard University, tried several careers before opening the diner with his Virginia-
born fiancée, Virginia Rollins, on Aug. 22, 1958. They were married seven weeks later.
He thought Washington might be hungry for the kind of spicy dishes he had known while growing up in the Caribbean and cooked up the first batches of chili on his own. His recipe remains a closely guarded family secret.
At first, the chili was served only atop hot dogs, hamburgers and half-
smokes. Ali’s chili topping proved so popular that he began to serve it in bowls. This March, Bon Appetit magazine ranked his chili as the best in America.
When Ali and Virginia were married, she converted to his Muslim faith. Although Ali was reluctant to admit it in public, he firmly obeyed the Islamic prohibition on pork.
Throughout his life, he never tasted the hot dogs and half-smokes that made his restaurant famous.
