The red and yellow awning stretching across the storefront marks Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street. Ben and Virginia Ali opened the shop in nineteen fifty-eight, serving chili dogs to police officers, bus drivers, and local families. During the nineteen sixty-eight riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior, the city ordered most businesses to close. The police allowed Ben to stay open to feed emergency workers and activists. The shop stayed open, becoming a community kitchen for the neighborhood.
Ben's Chili Bowl
food drink