Ben's Chili Bowl

Ben’s Chili Bowl occupies a building at twelve thirteen U Street Northwest that dates back to nineteen oh nine, when it first served as a silent movie house called the Minnehaha. Trinidadian immigrant Ben Ali and his fiancée, Virginia Rollins, opened their restaurant here on August twenty-second, nineteen fifty-eight, specializing in the half-smoke—a smoked, half-beef and half-pork sausage topped with mustard, onions, and a spicy chili sauce.