DC: Ben's Chili Bowl

Probably the most famous chili bowl in the whole nation, located in the U Street Corridor in NW. We'd always talked about going there, but never got the chance, until now:



It's often featured in Food Network shows as one of those "must visit" places in the nation. I can still hear that Guy Fieri dude blabbing on and on about how it's "da bomb" and how the chili is "money" while refusing to take off those stupid sunglasses he wears backwards wrapped around the back of his head. I hate that dude. Anyway, Ben's has been around since 1958, and it's most famous dish is the Chili Half-Smoke, so Gavin and Jera and I all decided to try one. I really liked how snappy the casing on the Half-Smoke was. And how smoky the meat. Really delicious. I put a bunch of Pete's hot sauce on mine, which made me sweat like crazy. Jera tells me they are way better when you are drunk. I suppose that is true.

Will opted to get a burger with veggie chili, what got a confused look from our waitress. She was skeptical of his meat burger/veggie chili combination. Will said it was delicious.

We all shared an order of Chili Cheese Fries, which reminded me of these nachos that they used to have at Shea Stadium where you couldn't see the chip for the condiments were so plentiful. Same with these fries. You didn't know if you were going to get any fries, or if the fork would yield only a copious helping of chili and cheese. The thing to do at the end of this delight is to mop up the rest of the chili and cheese at the bottom of the container with your fingers. Yum.

Next time I'll go drunk.