When I first moved to the District almost two years ago, many longtime DCists said one of the city’s greatest and longstanding institutions, the venerable Ben’s Chili Bowl was a must. The small diner specializing in chili, hotdogs and other grilled and fried food stuffs is a throwback to the an era when these types of food counter eateries were not simply an aberation in a developing neighborhood full of Starbucks and Quizno’s.
I frequently pass by on my way home from the 9:30 Club or Black Cat after concerts or after a night at the bars. Suppose the timing was never quite right. So it must have been sitting in a darkened theatre watching all of Britain get obliterated by zombies (again!?!?) in a highly mediocre 28 Weeks Later, that put me in the mood for something to dig my own teeth into. Something, um, not made of people.
Lets just say after my half-smoke with the works, drenched in chili and cheese sauce and those cheese fries more than satisfied my zombie cravings. And without much cost to human life. Highly recommended. Here are some pictures from our excursion:
Wow. I think this rivals my cheeze hamburger of late.. Can you fedex me a sample?
yikes, even those photos have that old school feel to them.. You can really get that nasty yellow light food look. I still want to try one though. Do they usually spell out the name of their establishment so that every three people can know where they are eating?
Wow- that looks disgustingly delicious.
This was shot on a cell phone camera…it wasn’t so greenish in tint in person… My roommate Lindsay said that she had never seen them spell out words on the hotdogs in all the times she had been there…so perhaps it was just a special occasion. I felt terrible the next day, but it was worth it.
Aryn, you will want to fly down here for these chili dogs. The writing on the chili dogs was probably to commemorate Mike’s first visit to Ben’s. It’s a special time for everyone.