Seriously, the Most Serious Article I Will Ever Write.

This is the most serious article I will ever write:

For some, Graceland is the physical representation of music. For baseball fans, it's Cooperstown. The animal lovers travel to their mecca at the San Diego Zoo. Us chili-folk, we travel to our Nation's capitol, Washington D.C., to experience the ultimate chili-high. Ben's Chili Bowl has been a staple of the D.C. community since 1965.
This proudly black owned and operated restaurant served as a safe haven during the race riots of the 60's. Today Ben's seems to be the common denominator of D.C. and has changed very little since opening in 1965.


To be fair, We traveled to Washington for a wedding (which was splendid), but the secret agenda was obviously Ben's Chili Bowl. Being the adventurous folk we are, we decided to hoof it from our hotel to Ben's. Luckily we showed up parched and ready to stuff our faces. Per usual, the place was hopping. It's always a good sign when customers are willing to wait in a long line and not get cranky about it. The staff at Ben's is one of the most well oiled machines I've ever witnessed. Even though they knew damn well they were serving chili royalty, we were treated no different than the other joe schmoe patrons.

The menu was pretty impressive and included more than just chili. But nothing I'd consider "bells and whistles".

We began with a tempting paper boat of vegetarian chili cheese fries that Lance Crackers couldn't take his eyes off of.

The obvious choice for the entree was the famous Chili Half-Smoke, which Mrs. Crinkle and Mrs. Crackers also enjoyed. As the pictures illustrate, it's extremely poopie and delicious. I considered, for a moment, throwing it into the ceiling fan and giving the restaurant a nice hot chili shower After careful deliberation, I decided to forgo the comedic horror of a chili shower and shove it down my gullet. Lance enjoyed himself a delicious veggie chili dog with a side of veggie chili (which was served to his dismay with some Pepperage Farm bull-shit crackers).

I've gotta tell ya, Ben's isn't a tourist trap. It's absolutely worth the trip. The air reeks of both chili and history. Two things I really enjoy. Ben's Chili Bowl embodies everything that's wonderful about chili, except for the comedy. I topped off our trip with an homage to the King (and Shepard Fairey) on the exterior wall of Ben's. Just marking our turf.

Cheers,