All three of Ben Ali’s sons plan to speak at the memorial service set for Friday at the Lincoln Theatre, right next door to the greasy spoon he made famous.  Mayor Adrian Fenty may speak, too, but as of this afternoon, no other people, famous or otherwise, are scheduled to honor the founder of Ben’s Chili Bowl, who died last week at age 82.

And that’s just fine with Nizam Ali, the youngest of Ben Ali’s sons, who says his father wouldn’t have wanted any fuss. The “Celebration of Life,” scheduled for noon Friday at the theater, “is going to be like a family thing that we’re going to open to the public,” Nizam Ali tells Y&H this afternoon.

The memorial is free and open to the public. All you have to do is show up at the theater and grab one of the 1,225 seats available — well, minus however many seats the Ali clan needs, which, Nizam Ali thinks, might run as high as 200.

Read More “Have a Special Memory of Ben’s? Share It at Ben Ali’s Memorial.” »

No one but the employees knew about Ben Ali’s death.

The managers of Ben’s Chili Bowl had told their employees this morning that Ben Ali died in his bed last night, but they didn’t want their customers in the restaurant to know yet. So there was nary a clue at the landmark U Street eatery. No signs. No weeping employees. Only a Web notice for those who had somehow checked it before arriving.

The only thing at Ben’s that might have tipped off an attentive diner was the music. It was soul music, the mournful variety. “Never Can Say Goodbye,” by the Jackson 5 was playing softly in the background, the band’s lead singer just a memory now, too.

“The mood is very somber,” said Sonya Ali, wife of Kamal Ali, one of the two surviving brothers who now run Ben’s. “The music is even somber.”

Sonya Ali said the entire family was gathering at Ben and Virginia Ali’s home in North Portal, including Sage, an artist and musician who lives in California.  Sage’s wife, Sonya Ali noted, is a publicist and will help the family plan a public announcement and figure out how to honor the man who founded what has become, courtesy of Bill Cosby and President Barack Obama, D.C.’s most famous restaurant.

Read More “Despite Founder’s Death, It Was Business As Usual at Ben’s” »

From Dave Jamieson’s 2007 pre-Obama visit investigation of the importance of the half-smoke, and of Ben’s Chili Bowl in particular.

As New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller reportedly quipped while on the hustings in 1969, “No man can hope to get elected in New York state without being photographed eating hot dogs at Nathan’s Famous.” The same can be said for Washington, D.C.’s Ben’s Chili Bowl.

Read More “The Political Importance of the Half-Smoke” »

Feeling guilty about the mass quantities of beer we consumed over the past week, we decided to check out some of the rumors we recently heard about beer being … well, good for you.

Turns out that having one to three glasses of beer a day has been proven to have benefits for your health–as much and even more than red wine.

The facts are simple. As an alcoholic beverage, beer has the same ability to prevent blood clotting and lower cholesterol, thereby preventing stroke and heart disease, as Merlot and martinis do. Unlike wine, however, the unfiltered yeast in many beers (look for the hazy ones, not the clear ones) contains a crapload of B vitamins–far more than wines, which are almost always filtered. Also, beer has more vitamins and minerals in general because it is made from barely and wheat, and these grains retain nutrients much better than grapes do by the end of the wine-making process.

You might be remembering Bill Cosby’s legendary decision (skip to 4:25) to give his children chocolate cake for breakfast, based on his faulty logic: since eggs, milk and wheat are ingredients in cake, it must be a nutritious breakfast. It was easy for Mr. Jello Pudding Pops to ignore the sugar and fat for comedic purposes, but how can we ignore beer bellies, liver damage, and the big A (think “anonymous”) when promoting daily beer consumption?

Well, we can’t. It’s obvious that people should not start drinking beer just to have a 10% to 40% less likely chance of developing heart disease, which they can more easily avoid through a healthy diet and regular exercise. It’s even more obvious that people should not drink a LOT of beer EVERYDAY. But it’s also become obvious that drinking beer in moderation, which is defined fairly liberally in our opinion, is not as bad as most people think it is. In fact, it’s actually a pretty good idea and perhaps an even better idea than having a glass of red wine a day.

We were so encouraged by this argument that despite swearing to give beer a break this week, we bought some Ayinger Hefeweizen at our neighborhood corner store and helped our hearts out a little last night. Prost, little guys. Keep on tickin’.

Okay, so Bill Cosby is (sort of) aghast that our future president doesn’t know what a half-smoke is. (Check out Sunday’s Meet the Press below, starting at around the 45 minute mark.) Cosby joked to host David Gregory that, “I’m taking my vote back” in response to hearing about Barack Obama’s innocent question at Ben’s Chili Bowl on Saturday.

Seriously, the Cos needs to get a grip. This is not a faux pas along the lines of John Kerry asking for Swiss cheese on a steak sandwich in Philly. A half-smoke is one of the least known, most-misunderstood signature dishes in the country. I suspect most Washingtonians don’t know what a half-smoke is, particularly because street vendors all over the city constantly pass off Polish sausages as half-smokes.

If you need a refresher, read Dave Jamieson’s authoritative piece on the half-smoke. You’ll be in good company. More than 800 folks have already clicked on the story since Obama’s visit to the Bowl.