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.” »

Y&H wishes he knew who produced this segment on Ben’s Chili Bowl. It captures some nice moments, like this one from Nizam Ali, son of founder Ben, who died yesterday at 82. Nizam Ali talks about the struggle to maintain U Street’s African-American identity in the face of gentrification:

“It’s a duty to be here,” he says. “We’re going to carry it on as long as we can.”

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” »

Tim Carman is on his way down to Ben’s. He called in to report a conversation he had with Nizam Ali, the late Ben Ali’s son. The family is starting to gather together, Nizam tells Carman. Ben, he says, was at GW Hospital for about a week. He had congestive heart failure. GW Hospital, he says, treated his dad very well. Last night he said he wanted to go home to the home in North Portal he’d lived in for 40 years. “A minute after he got upstairs,” Nizam says, “he hit the bed, and he was gone.”

“He passed without suffering,” Nizam says. “He lived a long and good life.”

In terms of a memorial, Nizam says they’ll probably do something private for the family, but he knows Ben’s importance to the community and says they will figure out something for a public service. Ben’s death wasn’t completely unexpected, Nizam says. Ben had “a million things” wrong with him, Nizam says. “We’re all OK.”

As Y&H was discussing last week, the Ali family has no plans to open a Ben’s Chili Bowl on the ground floor of the Grays on Pennsylvania, a planned condo development in the Southeast, despite a sign that implies otherwise. That’s the family’s prerogative, of course, but it makes you wonder: What is the future of Ben’s? The Ali’s must be looking to expand somewhere, right?

Expansion and franchising, after all, are what fast-casual restaurants do. Some locals, like Z-Burger in the District and Elevation Burger in Falls Church, have practically planned on franchising from the moment they drafted their business plans. Others, like Amsterdam Falafelshop, have taken a more cautious approach to spreading their brand. Five Guys, of course, has turned franchising into an art form — or at least into a license to print money.

Isn’t it time for the Ali’s to cash in, too?

Read More “If Not Expansion Plans, What Is Ben’s Next Move? Think Shipping.” »