Bowser Declares Ben’s Chili Bowl Day as U Street Landmark Reopens

Muriel Bowser marked the reopening of Ben’s Chili Bowl by declaring May 1 “Ben’s Chili Bowl Day,” turning a ribbon cutting into a neighborhood event for one of Washington’s best-known restaurant workplaces. The original U Street NW location reopened Friday after about 10 months closed for renovations, with live go-go music starting at 11 a.m. and a 11:45 a.m. ceremony that closed part of U Street between 12th and 13th Streets.

For the restaurant’s staff, the return to 1213 U Street NW meant more than reopening the front door. The Ali family said the project was the first major renovation in more than six decades and included new plumbing, electrical systems and a new roof. The family also said it tried to keep the space as original as possible, and one of the most visible changes is an old archway from the building’s days as a silent movie house now visible above the sign.

Ben’s stayed in business during the work with a pop-up across the street, keeping the brand on U Street while the main dining room was offline. The move helped preserve a late-night institution that still plans to serve until 4 a.m. on weekends, a schedule that matters for cooks, servers and bartenders who rely on the after-hours rush as much as the regular lunch crowd.

The reopening landed during National Small Business Month and carried extra weight because of Virginia Ali. Now 92, she was honored at the event for a 67-year legacy that began when she and Ben Ali opened the restaurant on Aug. 22, 1958, in the former Minnehaha silent movie house. The family said the day was a tribute to her role as a pioneering Black woman entrepreneur and community leader.

Ben’s Chili Bowl has long been more than a place to eat. It became a gathering spot for civil rights leaders, students, artists and neighborhood regulars, and it was one of the few businesses that remained open during the unrest after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in April 1968, serving food and shelter when the corridor needed it most. That history was part of the draw on reopening day, when Spike Lee, Doug Williams, Donnie Simpson and Eleanor Holmes Norton joined the celebration.

The reopened room gives Ben’s a fresher infrastructure without erasing the identity that made it a fixture in the U Street Corridor, long known as Black Broadway. That balance, between old bones and working repairs, is what will shape the day-to-day experience now: fewer hidden breakdowns behind the line, a more stable building for the crew, and a familiar room ready for the next late-night rush.