Ben’s Chili Bowl Co-Founder & DC Matriarch Virginia Ali in Conversation with Chef Jerome Grant and Ben’s Official Histor

Date and Time for this Past Event

• Wednesday, Apr 24, 2024  

Location

visit website

Details

This event is part of Hill Center’s annual Benjamin Drummond series of cultural and scholarly programming.

Virginia Ali is a remarkable woman. She was born in rural Virginia in 1933, moved to DC in ’52, and married Howard student Ben Ali in ’58, opening Ben’s Chili Bowl the same year. The eatery served chili dogs, half smokes and chili to locals and national civil rights leaders. After the death of MLK, Jr. in ’68, the DC U St. area faced harsh challenges: burned-out streets, crack-cocaine wars, Metro construction, and COVID shutdown.

Despite setbacks, Mrs. Ali’s moral and ethical values,
respecting everyone, and perseverance led to this iconic
eatery being admired worldwide today. At ninety years young,
she still comes to work every day, wearing her pearls and is
the most photographed woman in DC. Known affectionately as
“Mom,” or “Mrs. Ben,” Virginia has touched the lives of
everyone she has encountered. She is lionized as the
“Matriarch of U Street,” and the “Matriarch of DC”
and countless DC residents call her “Mom.” And, you’ll very likely
find her behind the counter and working the front room on most days.
Washington Post food writer Tim Carman recently penned a
wonderful tribute to Mrs. Ali and Ben’s.