But it's the final touch, smothering the whole thing in homemade chili.

Cook down for hours to home the sweet and smoky flavor that makes the half smoke from Ben's Chili Bowl.

A legend in Washington, D.

C Yeah, Washington, D.

C is a city rich in history.

What It's this famous nine block stretched on new Street once known as Black Broadway, that has contributed to some of the city's most defining moments.

And while this block has struggled through generations of ups and downs, Ben's Chili Bowl, which first opened its doors on August 22nd 1958 was there.

Through it all, it's just the same way that it did, like 10 years ago and My Grandparent's Day the same way, which is 20 years ago.

It never changes.

Inside the small kitchen that has kept Washingtonians fed for generations is a world of secrets.

So many, in fact, that the family goes us far as to prep brown paper bags full of bends original spice mix so that even the chefs remain clueless to the final touches this magic bag make every day.

And on Lee, the family has this secret.

Some people get their driver's license.

Some people get a bar mitzvah.

We get the Magic spice mix recipe.

This'll is Kamal Ali, one of founder Ben and Virginia's three sons, all of whom left successful careers in their own rights to help keep the family legacy alive.

What is your mom gonna do to you?

If you ever gave away this recipe?

Big trouble big.

I'm not too old to put.

Forget it.

Over her knees on Mama.

Virginia agrees.

Uh huh.

Oh, no, we raised them.

Well, the chili sauce begins with simple fresh ingredients.

Ground beef topped with roughly chopped white onions, green peppers and tomatoes loaded into a large stockpot chain restaurant.

And other people are making it.

They're gonna have exact measurements.

And this is how we doing here?

What we do here, we're just gonna toss in these peppers and onions and we're gonna do is gonna get a good covering.

Once all the ingredients are combined and covered with liquid, the sauce is left to boil and bubble for about an hour and a half until the meat is cooked and the vegetables air nice and soft, ensuring a silky smooth texture when it's cooked down to about half the amount of pot has left to simmer for an additional 45 minutes, so the flavor can really develop.

So now it's similar all those spices or getting together in there and having a party.

Kemal kicked us out of the kitchen toe ADSs, um, Ali family secret finishing touches.

But when we came back, the chili was reduced down to a rich and creamy sauce that he turns with a metal spoon toe.

Add in some air and positive vibes Way had in some community spirit, we added lots of love.

A little bit of black lives matter this year.

Every year, of course, Every year we come out with this nice, smooth consistency.

After the chili sauce is left to cool on a bed of ice, it's taken to the production line where the iconic half smoke really comes to life.

The half smoke is unique toe Washington, and it is Washington's signature edition.

It begins with a half pork, half beef sausage cooked on a hot griddle until charred on all sides sausages placed on a lightly steamed bun before being doused with yellow mustard sprinkled with chopped white onion and finished with that famous chili sauce.

The meat is perfectly seasoned, except I got the bun crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside.

Chili laced up there must get a little tang.

Good to go.

I'm a native Washingtonian, so you can't live in Washington, D.

C.

And I come to bend.

It is made with this family who built.

This is a love story, you know, and it's African American black love story.

The love story that built this empire began with Ben and Virginia Ali over 60 years ago.

When he stopped by the bank she worked at and decided to chat her up.

He had the nerve you asked me to call.

He wrote a little note with his phone number in his name.

Of course I didn't call him.

This was 1957.

You don't call a man you don't know and the rest is history.

We had 51 years together before he died.

Yeah, Quickly into the relationship, Ben in Virginia decided that they wanted to own their own business, having worked in restaurants to pay his way through university, the two decided to lean into a tasty chili recipe.

Ben had cooked up way needed an ideal location.

Way found that ideal location in this community on the street called Black Broadway.

And just like that, Ben's Chili Bowl was born.

In the early days, the newlyweds worked day in and day out, serving the affluent black community of black Broadway, standing as a meeting ground for some of the biggest names in history.

Everyone from Duke Ellington to Stokely Carmichael to MLK himself have swung by for a bite of the half smoke.

Dr.

Martin Luther King had a satellite office at 14th and U, so whenever he was in town, he popped into the chili Bowl.

We have an opportunity to chat with him for a few minutes and listen to his dream and the march on Washington that took place in 1963.

We were apart off, and we were here toe perhaps prepare food for some of those folks that came in very early, so it breaks my heart today to see that we're still now struggling and fighting for those same basic human rights that we fought for so many years ago.

Already active community leaders in the civil rights movement when protests broke out after the assassination of MLK Benz was one of the only business is allowed to stay open, beating protesters as well as first responders late into the night.

Now, Stokely Carmichael told me that he had a talk with the commander and said, We need a place together.

We need a place for the city officials, for even activists and for the first responders to be able to come in and feel safe and have something to eat.

It was a meeting place for the civil rights movement for entertainer celebrities, no matter what was going on in the country around the world, Ben's had his hand on.

The pulse of the community is the usual place for unusual people that come and everybody could be usual.

You know, I mean, and meetings have been held in some of these boobs meetings that impact people's lives all over the country.

Destruction from the protests cause residents to flee the area, and this community continued to face detrimental setbacks over the decades, from drug trafficking into the black community in the seventies to destructive Metro construction throughout the eighties and large scale gentrification through the nineties.

All of which, over time, effectively erase black Broadway off the map.

Through it all, and scalable has remained even becoming Obama's first surprise pit stop leading up to the 2009 inauguration.

But despite the hype, Virginia lives to make sure the place feels like home toe.

Everyone who walks in she and then during his lifetime they brought along their families so that their family would continue along after them.

And that is important thing because Ben is gone and one day I'll be gone and Virginia be gone.

But the legacy of the Chili Bowl will continue to live because the Children have made that a part of what they do.

It's a family affair, and I'm so grateful for that.

I like being able to come in and meet and greet our patrons and treat them as guests coming into my home.

It's been uninterested 62 years.

I've never had a boring moment.

It's very tasty of your tribe.

Long if I'm being perfectly honest, I've somehow gotten through my life without ever having a chili dog, so I've absolutely no idea what to expect from this, but I will say just smelling it.

It smells like summer.

It smells like a family barbecue.

It smells like sweet and a little bit spicy.

It's goddammit!

Critic.

This is so good.

So the chili doesn't have a lot of texture to it, which is where the onions and the onions ab that crunch that you really want.

That fresh, sweet crunch mustard on top has a little bit of a sweetness, but the chili overall, it's thick, it's rich, it's spicy.

But in that way, then it's like a flavorful spice.

It's not a hot spice, so it feels like you could just keep eating it because it's never gonna hurt in your mouth.

I've never had a chili dog before, and it's so much better than I was expecting.

Like I feel like I've been missing out on those winds higher life.

When I came here, my hair was long as yours.

But look what happened.

Him Chili dogs are delicious.