Last night at Ben's Chili Bowl around 10:00pm, I witnessed a customer screaming at the Ethiopian employees behind the counter.
3 African American adults were harassing the Ethiopian employees. 1 man and 1 woman, close to middle aged, had finished their fries, then demanded to be refunded and given a free serving of chili fries because they claimed they didn't get what they ordered (despite having eaten all the fries anyway). The young man working one of the registers looked at their receipt to show them they were lying. Then they called up their friend, a woman sitting in a booth, who had a different order ticket, and claimed that she had ordered chili cheese fries and never received them, and it was her order they were complaining about. The young man went to another employee - a young woman - working the grill and preparing food, to ask her to make the chili cheese fries. She came to ask the 3 customers what the problem was, because she had clearly given them an order of chili cheese fries already, and they were lying.
The woman who had been sitting at the booth started yelling: "You have a bad attitude, DON'T treat us like that, YOU'RE AFRICAN. WE'RE AFRICAN-AMERICAN. YOU'RE NOT BETTER THAN US. You can GO BACK TO AFRICA with that attitude. GIVE ME MY SHIT, BITCH. HOW DARE YOU TREAT US LIKE THAT BECAUSE WE'RE BLACK. YOU'RE NOT BETTER THAN US."
It was disturbing and upsetting. All of the employees working were Ethiopian immigrants, and these three American black customers were harassing them for their immigrant status with xenophobic insults.
I didn't know what to do or say, everyone in line and in the restaurant just stared at them. Does anybody know why African Americans in D.C. might harbor xenophobic bigotry against Ethiopian immigrants?
You may remember the Ben's Chili Bowl episode from the first live DC show last September. I had so much fun at the show. I visited Ben's for the first time in years early that day and got to see the crew eating in the back. I didn't bother them. It's a great spot and I hope it survives.
Have at it! (also, if anyone was at an East Coast live show that had a drop with Aphex Twin and The Tick saying "spoon!", I'd love to know. It's my first drop and I sent it the day before the tour so I've been curious if it may have a decent chance of getting on)
https://twitter.com/joelleborhart/status/1185670835887136769?s=20
Pete just casually eating and talking about his campaign.
https://twitter.com/misyrlena/status/1185668203596398598?s=20
https://www.instagram.com/p/B30LdrPJTJI/
> daponte18
>
>TFW you go to @benseverything and meet the next POTUS! #PeteForAmerica #WinTheEra
https://twitter.com/DCDemocrats/status/1185687749153742849?s=20
>DC Democratic Party@DCDemocrats
>
>Our Chairman @CharlesWilsonDC had the opportunity to sit down with @PeteButtigieg and Ben's Chili Bowl owner Virginia Ali this afternoon to discuss the issues DC voters care about.
>
>Thanks for stopping by the District, Mayor Pete!
https://twitter.com/kelysuperficial/status/1185688887433318400?s=20
Gotta agree with Nate on this one. Ben's Chili Bowl is extremely overrated for how much praise it gets in the DMV area.
His trashing of Ben's, and the PMT boys hating Skyline chili, made me think of other famous food institutions that just don't live up to the hype.
Primanti bros, is a perfect example. It's just a below average sandwich with french fries. Anyone else have other examples?
As I'm sure many of you know, Ben's Chili Bowl just painted over their mural of Bill Cosby, Barack Obama, Donnie Simpson, and Chuck Brown. They're now holding an online poll to decide who goes on a new mural. One glaring omission on the list of candidates is John Wall.
On the court, Wall is a four-time All-Star, one of the best passers in the league, and one of the best defenders at his position in the league. In 2014 and 2015 his teams became the first Bullets/Wizards teams to win playoff series in consecutive years since the 1970s. Throughout his career he has improved on his weaknesses, refined his game, and fought through injury to help his team win. He's cemented his place as a franchise great and you could fairly argue that the best is yet to come.
Off the court, Wall's character is unimpeachable. He won the 2015-16 NBA Community Assist Award in recognition of his contributions to the community. Among his other endeavors, Wall supports Bright Beginnings, a non-profit that offers education, shelter and meals to homeless children and their parents; the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk in D.C., the Passport to Manhood Program at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington, and the FITTED Prom Project. Through the John Wall Family Foundation he hosts annual back-to-school backpack giveaways and distributes food baskets on Thanksgiving. He is a pillar of the community.
There are few individuals more worthy of being commemorated at a local landmark like Ben's Chili Bowl than John Wall and I encourage everyone to write his name in as a candidate for Ben's new mural: http://benschilibowl.com/vote/
The waitress says, "Sorry, but the guy next to you got the last bowl".
He looks over and sees that the guy's finished his meal, but the bowl of chili is still full. He asks, "Are you going to eat that chili?"
The other guy says, "No. Help yourself".
He slides the bowl of chili over and starts to eat. When he gets about half way down, his spoon hits something. He looks down sees a dead mouse and immediately pukes all the chili back into the bowl.
The other guy says, "Yeah, that's about as far as I got, too".
