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First Ben's Chili Bowl, Then the White House

The answers are: White House, Lincoln Memorial, and Ben's Chili Bowl.

The question was: Name three classic attractions in Washington, D.C. that you have been meaning to visit again but just never seem to get around to doing.

Let's start with Ben's, for almost 50 years the downtown chilidog magnet for the rich and famous and for bums likes us, for the downtrodden and the uptrodden too. The perfect chilidog, whether it's noon or midnight.

Skip the White House. Visit Ben's Chili Bowl, the other classic must-see in Washington.

Your half-smoke, on the grill next door

The downtrodden, the uptrodden, even radio producers enjoy a half-smoke at Ben's Chili Bowl.

A bit of half-smoke and a lot of history fills the walls at Ben's Chili Bowl

But not just any old chilidog. This is, according to Ancient Benovian lore, the birthplace of the half-smoke, the native food of Washington. The formerly obscure breakfast sausage was elevated to national luncheon fame, with a double glob of homemade chili by Father Ben himself. Let Baltimore claim the crabcake and New Orleans jambalaya. Washington has the chili half-smoke. Its ingredients are a perfect metaphor for our town, half beef and half pork and everything hidden by a smoke screen of secret international and local spices that run both hot and chili.

Sure, you can get a bowl of chili and lots of other stuff, even vegetarian and even breakfast, at Ben's, but if you've been away from this classic place for a while, then start with the classic best, the chili half -smoke. WARNING FROM THE SURGEON GENERAL! DO NOT TRY TO EAT MORE THAN ONE CHILI HALF SMOKE THE FIRST TIME BACK! Start slow. Get your stomach back in shape. These are not the bland imitation half smokes that every Washington pushcart vendor now sells. These are Ben's, the epitome of comfort food, unless you push your luck.

Yes, there is a half smoke grime around the edges of the restaurant, but I prefer to see it as the foggy blessing of history, because Ben's is a time capsule of the last 50 years of DC history.

In the 1950's, when U Street was called the "Black Broadway," these very booths and counters were broken in by the likes of Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Red Foxx and Martin Luther King, Jr. When Dr. King was assassinated in 1968 and Washington burned, only Ben's remained open after curfew, and only because Stokely Carmichael of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and the police agreed they needed a place for food and shelter for all those trying to restore order.

In 1985, Bill Cosby held a national press conference at Ben's to celebrate his number one rated TV show and to share his favorite dogs. Two years later, Progress turned U Street into a deep hole for the Metro Green Line that lasted five years. The whole street went into the hole, except for Ben's, which determinedly stayed open with a skeleton crew the few construction workers and loyal patrons who could find the door.

But things got better. Owners Ben and Virginia Ali were inducted into the D.C. Hall of Fame (2001) and the James Beard Foundation last year named Ben's as one of four of "America's Classic Restaurants."

But we knew that. Skip the White House. Visit Ben's.