MICHEL MARTIN, host:
As we just mentioned, excitement around the country is building for those who supported Barack Obama's race for the White House and nowhere more than in Washington, D.C., which is not only the nation's political capital but also a cultural capital for many black Americans.
And one of the destinations in D.C. for Americans of all races is Ben's Chili Bowl. It's a black-owned business located on the historic U Street Corridor which used to be known as the Black Broadway. It is so renowned that President-elect Obama stopped by there recently with Washington, D.C.'s mayor, Adrian Fenty. Joining me now to talk about it is Nizam Ali, one of the co-owners. Welcome. Thanks for joining us.
Mr. NIZAM ALI (Co-owner, Ben's Chili Bowl): Sure. Thank you. Thanks for having me on.
MARTIN: So you're used to a lot of, you know, high-powered visitors. I understand that, you know, Bill Cosby is a regular. Were you expecting to see the president-elect pop in?
Mr. ALI: It's so funny because everyone asked, has the president been here? Has Obama been here? And I said, he has not been here, but I'm not worried, but he will be here at some point. I did not know he was coming in on Saturday, though.
MARTIN: (Laughing) You - they didn't call you ahead of time and say, I need to pop in for...
Mr. ALI: I think the Secret Service came in probably two or three minutes before he walked in the door.
MARTIN: You said you knew he was going to stop in at some point. How did you know?
Mr. ALI: I think it's just kind of going on faith, you know, like, I know he's heard of the place. I know we put the invitation out there to probably everyone we know. So I knew, and I know he's been busy. So when he was campaigning, I said, oh, he's busy. He'll be here when he's, you know, a mile down the street there. So I knew he'd come at some point just to - we're so happy that he came so soon.
MARTIN: Now, I noticed that - I saw the local TV coverage, and I saw that he got a standing ovation from the patrons there. Do you get a sense that people are very excited about the upcoming inauguration?
Mr. ALI: The people are absolutely ecstatic about the inauguration, and I think the next four - I'm even saying eight years, I don't even say four years anymore. But everyone's really excited about it. We're so happy, of course, to have an African-American in the office. We're happy to have a very brilliant man in the office that's picking brilliant people for his cabinet positions, you know. And I think that gives everyone a really, really great hope.
MARTIN: So, I hate to be asking the man's business, but what did he order?
Mr. ALI: (Laughing) He had a Chili Half-Smoke, our signature thing here, with mustard, onions, and chili. And then he was joking because he saw someone else on the table next to him that had some shredded cheddar cheese, and he said, hey, how come they get cheese and I don't? So we gave him a little cheese on the side, and he had a sweet iced tea.
(Soundbite of laughter)
MARTIN: He got a sweet iced tea.
Mr. ALI: And he also shared some cheese fries with our mayor, Mayor Fenty, who brought him in.
MARTIN: He didn't know you could ask for the cheese? What's going on? You guys didn't give him a rundown of the...
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. ALI: Well, you know, when you get everything on it, we don't actually include the cheese. You have to ask for the cheese special. But it's his first time. He'll get it right the next time.
MARTIN: So who treated? Did the mayor treat or did President-elect Obama treat?
Mr. ALI: I don't know if you've heard of our sign. We have a sign up that says, nobody eats free here except Bill Cosby, no one else. And that's been up for years, and then we added the Obama family to the list. So we were, you know, totally expecting to treat him, but he insisted on paying, and he passed over a 20, and he said to keep the change.
(Soundbite of laughter)
MARTIN: Oh, very nice. So what are you going to do if people claiming to be his long-lost relatives, you know, Ben Obama, Kevin Obama, you know, Shirley Obama…
Mr. ALI: (Laughing) Leroy Obama. They're limited to - they're limited to...
MARTIN: Leroy Obama shows up trying to get a free Half-Smoke. What's going to happen?
Mr. ALI: There you go. I know. That's why we put that sign up. Well, the Obama family is going to be consisting with his wife, of course, and his two lovely daughters. And if mother-in-law wants to come, too, we'll take care of her as well.
MARTIN: (Laughing) OK. And as, of course, you know, Washington is expecting record crowds next week for the inauguration. Are you making any special preparations for the large number of people? Do you expect a number of visitors?
Mr. ALI: We are ordering everything we possibly can that we have room for and putting the suppliers on notice that we're going to probably be needing more. And we got all staff ready to roll. But it's funny because our actual hours are two in the morning on weekdays and four in the morning on weekends. So I don't know how much we can stretch those, but we'll be open as long as we can.
MARTIN: All right. Nizam Ali is one of the owners of the famous Washington, D.C. landmark, Ben's Chili Bowl. He was kind enough to take a stop during the day-long rush to talk to us. Thank you so much for talking to us.
Mr. ALI: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
