 First stop on our foodie trip is the iconic Ben's chili bowl in DC We caught up with the owners Virginia Ali and her daughter Vita Ali Virginia Ali is the wife of the iconic although equally iconic herself Ben Ali the namesake of the restaurant If you visited DC, you probably know how beloved vibrant high traffic and loud it is It was nearly impossible to hear Mrs. Ali both in the restaurant and on the busy corridor of U Street Where the original restaurant still stands First up Mrs. Ali showed us the brand-new sign that they were able to update with the funds from the backing historic small restaurants grant in Partnership with American Express. They were able to use the same sign company that installed their original sign Which was hand-painted by DC artists, but the wood frame had rotted over the years and it no longer illuminated The new design is fashioned just the same as the original But intended to withstand the elements and provide a bit more light to the U Street corridor Mrs. Ali also shared the history of Ben's chili bowl bear this rainbow colored bear panda showed up in 2004 when the DC Commission on the Arts backed a massive art project that scattered 150 whimsical panda statues throughout the city named Pandamania The project was part of a push to promote the giant pandas at the National Zoo Loving patrons began telling Mrs. Ali Did you know there's a bear in the city with Ben's chili bowl on its belly and that was it She had to have it she found the artists and they all worked together to get the bear installed in front of Ben Where it still stands today? Mrs. Ali sat down and told us the history of her and mr. Ben's romance leading to marriage and kids three boys who still own and run the restaurant along with Mrs. Ali with their respective wives Ben's has been a pillar in the civil rights movement and also has the Ben's chili bowl foundation where they carry out programs such as Teaching for change which is building social justice starting in the classroom We then popped over to the grill with Vita Ali to show us the preparation of a DC half-smoke Sources often can't agree on who invented it But the Ali family feels pretty strongly that Ben's chili bowl has a strong role to play in the origin story I mean if you look online for DC half-smokes many local media sources appear to strongly not in that direction, too But maybe we're all impartial Mrs. Ali sat down and told us all about the half-smoke as well one of DC's Signature dishes is a sausage generally smoked before it's grilled They're often a bit spicier and made of meat. That's more coarsely ground than a hot dog They're generally but not always dished out on a soft white bun and topped with onions cheese and chili Let's see the preparation of this half-smoke And that's it for DC Meet us down in Cookville, Tennessee to hear about a different dog and hear about another restaurant site That is on the national register for historic places Hi, I'm Mark Dudney the historic preservation planner with the upper Cumberland Development District I'd like to thank American Express and the National Trust for historic preservation for partnering on this project I'd also like to thank Bill Roberts and Mrs. Mary Alice McClellan for working with me on the backing historic small restaurants grant Since its beginning in 1949 blacks and whites ate and drank together here at the restaurant I don't think they made a big deal out of it, but it was unusual at the time We first started out with These siding the ease is what you so call it So we actually started from the beginning tearing out the old wood and replaced it with new shake siding Then we worked the way around to the front and it was all rotted out since the 40s So we ended up replacing all the new wood put new shake the stress siding up so it would look old But still modern wanted lighting so we could have a safe environment So we ended up putting LED floodlights all the way around the whole building worked away to this old Picture is what the look we went for from when it started in 1949 We just recreated the windows went back through close one of the doors and went out through the front And then we started working on the other side and doing the same thing So basically the road frontage ended up tearing out all the wood Replacing all the shake siding put up new floodlights and cameras The old sign is depicted here in this picture of John's place at night in the 1950s when it was a bar on one side and a grocery store on the other and so our contractor came over and Got the specs for exactly how we wanted it and the result was the new sign up here It's an LED sign, but it's exactly a replica of the one from the 1950s So I want to thank Molly and the National Trust for their partnership with this. It really was a labor of love I'm Mary Alice McClellan the owner of John's Place and on behalf of every one year at John's Place I want to thank the American Express and the National Trust for historic preservation The founding brothers head and John Lee McClellan set the precedent for the spirit of inclusion here From the beginning everybody was welcome and this tradition predated legal integration In Putnam County by several years in the 1960s and 70s Due largely to their nephew shaky McClellan John's Place became the unofficial Tennessee Tech hangout and the official headquarters of its rugby team The home of the world-famous John Dogg when it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011 for its contributions to race relations WCTE TV the local PBS affiliate produced a documentary about an entitled Everybody's welcome at John's Place John's Place has been an institution for several communities the African American population of West Cookeville For thousands of Tennessee Tech University alumni and in the hearts of generations of customers as a place to go and have a good time Like all institutions, they're only as good as the people in them John's Place is just a cinderblock building the McClellan family are the ones who have made it an institution For over 70 years members of that family have contributed to its success From founding brothers Ed and John Lee McClellan to shaky McClellan's making it synonymous with Tennessee Tech to miss Mary Alice McClellan's Wednesday night soul food buffet and her great-nephew Bill Roberts who stepped up to manage it just months before COVID-19 arrived During the ice storm here last February John's Place offered free meals to power line workers T dot road crews first responders and police officers in May the Putnam County NAACP hosted a John Lewis votercade event to promote voting rights John's Place served as a stop along the route to the event in an unofficial gathering place afterwards in July John's Place participated in a poker run biker fundraiser for a local cancer patient every year They prepare hot Thanksgiving meals for their community's homeless population Every year they do a huge event for Tennessee Tech's homecoming John's Place is still serving the community Still bringing people together to have a good time and everybody's still welcome here. This round's on me shaky. Cheers