Ben's Next Door

So, I recently came back from a weeklong trip out to the East Coast. I went to DC --> NYC --> Baltimore. Omg I ate so much! It was great to see old friends out there again and eat all the stuff that I missed and do the things I didn't get to do last time. So, in the next couple of posts, I will be writing about various points of my trip.

So, to begin, let's start in DC where my trip began. I took a redeye flight out on a Monday night and arrived on Tuesday morning. I actually didn't take Tuesday - Thursday off of work, so I had planned on working while I was out there. I figured that there was a 3 hour time difference, so I could do things in the morning and by the time I got back from my activities, it would be the start of my workday on the west coast. :)

So, the first night, my friend Lani and I hit up U Street. It's a strip of bars and restaurant on, you guessed it, U Street. We walked up and down the street to check out what bars were there and which ones have the best happy hours. I just have to say, DC has some of the best happy hours and nightlife ever. Well, I come from San Jose, so I don't know if that says much. haha

Our first stop was Ben's Chili Bowl! Apparently its Obama's favorite, and I can see why!





We actually didn't go to Ben's Chili Bowl, but they opened up a bar/restaurant next door called Ben's Next Door which is a little more upscale, but you can still order items off of the menu from Ben's Chili Bowl there. Man, I totally pigged out there. The waitress even gave us 2 asian girls the up and down look, indicating she was skeptical we could eat all that we ordered. Lani and I each ordered the Half smoke with chili cheese and shared an order of Chili cheese fries and hot wings. Man oh man, it was awesome. Even awesomer because we were there for happy hour and each item was like $5. And, the experience was even MORE awesome because during happy hour, beer on tap is $3! So, I had a purple haze and a newcastle with my meal. yum!



The half smoke is like a polish sausage... big and juicy! The bun was kind of whatever... nothing special, actually kind of dry... but seriously, you can't go wrong with anything covered in chili cheese! I just wanted to eat that chili cheese forever.



The chili cheese fries were good... but again, you can't go wrong with chili cheese! There's just something about their chili... its just plain good. I can't put my finger on it.... but i just know I wanted more of it! Behind the chili cheese fries were the chicken wings... and surprisingly, they were good! They had a nice spice and they came with a blue cheese dipping sauce. Normally I'm not a big fan of blue cheese, but dang, this was good. We were sooo full! Next time I go to DC, I will definitely be hitting up Ben's Next Door again... its nicer inside and they have the alcohol! :)