Happy new year! I hope everyone had healthy and prosperous holidays and you’re all ready to embark on a successful 2024.
You may recall me writing about Ben’s Chili Bowl last summer after the announcement that the iconic eatery’s products would be available for retail purchase at Giant Food stores and how impressed I was with the co-founder of the company Virginia Ali, who spoke at the BBQ Battle about the new partnership. So, I was interested to read an interview last month in the Washington Business Journal with her son, Kamal Ali, who currently heads the multi-generational business that had been founded by his mother and father (the late Ben Ali) in 1958 and celebrated its 65th anniversary in 2023.
Ali, who said his first job was working at Ben’s Chili Bowl as a kid, took the helm in the early 1980s and has grown the company to what now includes three restaurant locations with franchises or licensing agreements – including at the DC Convention Center, Reagan National Airport and Nationals Park – as well as an ecommerce division that ships Ben’s products to all 50 states. Then, there was the aforementioned Ben’s retail distribution deal with Giant Food. According to the WBJ story by staff reporter Dan Brendel, Ben’s Chili Bowl pulls in $8 million to $10 million in annual revenue and employs around 100 people.
Ali told Brendel that the future of Ben’s Chili Bowl includes “room to grow” in the retail sector after the success of the current deal with Giant. Additionally, he said the company is exploring the opportunity to expand its franchising platform, saying “From here down to Atlanta and California are perfect chili-dog places for our style of food.”
The conversation with Ali covered a number of topics, including today’s challenges in hiring and retaining people, the role of businesses in the community, crime, the state of the Nation’s Capital, and his personal outlook on business. After reading the interview, I can say I am certain that Ben’s Chili Bowl’s future looks bright – who knows, maybe I’ll be able to have one of their half smokes during a future trip to the Golden State.
You can read the entire interview at https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2023/12/15/bens-chili-bowl-kamal-ali.html. In fact, WBJ does great reporting on the business community in the region and is always a source of valuable information. I highly recommend a subscription to their newsletter.
Kudos to the folks at Weis Markets for their generous donation to the Maryland Food Bank last month. As part of the Sunbury, PA-based chain’s 16th annual Fight Hunger Campaign, Weis donated $200,000 to the organization.
Throughout Hunger Action Month in September, Weis customers had the opportunity round-up their grocery orders to the next dollar, donate $1, $3 or $5 at checkout, or give online via PayPal at WeisMarkets.com to support their neighbors in need. At the end of the program, Weis Markets supplemented customer donations with a corporate contribution and distributed funds to regional food banks to maximize the impact of the donations in the fight against food insecurity. Overall, the 2023 campaign raised more than $1 million for seven food banks in the Weis marketing area, including the Maryland Food Bank.
Kat Thomas, Maryland Food Bank senior director of philanthropy, said that the donation will go a long way toward feeding the nearly 2 million Marylanders who face food insecurity all year round.
For those of us who are fortunate enough to do so, adding a few cents to every purchase by rounding up our shopping totals isn’t much of a sacrifice. This program at Weis (as well as those at many other supermarket companies) shows how much impact you can have on the lives of others through a seemingly small donation. After all, do you really need all those extra coins to carry around? (Okay, sure, you’re probably using plastic, but you know what I mean….)
Another interesting read last month I found was at FoodDive.com, which I’ve told you about before. The website has a regular feature titled “Leftovers” which is always a place to find something different. Last month’s example – Doritos Nacho-Cheese flavored liquor. It seems that PepsiCo teamed up with global flavor innovator Empirical to create Empirical x Doritos Nacho Cheese Spirit. The limited release offered what the brands called a “multi-sensorial, delicious beverage experience that smells and tastes just like Doritos Nacho Cheese Chips.” If you’re working on your Super Bowl party menu now – sorry. The new flavor had been available via limited release for the suggested retail price of $65.00 online, but when I went to empirical.co to investigate (as part of my diligent research), I found it was already sold out.
However, I’m going to keep an eye out for new flavors because it seems this is not the first time a food brand has looked to expand its reach into the adult beverage category. In early 2022, Frito-Lay partnered with Oregon-based Eastside Distilling to create Lay’s Potato Vodka, which was made with the same spuds used for the snack brand’s popular chip. That offering, which sold for $40 a bottle, was so popular it too sold out quickly.
Additionally, Kraft Heinz previously partnered on a limited edition white wine utilizing the mustard seeds from its Grey Poupon line while Mondelez International partnered with Barefoot Wines on a red blend to complement the chocolate, cookies and crème flavor of Oreo Thins.
And, while none of these yummy beverages is currently on the market, I’m sure R&D departments everywhere are busy working on the next unexpected flavor. Does a Cinnamon Toast Crunch vodka martini sound good to anyone?
That’s it for this month – keep those cards and letters coming!