Washington DC, United States

The half-smoke's permanent address. Ben and Virginia Ali opened this counter on U Street NW in 1958, in the middle of Washington's Black cultural corridor, and never left. The restaurant survived the 1968 riots (one of the few businesses on U Street that stayed open during the curfew, feeding activists and National Guard troops), survived decades of neighborhood decline, survived Metro construction that tore up the block, and survived gentrification. The half-smoke here is a coarsely ground pork-and-beef link, grilled on the flattop, split, loaded into a steamed bun, and buried under the house chili, raw diced onion, and yellow mustard. Barack Obama ate here. Bill Cosby's photo used to hang on the wall. The Ali family still runs it.