Buried at the end of today’s Marc Fisher column is an exciting bit of news for baseball fans and half-smoke lovers alike: Fisher says that Ben’s Chili Bowl is going to have an outpost in the new Nationals Stadium. Unfortunately though, co-owner Kamal Ali tells DCist that the Ben’s stand at the stadium is far from a done deal.

“We are in a good faith conversation with them, but it would be premature to say it’s definitely happening. There is no signed contract yet,” Ali said.

Ben’s Chili Bowl has never had a second location before, despite having operated in the District continuously since 1958. Ali said their inexperience with this sort of venture was something of an obstacle to the details being worked out.

“This is an entirely different animal than what we’re used to. They asked us to come, but (the question is) would we come under what circumstances?” Ali said. “We hope it works out, but we haven’t gotten down to the nitty gritty.”

Should an agreement be reached, Ali said the Ben’s menu offerings at the stadium would be representative of their menu, including chili dogs, half-smokes and burgers, plus fries and turkey and veggie chili options. He imagined the prices for most menu items would be a dollar or two more than what you normally pay at Ben’s, given that “that’s fairly standard” in a ballpark.

Overall, Ali seemed optimistic about the possibility of a Ben’s at the stadium, but hesitant to get people too excited in case it doesn’t pan out.

“We’ve got a brand new stadium, and we want to give the people what they want so that it’s a win-win situation. Right now we’re just trying to move the conversation along until it’s a done deal.”

Photo of a Ben’s chili burger by Ohad*