Marianne Rogers, the daughter of founder Joe Rogers and his wife Pauline, still cooks with the recipes her father used when he started the business over 60 years ago.
  "I'm not adding anything. I'm simply doing what my mother and father started, period.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I haven't changed the recipe, and I haven't added anything to the menu, everything is the same."
  Joe Rogers had a great bowl of chili at someone's house when he was a young man. He liked that family's recipe, but it wasn't, in his opinion, perfect.
  Joe experimented with recipes for several years until finally hitting on one he liked. He opened the Den Chili Parlor at 1125 South Grand Ave. E. on Dec. 31, 1945. The small restaurant had no tables and only 11 stools at the counter.  Still, customers flocked to the restaurant.
  One of the things that makes Rogers family chili different is the way it is prepared. The beans and meat are cooked separately, which enables customers to get personalized orders. They can have no beans, extra beans, extra meat or no meat at all. They can also specify how much oil they want in their chili.  When it comes to the spice level, customers can choose between mild, medium, medium/touch, medium hot, hot and the J.R. Special.