Baltimore's National Bohemian lager (Natty Boh) on its own, or in the Maryland shandy half-and-half mix with lemonade. The city's signature working-class beer culture, now an icon of Baltimore identity.
Where to eat it: 4 restaurants across 1 city.
National Bohemian, brewed in Baltimore since 1885 under the National Brewing Company, became the city's identity beer through the 20th century, with the one-eyed Mr. Boh mascot painted on Brewer's Hill warehouses. Pabst now brews Natty Boh in North Carolina, but Baltimore drinks the beer with the same fierce loyalty. The customer practice of mixing Natty Boh half-and-half with lemonade is the canonical Maryland shandy bar order, since formalised as a sister product. Max's Taphouse, Of Love and Regret and Chaps Pit Beef all pour Natty Boh on draft.
Common allergens: Gluten
Tip from the editors. Natty Boh is hard to find outside the mid-Atlantic; PBR is the closest national substitute. Pair the shandy with crab boil for the full experience.
Max's Taphouse on Fells Point's Broadway pours from more than a hundred taps late into the night, with a kitchen of pub grub to soak up the beer.
Try: Beer and pub grub
Tip: It stays open late on Broadway; the kitchen keeps going alongside the deep tap list.
Chaps Pit Beef on Pulaski Highway delivers a hefty, cheap pit beef sandwich, charcoal-grilled rare top round on a kaiser with tiger sauce and onion.
Try: Pit beef sandwich
Tip: A pit beef sandwich is a meal on its own; order it rare with tiger sauce.
Of Love and Regret in Brewers Hill is a gastropub from the Stillwater beer team, pairing a tight craft tap list with seasonal plates and Belgian.
Signature: Belgian ales, Craft beer, Seasonal plates
Order: Whatever Stillwater or rare Belgian is on draft, with the seasonal plates.
Tip: The tap list rotates fast and leans Belgian and sour; ask the bar what just landed.
Mama's on the Half Shell on Canton Square is a neighbourhood crab-and-oyster house, working steamed crabs, oysters and a crab cake across two busy floors.
Signature: Steamed crabs, Oysters, Crab cake
Order: A dozen steamed crabs in season, or the crab cake the rest of the year.
Tip: Weekend afternoons overflow with locals; ask for a seat upstairs or out on the patio.
More cities are in research. Want natty boh and the maryland shandy covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.