Hand-cut fries showered with Old Bay seasoning, the celery-salt-paprika-mustard spice mix that defines Baltimore palates. Served at every crab house and bar in the city.
Old Bay seasoning was invented in 1939 in Baltimore by Gustav Brunn, a German Jewish refugee, who developed the blend for the Chesapeake crab boil trade. The mix of celery salt, paprika, mustard, bay leaf, cloves and red pepper became inseparable from Baltimore cooking. Old Bay fries are a Baltimore bar-snack staple, the cheap-and-essential side at every crab house and corner pub in the city.
4 editor picks for Old Bay fries in Baltimore, ranked by editorial score. All Baltimore signature dishes · Old Bay fries across every city.
Faidley's Seafood ★ 4.7
downtown · 119 North Paca Street, Baltimore, MD 21201
Faidley's Seafood at Lexington Market has sold its jumbo lump crab cake since 1886, a stand-up counter where you eat the city's benchmark cake off paper.
Chaps Pit Beef ★ 4.4
greektown · 720 Mapleton Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21205
Chaps Pit Beef on Pulaski Highway is the benchmark for Baltimore pit beef, charcoal-grilling top round rare and piling it on a kaiser with tiger sauce.
LP Steamers ★ 4.4
locust-point · 1100 East Fort Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21230
LP Steamers in Locust Point is a classic two-storey crab house, steaming blue crabs heavy with Old Bay and serving a rooftop deck above Fort Avenue.
Mama's on the Half Shell ★ 4.2
canton · 2901 O'Donnell Street, Baltimore, MD 21224
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.