Clavel is a street-food stop in Hampden, Baltimore.
Clavel in Hampden presses its own nixtamalized corn tortillas for tacos al pastor and ceviche, a counter-and-bar room that started as a tortilleria project.
Tip: The house tortillas are the point; pair tacos with an agua fresca or a mezcal.
Address: 225 West 23rd Street, Baltimore, MD 21211
Broadway Market at the foot of Fells Point's square gathers grab-and-go counters for oysters, tacos and coffee under two rebuilt sheds with a rooftop bar.
Try: Oysters, tacos and market counters
Tip: Graze across the stalls; Connie's Chicken and Waffles and the oyster counter are the anchors.
Matthew's Pizza in Highlandtown has fired thick-crust pies since 1943, including a crab pie loaded with jumbo lump and Old Bay that draws steady crowds.
Try: Crab pie by the pie
Tip: The crab pie is the order to plan around; it sells out, so go early on weekends.
Faidley's stand inside Lexington Market serves the city's benchmark crab cake since 1886, almost all jumbo lump, eaten standing at a counter off brown paper.
Try: Jumbo lump crab cake
Tip: Order the all-lump grade and eat it at the stand-up rail; it also fries a classic lake trout.
Connie's Chicken and Waffles works a stall inside Lexington Market, frying hand-breaded chicken to order and stacking it over waffles for the lunch crowd.
Try: Hand-breaded fried chicken and waffles
Tip: It started as a Lexington Market stall; the chicken box is the cheap, filling order.
Chaps Pit Beef on Pulaski Highway is the city's benchmark pit beef stand, charcoal-grilling top round rare and piling it on a kaiser with tiger sauce.
Try: Baltimore pit beef sandwich
Tip: Order it rare with tiger sauce and raw onion; this is the classic Baltimore pit-beef build.
Ekiben grew from a food cart into a Fells Point counter, building a citywide following on steamed bao like the Neighborhood Bird fried-chicken bun.
Try: Steamed bao buns
Tip: The Neighborhood Bird bun is the order; the line moves fast at the tiny counter.
