Arrive Magazine - July/August, 2008

Ready to chow down a D.C. Half-smoke from Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington, D.C.

One more thing—some of the best tomato pies come from family-run bakeries, not pizzerias.

“My grandmother and my grandfather started the business back in 1953,” says Sam Cacia of Cacia’s Bakery in the Italian enclave of South Philly. “Back in the day, it was pretty easy to make a tomato pie. It was a nice little way to add something to the menu besides bread and rolls.”

In the Manayunk section, Frank Marchiano and his wife, Kathy, began “bootlegging” decades ago—selling goods baked by his immigrant Italian mother, Nunziata, out of her basement until they became so popular she was afraid people would think they were peddling drugs.

“That’s when we went across the street and bought a three-story home and converted it into a bakery,” Marchiano says. Today his daughter Daneen retains their following of loyal customers.

These bakeries are always busy, but “certain times of the year are really outrageous,” says Cacia. Lent, when observant Catholics restrict their meat intake, is high season for tomato pie. It’s also a must-have for tailgating outside every Eagles home game and a staple at family parties. And Philly natives grab a slice for breakfast on their way to work and tuck another into their kids’ lunchboxes.

Although tomato pie may never be as big as the cheese steak, you never know. Of those who try it for the first

time, Marchiano says, “When they taste it, then it catches on.”

Baltimore Pit Beef

In Baltimore, crab is king. But seafood isn’t the only treat Charm City has to offer. From a gritty stretch of highway in the eastern part of the city to the bucolic Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the enticing aroma of grilled pit beef, the local take on barbecue, draws crowds.

To make it, pit masters typically season top round with a dry-rub spice mixture,

grill it until it’s charred
on the outside and rare on the inside,
slice it paper thin, and pile it onto either
a kaiser roll or rye bread. Customers have
their choice of fixings, but purists opt for
horseradish and sliced white onion.

Unlike other styles of barbecue, pit beef is not smoked. Rather, for Bob Creager, owner of Chaps Charcoal Restaurant on the industrial Pulaski Highway, “the key is in the charcoal.” He still uses a hardwood variety, though others long ago switched to gas.

Pit beef has been around for at least half a century. Creager recalls stories of a family friend with a little stand at a bar in Dundalk, Md., about 50 years ago. “There were a few people doing it here and there, but he really put it on the map.”

For the ultimate Baltimore experience, grab a sandwich at Boog’s BBQ on Eutaw Street and take in a baseball game at Camden Yards. Oriole legend Boog Powell got a taste for the local style from bull roasts outside the old Memorial Stadium.

“When I was on the field [during batting practice] I would go out there and stick my hand out over the fence. Somebody would hand me a sandwich, and I would put it in my uniform and go inside,” he says. “I thought the world of that.”

Today, Powell, who took an active part in creating the recipes for the hugely popular stand at the new stadium, can be found during games signing autographs while keeping one eye on the grill. For the ideal sandwich, he recommends a full slate of toppings and one other