North Carolina has its BBQ pork, Texas has its brisket and Baltimore has its pit beef. Pit beef is essentially brisket but it's never smoked, always grilled. Located in a part of Baltimore that looks like it was forgotten by everything, Chaps Pit Beef is only a few miles from the highway and served as a great "pit" stop on the way back to DC recently.
Chaps Pit Beef is what I would graciously describe as a shack. In the kitchen there's a big grill, a deli slicer, and not much else. The menu is pretty prolific, but is pretty much everything that you'd expect to find in a shack with a grill.
Pit beef, corned beef, pulled pork, fries, and maybe even a hamburger--but I wasn't looking for one.
The fact that pit beef in Baltimore is grilled and not smoked gives it a flavor I haven't encountered with other types of bbq. There's a little bit of crispiness to the edges of the meat and flavors that were picked up from other meats that have been cooked on the same grill. I ended up ordered a combo of cornef beef and beef, and even the corned beef was thrown on the grill for a minute or two to heat it up and give it some additional flavor.
On top of my sandwich I put on the traditional Baltimore fixings of tiger sauce (mayo and horseradish) and onions. It was interesting. The taste was different, it was peculiar to have that sort of sauce on beef, but it was good. I was filled up, enjoyed some new flavors of beef that I haven't experienced before, and got out of there for around six bucks.
I'd be lying if I said that this was the greatest sandwich I've ever had, but if I'm driving around Baltimore in the future and need something hearty to keep me filled up until I make it back to DC, then Chaps Pit Beef might see me again.
Chaps Pit Beef
5801 Pulaski Highway
Baltimore, Maryland 21205
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