I can't tell you how many times I've visited Annapolis and must have walked right past this gem of an eatery. My British father, a rock musician, performed at the Rams Head Tavern and then had a couple of days off. We picked him up and decided to go to a local "Mom & Pop's" for lunch. Tom did a quick search on Urbanspoon and promptly brought us to Chick & Ruth's Delly -- as seen on The Travel Channel's  Man vs. Food.

Inside everything is orange! It's a long thin restaurant with the kitchen and counters running along the left and tiny booths along the right with a few tables next to the front window. Feeling a little out of place, we tried to park ourselves in...

one of the tiny booths (apparently made for Lilliputions). They only fit 4 but we managed to squeeze 5 in. My Dad, who is about 6'1" awkwardly sat on a small chair after bumping around a bit. Poor Tom sat solo behind us on a bar stool along the counter. Suddenly a heavenly voice from above said "You know we have larger tables up in the back!" Aha, it was "J" our fairy godmother of a waitress. Smart lady, not only did she make us happy being able to sit together, she wisely sat us in her section. So glad as she was a terrific waitress and put up with our eccentricities and my annoying blog photos (see her photo below).

The back of the delly is accessible via a teeny tiny set of wooden stairs. If you are on the robust side and want to sit upstairs, my advice would be to come in through the rear entrance! The walls are covered with portraits of Maryland politicians, beauty queens and athletes, many of them from the 70's and 80's so lots of goofy hair and big shoulder pads.

And now to the  menu... An entire page features sandwiches named for Maryland politicians. The "Barbara Mikulski" is an open face tuna melt on a bagel (does she know about this I wonder?). I got a #1: "The Chick & Ruth" filled with delicious home-made Corned Beef, coleslaw and Russian Dressing on

Rye. Yum! It was huge! Those of you who know me know I am not huge, but when something is good I devour it and try not to look back. The kids each got a 20oz milkshake -- no, we didn't go for the 6 pounder. Just couldn't do it! Truthfully, I was so engaged with my sandwich, I can't remember what food the other members of my family ordered, but I think they were happy. We were so stuffed we skipped desert and quite literally squeezed ourselves back down the little stair case to pay and took some last minute pictures of "J" while her co-workers grumbled, "There she goes again, getting in every ones pictures!" Well, she deserved it.