Best of Baltimore 2007 Winner for "Best Breakfast Sandwich" by The City Paper, yet another award win for Chewy's, Thank You City Paper, Thanks to all of wonderful customers.

Dave Durian Radio Show WBAL 1090 6/3/04
"The Hickory Smoked Salmon was superb, thick and very tasty" Dave Durian
"The Pulled Pork was excellent and my favorite"
(We recommend the Pit Beef, Pork, Ribs, and Burgers)
Doug Roberts

From AOL Digital City 5/28/04
Chewy's Southern Pit
Get your fill of barbecue.

Chewy's Southern Pit
Baltimore, MD


One look at the firewood stacked neatly by the door, or the life-sized Homer Simpson figure, complete with apron, chef hat and barbecue spatula, and you know that Chewy's Southern Pit is the kind of place that knows how to satisfy man-sized appetites. Pit beef is a year-round Charm City delicacy, and Chewy's dishes out plenty of it in the form of piled-high sandwiches (available only in well-done, however) and hot roast beef sandwiches smothered in gravy (with potatoes or fries). Pit turkey, ham, pulled pork and Carolina pork barbecue are also available. A wood-burning rotisserie oven yields chicken, and you can grab one of two indoor tables or a few on a makeshift patio and feast on a rack of ribs, dripping in barbecue sauce (which is for sale at the cash register). That would be plenty of menu options for most pit beef stands, but Chewy's doesn't stop there, offering chicken wings (sauce choices include mild, honey mustard, Old Bay or Buffalo garlic) deli sandwiches and cooked-to-order burgers -- including an 18-ounce monster called the Trojan Pounder Plus. Subs, chicken sandwiches, wraps, clubs, soups and salads round out a big menu at a small, oddly configured eatery. -- Pete Kerzel (Photo: Pete Kerzel)

The Baltimore Sun 4/7/04 by Tom Waldron

Chewy's owner went to pros to become a winner
Takeout
SPECIAL TO THE SUN

Tom Waldron
Published on April 7, 2004
© 2004- The Baltimore Sun
When Demetris Nicolaidis began making plans for opening a barbecue restaurant in Baltimore, he did what any sensible person would do: He headed south.

According to his mom, who works with him at the newly opened Chewy's Southern Pit on Dundalk Avenue, Nicolaidis made several trips through barbecue country - the Carolinas and into Georgia - checking out restaurants and cadging recipes. The homework paid off; Chewy's is a winner.

You can tell it as soon as you walk into the small eatery, which sits across the street from a steelworkers union hall. There's a pile of apple-wood logs used to cook the meats and a sign on the door informing customers that this is not a fast-food restaurant. (There's also a big statue of Homer Simpson wearing an apron, and Homer surely knows good barbecue when he finds it.) Service was wonderfully quick and friendly.

Back home, we tore through all the food.

The highlight was a Memphis-style pulled-pork sandwich on a fresh roll ($5.45). The meat had been slow-cooked in a large and shiny wood-fired oven and seasoned with just the right amount of tangy sauce. A side order of red slaw (flavored with ketchup) was odd but good.

A rack of baby back ribs ($11.95) had been cooked with a dry rub of spices and then covered with sauce. The meat was tender and avoided the trap of being too sweet. A gourmet burger ($3.95), made with a half-pound of good-quality meat, was cooked over a fire and was one of the best burgers I've run across in months. We resisted the "Trojan pounder plus burger" ($7.25), which is made with two of the beef slabs. (I was told by staffers that they once weighed a Trojan with all the fixings and it came in at 21 1/2 ounces, enough perhaps to slow even Homer.)

Finally, buffalo wings ($5.75 for 10) were fried nicely and came with "suicide" hot sauce, which was hot but not ghastly.

For dessert, Chewy's offers a few homemade cakes. We tried carrot and chocolate ($1.95), both of which were just fine.
Chewy's Southern Pit

Food: *** 1/2

Service: *** 1/2

Waiting area: ***

Parking: ***

Web site: www.chefchewy.com

Outstanding: ****; Good: ***; Fair or uneven: **; Poor: *