Attman's Delicatessen, the 111-year-old Baltimore institution famous for corned beef and its Cloak and Dagger sandwich, is planning to open a branch inside BWI Marshall Airport, becoming the first delicatessen at the Anne Arundel County airport. Owner Marc Attman hopes to open the new location in Terminal B by May 2027, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner to travelers passing through one of the region's busiest airports.
The news was first reported by The Baltimore Banner, whose food reporter Christina Tkacik detailed plans for the new eatery, which will feature a Baltimore-style hot dog alongside the deli's signature corned beef, coleslaw and Russian dressing sandwich on rye. Attman's traces its roots to 1915, when Jewish immigrant Harry Attman opened a general grocery on East Baltimore Street before relocating to the landmark storefront at 1019 East Lombard Street in 1933, anchoring what became known as Corned Beef Row, according to Explore Baltimore Heritage.
The deli's evolution from neighborhood grocery to lunch counter took shape in the 1940s under Harry and his son Seymour, and the beloved Kibitz Room dining space was added in 1973, cementing Attman's status as the longest-surviving deli on the strip, according to the Maryland Daily Record. Despite being founded by religious Jewish immigrants who kept a kosher home, the deli itself was never certified kosher because it sourced non-kosher meats and stayed open on the Sabbath, a choice that helped it build a broad regional following by the 1970s, per the Jewish Museum of Maryland.
A Bigger Footprint Beyond Lombard Street
The BWI location would mark the latest step in a growth run that has already taken Attman's well past its original East Baltimore block. The deli opened a Montgomery County branch in Park Potomac and, in January 2024, a 3,650-square-foot Harbor Point location in Baltimore featuring its first dedicated full-service bar. Attman's also has a presence at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and per the Banner's report, Marc Attman hopes to eventually expand further to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Dulles International Airport.
The airport eatery will land inside Concourse B, which serves as the primary hub for Southwest Airlines — the carrier that moved more than 18 million passengers through BWI in fiscal year 2025 across roughly 230 daily departures and accounts for over 70% of the airport's total passenger traffic, according to the Office of Governor Wes Moore. That kind of foot traffic sits at the center of BWI's broader push to revamp its food and beverage offerings, joining existing vendors like Phillips Seafood, Miss Shirley's, The Greene Turtle, Ledo Pizza and Nalley Fresh.
Fraport's 23-Year Concessions Deal
Attman's arrival is tied to a much larger overhaul of concessions at BWI. Fraport USA, a subsidiary of the German transport company, won a 23-year contract in 2025 to manage the airport's retail concessions and will collaborate with local and international partners on the buildout. Under the deal approved by Maryland's Board of Public Works, operator Fraport Baltimore Partnership LLC committed $31.5 million in capital improvements across 115 concession spaces while returning a 90% revenue share to the state, according to the Maryland Daily Record.
Fraport USA executive Sabine Trenk said the company would focus on cultivating a strong local identity as it builds out BWI's concessions program. The new space for vendors like Attman's comes courtesy of the airport's $520 million Concourse A/B Connector and Baggage Handling System project, which opened in January and added a 14,000-square-foot open food and retail market, the largest capital improvement in BWI's history, per the Office of Governor Wes Moore.
Why BWI, Why Now
The timing lines up with BWI's continued growth as a regional travel hub. The airport handled more than 25.2 million passengers in 2025, retaining its title as the busiest passenger airport in the Washington-Baltimore metro area, according to BWI Marshall Airport, and it generates an estimated $11.3 billion in local economic impact while supporting more than 107,000 jobs statewide. Fraport USA also manages concession programs at Washington Dulles, Reagan National, Newark Liberty and JFK airports, giving it national experience to draw on as it brings a hometown brand like Attman's into the terminal.
For longtime Baltimoreans, the move represents something of a full-circle moment for a business built on Lombard Street's immigrant trade a century ago and now bound for one of the mid-Atlantic's busiest concourses. The exact terms of Attman's sublease with Fraport, and whether prices at the airport counter will match those on Lombard Street, remain unclear ahead of the planned 2027 opening.
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