It All Started With a Deli

The Attmans of Lombard Street

When you’re at Oriole Park enjoying a soda with a tray of nachos or hot dogs... or need an apartment and want to choose from 14 apartment complexes with over 3000 units... or seek a nursing facility for a loved one, you will find various Attman companies behind the scenes. And for a deli fix, there is Attman’s Delicatessen, a fixture on Lombard Street’s Corned Beef Row for nearly 100 years. It All Started With a Deli tells how 23-year-old Harry Attman, an immigrant, opens a small confectionery/deli in 1915 in Baltimore. With his soon-to-be bride Ida, a fellow immigrant, they work long hours and many years to build what becomes a famed delicatessen with a national reputation. Over the years, Harry and Ida also raise three sons—Edward, Seymour and Leonard—and inculcate in them the values of hard work, ethical conduct, religious principles, and concern for others. The result, over four generations, is today an astonishingly close, vibrant family whose members have founded major businesses, while always giving back to the community. As Governor Martin O’Malley says in his Foreword, “Few families have contributed so much to our City and State... The Attman story is one worth telling and sharing.” “A one-of-a-kind American story, well told and replete with the joys and sorrows of the immigrant experience—and flavored every step of the way. You don’t know Jewish Baltimore until you have read this book.” —Gilbert Sandler, author, local historian, and radio personality “Attman’s Delicatessen—the best corned beef south of New York.” —Tom Clancy, best-selling author and long-time patron of the deli