I'm going to lift the Lyd on Lydianne's right now…read more
(It used to be called Lydianne's Pretzels, at least on Yelp, so that's why the jokes are all Lydianne jokes and not Sadie Anne jokes).
These are perhaps the best pretzels you will ever eat. They are fresh, hot, gooey, and huge, and yes I'm talking about the pretzels. They also have perhaps the best Banana Milkshake I've ever had (and I've been told the rest of their shakes are equally stellar). They're dirt cheap and worth the drive to Maryland just for those two items alone.
What to get: Hot Pretzel, Banana Shake
What not to get: Hot Prilosec, Banal Sheikh
Lydianne's is the highlight of the Amish Market in the MD countryside, about half an hour East of Washington, D.C. which is the capital city of some small country, I forget which one.
The Amish know how to make this sort of food. In Philly, the culinary highlight of the whole region may be Miller's Twist... fresh lemonade, hot pretzels, and amazing shakes. In Ohio, the best shake and roast beef in the state is at Hartville Kitchen - an Amish paradise as Weird Al would say.
But the pretzels and shakes at Lydianne's not only rival those, they may beat them. Certainly nothing in the DC area comes anywhere close, and even though they have limited hours (I think it's just Friday, Saturday, Sunday, mornings), you must make the journey out here, and once you're in the market, make a bee-line for Lydianne's, get a pretzel, get a shake, your life will be changed forever. Don't say I didn't warn you.
This is coming from someone that never even liked pretzels before I met the Amish, and who loves shakes so much that I have probably tried 1,000 of them across America.
Now if I just put you to sleep, lift your Lyds and get over to Maryland and try this immediately. Thanks very much to Mo (who is from Buffalo, not from MO) for insisting I go here. Which I am about to do again. Be back in a Mo.