Costco Connection - December 2006

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King

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Carnegie Deli
serves up big
food, history
By Richard Deitsch

ON A RECENT October afternoon one could find a quartet from Spain, a trio of Australians and a couple from Italy eating within a few feet of each other at the Carnegie Deli. The popularity of the restaurant, which sits on a crowded stretch of Seventh Avenue near West 55th Street in Manhattan, has grown so great that longtime owner Milton Parker likes to joke how “they named a world-famous concert hall after us.”

Eating at the Carnegie is an experience everyone should enjoy at least once—preferably without your cardiologist. It was the longtime favorite hangout of one-liner king Henny Youngman, and immortalized by Woody Allen in the film Broadway Danny Rose. The makeup of the customers today is mostly tourists, who line up in front of the neon storefront to sample pastrami and corned beef piled so high they could start for the Knicks.

While you can order a sandwich to go at the front counter, the real fun is sitting elbow to elbow with other patrons in the dining room. According to the Carnegie Deli’s acting president, Sandy Levine, who bills himself as “the MBD”—for “Married the Boss’s Daughter,” because he married Parker’s daughter, Marian—the Carnegie’s legendary overstuffed sandwiches date back decades to when the countermen held a contest to see who could make the biggest sandwich without it falling over.

Calling the sandwiches overstuffed may be underselling them. The deli’s sandwiches are about 5 inches high, and people have been known to gasp upon delivery of their food. The Carnegie’s signature sandwich is the Woody Allen (“Lotsa corned beef plus lotsa pastrami”), and if cheesecake is your dessert of choice, a piece the size of Asia goes for $7.95.

The restaurant dates back to 1937, when Izzie and Ida Orgel opened a 42-seat restaurant and named the place the Carnegie Deli because of its proximity to Carnegie Hall. They sold the deli five years later to Max Hudes, who ran it until 1976. That’s when Parker and the late Leo Steiner took over. What ultimately turned the restaurant into a Big

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Apple icon was a March 2, 1979, review in The New York Times by noted restaurant critic Mimi Sheraton, who declared the Carnegie “tops” in the city for pastrami and corned beef.

The brand has since gone national, and a second location was opened in the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas in February 2005. “We make our own product,” says Levine when asked about the Carnegie Deli’s staying power in a city that devours restaurants weekly. “Our corned beef and pastrami we have down to an exact science.”

Part of the dining experience includes gawking at walls filled with hundreds of autographed photographs of the famous and infamous who have eaten at the restaurant. One sample row offers the following absurd slice of Americana: Vicki Lawrence, Orrin Hatch, Don King, Rikki Lake and Pat Sajack. As he walked around his store, schmoozing with diners, Levine, whose personality is as oversize as his sandwiches, pointed to an autographed photo of a recent patron. “TO THE CARNEGIE DELI. MEAL OR NO MEAL.” It was signed by Howie Mandel.

But even the famous occasionally have to wait for a meal. In June 2000 then-President Clinton wanted to eat at the restaurant, but when the Secret Service arrived to sweep the restaurant, they were met by a line of people in front of the store.

“The Secret Service said, ‘You have to move away from the store. The president of the United States is coming,’” Levine recalls. “But the people in line refused. ‘We ain’t moving,’ they said. ‘We came a long way to eat at this place, and we don’t want to lose our place on line.’ The Secret Service ended up canceling the reservation.”

All was not lost. Clinton ate at the restaurant the following year. Levine says he ate a Woody Allen. “It was delicious,” declared the former president, before adding,