Carnegie Deli

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Carnegie Deli

The Carnegie Deli in midtown Manhattan
Restaurant information
Established 1937
Current owner(s) The Parker family
Food type Delicatessen
Dress code Casual
Street address 854 7th Avenue (between 54th and 55th Streets) – Manhattan
City New York City
State New York
Country United States
Coordinates 40°45′51″N 73°58′53″W / 40.7641°N 73.9813°W / 40.7641; -73.9813Coordinates: 40°45′51″N 73°58′53″W / 40.7641°N 73.9813°W / 40.7641; -73.9813
Website www.carnegiedeli.com

The Carnegie Deli is a restaurant located at 854 7th Avenue (between 54th and 55th Streets) in Midtown Manhattan, and was opened in 1937 adjacent to Carnegie Hall. Now in the third generation of owners, the Parker family's delicatessen is among the most visited restaurants of its type in the city, according to the New York Convention & Visitors Bureau. USA Today has called the restaurant the "most famous" deli in the United States.[1] It is operated today by second generation owner, Marian Harper Levine.

The restaurant offers pastrami, corned beef and other sandwiches containing at least one pound (0.45 kg) of meat, as well as traditional Jewish fare such as matzoh ball soup, potato pancakes, chopped chicken livers, and smoked salmon. The restaurant also offers other, non-Jewish (or at least non-kosher) food such as ham, sausage, and bacon. Available for order are cheesecake portions of over a pound per serving. The restaurant's motto is: "If you can finish your meal, we’ve done something wrong". In addition to the large servings, the restaurant is also known for its surly waiters, who allegedly try to impart some of the stereotypical gruffness of New York to visitors.

History

The Carnegie Deli was the favorite hangout of comedian Henny Youngman, and Adam Sandler included a reference to the deli in "The Chanukah Song" in 1996. The walls of the deli are nearly completely covered with autographed pictures of celebrities who have eaten there. Menu items have been named after famous patrons, including a corned beef and pastrami sandwich named after Woody Allen after the deli served as a filming location for Broadway Danny Rose. A number of items on the menu feature Broadway themes and Yiddish vocabulary, including dishes like "nosh, nosh, Nanette" (after the musical, "No, No, Nanette") and "the egg and oy" ("The Egg and I"). There are also some humorous items in the menu, like the famous liver sandwich named "50 Ways to Love Your Liver" after the Paul Simon song "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover." It is a place many reporters in the city frequent, including staffers from Black Rock (aka the CBS Building) like Bob Simon.

Owner Milton Parker, who died in 2009, had written a book (with Allyn Freeman) called How to Feed Friends and Influence People: The Carnegie Deli, providing the history of the family's ownership. The book is sold at the cashier's station.

In March 2012 the deli introduced a non-kosher sandwich, dedicated to newly arrived New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow. The sandwich, named the "Jetbow", is priced at $22.22, weighs in at 3.5 lbs and consists of corned beef, pastrami, roast beef, American cheese, lettuce and tomato on white bread. [2]

Branch locations

Inside the Carnegie Deli

The deli opened several branch locations in the 1980s, including two New Jersey branches in Secaucus and Atlantic City and one in the Washington DC suburbs in Tysons Corner.[3] However, most of these branches have since closed and are no longer in operation. One, in Beverly Hills, California, was financed by oil billionaire Marvin Davis and designed by restaurant designer Pat Kuleto at a cost of $4 million to be the "best deli in the world," in response to Davis' complaint that the delis in California were not as good as those in New York.[4]

Currently, the deli operates a second location on the Las Vegas Strip, which opened at The Mirage in 2005. A third location opened in 2006 at the Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey and serves as the "healthy choice" restaurant at the park; however, the menu is smaller and only has the restaurant’s most popular items. A fourth deli, limited to corned beef and pastrami sandwiches, is at Foxwoods Resort Casino. The fifth location is at the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and opened November 22, 2009.

In addition to the retail operation, the restaurant sells cheesecakes and merchandise such as t-shirts and baseball caps online.

Reviews

In 2013, Zagat gave it a food rating of 23, and rated it the 8th-best deli in New York City.[5]

  • A Reuben sandwich from the Carnegie Deli

  • A corned beef sandwich from the Carnegie Deli

  • A slice of Strawberry Cheesecake from the Carnegie Deli

Notes

  1. ↑ usatoday.com
  2. ↑ "NYC deli creates Tim Tebow-inspired ‘Jetbow’ sandwich". Fox News. Retrieved 2012-10-13. 
  3. ↑ Johnston, David. "Washington Talk: Suburbia; Pastrami, With Glitz and Politesse", The New York Times, 1987-10-09. Retrieved on 2009-04-20.
  4. ↑ David Margolick (November 16, 1994). "Pastrami on Rye, Hold the West Coast". New York Times. 
  5. ↑

References

  • Parker, Milton & Freeman, Allyn (2004). How to Feed Friends and Influence People: The Carnegie Deli. ISBN 0-471-68056-7. 

External links

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