The Deli is Closed

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. How to you get to the Carnegie Deli? Quickly—the New York institution is closing down at the end of the year.

The Carnegie Deli opened at 845 7th Avenue in Manhattan in 1937. Located just down the street from the famed Carnegie Hall, the deli became a landmark, not just for New Yorkers, but for the world of food. Its gigantic corned beef, pastrami, and brisket sandwiches helped bring delicatessen-style food into the mainstream, expanding its popularity beyond the Eastern European and Jewish immigrant communities who brought such fare to the U.S. in the late 19th century. (In fact, beef was so much more plentiful in the U.S. than it had been in Europe that a few kind of deli meat was invented by New York delis in the 1880s: pastrami, which is spiced, smoked, and slow-cooked brisket sliced thin.  Pastrami is the main ingredient on the Carnegie Deli’s signature item: the four-inch tall pastrami sandwich served on rye. (It also offers a just as tall corned beef and brisket sandwich, nicknamed “The Woody Allen.”)

But better go get one while you can, because Marian Harper Levine, whose family bought the Carnegie Deli in 1976, announced last week that the restaurant will shut down at the end of the year. Levine told her 60 employees last week that “the early mornings to late nights have taken a toll, along with my sleepless nights and grueling hours that come with operating a restaurant business.”

A lot of that stress came from rapidly rising beef prices. Since 2013, wholesale beef prices have risen a staggering 47 percent. Even at $20 to $30 for their sandwiches—their most popular menu items—the Carnegie Deli’s profit margins were as thin as the meat on those sandwiches. (Not helping the Carnegie’s prospects: Just last year it was closed down for 10 months by its natural gas provider for an unpaid bill of $40,000.)

While the flagship deli itself will disappear, the Carnegie name will not. A New Jersey wholesale meat processing facility and bakery will produce products bearing the “Carnegie Deli” name. Remaining open will be franchised locations at casinos in Las Vegas and Pennsylvania.

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