NEW YORK, Dec. 29 (UPI) — The Carnegie Deli, New York City’s home of famous oversize pastrami sandwiches, is seeing its last days with long lines of customers.
The iconic restaurant, near Carnegie Hall at 55th Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, opened for business in 1937. It’s closing at midnight Friday. Once one of hundreds of shops offering deli-style lunches and dinners to New Yorkers, the Carnegie Deli was perhaps one of the most recognizable. The owner of another deli giant, Katz’s Delicatessen, laments the demise of his competition.
“For generations, Carnegie and Katz’s have been a united front. We have cured, smoked and steamed meats, fried up latkes, boiled matzo balls and whipped up frothy chocolate egg creams just as our grandmothers did. Most important, we’ve served it all up with just the right amount of guff to our loyal customers,” Katz’s owner Jake Dell wrote in The New York Times on Wednesday. “We wistfully watch yet another great legend fall by the wayside.”
Owners of the Carnegie Deli said the long hours of running a restaurant have taken their toll. Two other locations of the famed restaurant, in Bethlehem, Pa., and in Las Vegas, will continue operations.
