The story goes that actor Zero Mostel, sitting in the Carnegie, upon hearing someone order a pastrami on white bread with lettuce and a glass of milk, got up and shouted,
“Get out of this restaurant!”
True or not, this is how much people in New York love and revere the Carnegie, which is closing its doors at the end of the year.
According to writer Mimi Sheraton, years ago the legendary New York Times editor, Abe Rosenthal, identified himself to the Carnegie’s staff and he was immediately shown to a table where a paper napkin was replaced a cloth one. The next morning, Abe told Sheraton saying of all the honors accorded him in life, none meant as much as being given a cloth napkin at the Carnegie.
Even if you never had the good fortune to order the matzo ball soup, the peppery pastrami, a corned beef on caraway rye bread, sour pickles or cheese blintzes (I’m suddenly hungry) surely you’ve seen the culural significance of this place in Woody Allen‘s Broadway Danny Rose. (I told you not to call me Shirley…)
Woody Allen in the Carnegie Deli in "Broadway Danny Rose”
The late comic Henny Youngman said one day while sitting in the middle of diners and said,
“The average age of the customer here is deceased.”
Opened in 1937, two partners really made the Carnegie what it was; Milty Parker at the register and Leo Steiner, who set the mood with his New York schmoozing. Marian Harper, Milty’s daughter is closing the restaurant because 68, she can’t take the early morning to late night hours anymore.
Another one bites the dust.
(via The Daily Beast)