Nostalgia in a Box
Nostalgia in a Box
Carnegie Deli sends its iconic corned beef, pastrami, and black and white cookies to your door
Back in 1937, Leo Steiner and Milton Parker opened a Jewish deli on 55th Street and Seventh Avenue. They named it Carnegie Deli after the nearby music hall most famous for its Jack Benny joke “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice”.
Of course, the little deli became as famous as the concert hall. It appeared in movies like Broadway Danny Rose, was featured in Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah Song, and was frequented by the likes of Robin Williams, Steven Speilberg, and Henny Youngman.
The Carnegie Deli became as known for its walls of celebrity pictures (and celebrity sightings in the flesh) as its food. The mammoth, towering sandwiches filled with pastrami and corned beef cured in-house presented diners with a serious question: Do you share the sandwich with a loved one or save half for a midnight nosh?
The Carnegie Deli was one of those restaurants that attracted both locals who worked in the area and tourists who frequently lunched there before a Broadway show to create the ultimate “New York afternoon”.
Although its popularity never waned, the restaurant closed in 2016 after 80 years in business, with owner Marian Harper (daughter of co-founder Milton Parker) breaking the hearts of many New Yorkers as the lights dimmed for the last time.
The flagship location has been gone nearly a decade, but the Carnegie name lives on. It’s popped up several times around town as a promotion for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and was seen at the U.S. Open. There are now Carnegie Deli stands at Madison Square Garden, Saratoga Race Track and Belmont Stakes.
The best, however, is that you can get your nostalgia delivered to your door. Carnegie Deli offers its pastrami, corned beef, and more in sandwich kits online. I received a pastrami sandwich kit, complete with rye bread, a jar of pickles, and even some black and white cookies.
The kit arrives on dry ice, which kept it fresh and frozen even when sent to Miami in the midst of a heatwave (other frozen items have not fared as well).
Assembling your deli meal is pretty simple. To heat the pastrami, you place the meat package into a pot of hot water for about 20 minutes. I lightly toasted the rye bread (a sin, I know) rather than steaming the loaf to reanimate it after its cryo-sleep. Slather on some mustard, pile that meat high, and serve with a pickle.
The sandwich instantly brought back the afternoons when my grandparents would take me to Carnegie Deli, where I would spend lunchtime making pickle sandwiches by rolling corned beef over a sour pickle while my grandparents tried to spot some actor or comedian slurping chicken soup. The black and white cookies were the perfect finishing touch to a meal indulgent in both calories and memories.
If you know someone in need of a good sandwich — or a touch of nostalgia, a virtual trip to Carnegie Deli might do the trick.