New York City’s Carnegie Deli will close at end of 2016
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The iconic Carnegie Deli in New York City is shutting its doors after nearly 80 years in business.
The Carnegie Deli, a New York institution since 1937, will soon serve its last “Woody Allen.”
The iconic home to gigantic Jewish-style sandwiches — like the 4-inch-high, pastrami-and-corned beef “Woody” on rye — will close its doors forever on Dec. 31, The Post has learned.
Restaurant owner Marian Harper Levine broke the news to 60 heartbroken employees on Friday morning.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Levine, 66, said, “At this stage of my life, 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.”
“I’m very sad to close the Carnegie Deli but I’ve reached the time of my life when I need to take a step back,” Levine said. Her family has owned the Carnegie since 1976.
The news will sadden New Yorkers who loved Carnegie Deli’s belt-popping sandwiches and kitschy confines, which boast hundreds of photos of mostly forgotten celebrities — and nostalgia to spare.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In a New York Post essay in December 2015, when the place was temporarily closed following a gas leak, Ted Merwin, author of “Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli,” wrote:
“Since 1937, the Carnegie’s skyscraper sandwiches and obnoxious waiters encapsulated the very ethos of excess that characterized New York as a whole.”
Merwin said it would be “tragic” for the city if the Carnegie didn’t reopen.
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