Carnegie Deli

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This venue is closed.

One of the most cherished deli traditions has always been to show great contempt for the customer. Now our pastrami palaces have become disorientingly friendly. (Perhaps it’s a misguided response to the delicatessen having been placed on the endangered species list.) One exception: the Carnegie. The best way to describe the man who shoved plates of food at us the other night and made sure we understood that cash tips were preferred is a cross between an unfunny and unintelligible Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Attila the Hun. As for what to eat, the matzo-ball soup is terrific. The towering Woody Allen, an outsize corned-beef-and-pastrami combo, is a little bland but satisfying, exemplifying the Carnegie’s quantity-over-quality M.O. (This is the sandwich the late Bob Simon famously requested after being held hostage in Iraq for 40 days.) Triumph the Insult Waiter will recommend the cheesecake for dessert, further proof that his jokes are bad. But the food here is mostly beside the point. The Carnegie is important because it’s the last of the great tourist-hazing Broadway showbiz delis. Where else, after all, can you go these days to be treated like dirt by a waiter in a bow tie and tuxedo vest? — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

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