Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Former Dishwasher Offers $10M for Carnegie Deli, Owner Says No Way

Carnegie Deli will serve its last mile-high pastrami sandwich today at midnight, despite a late offer from a former dishwasher to buy the restaurant for $10 million.

Upper West Side restaurateur Sammy Musovic washed dishes for a year at the deli in the 1970s. He said he offered the money to save a landmark “that is as much a part of New York City as the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building.”

But the proposal fell on deaf ears.

“Carnegie Deli is not for sale and the family is certainly not considering any publicity-inspired offers,” deli spokeswoman Cristyne Nicholas told The New York Daily News.

She said president Marian Harper-Levine wants to keep the deli’s name and associated meat processing plant and bakery running.

Carnegie Deli opened its doors 79 years ago and was once one of several Jewish-owned delis in the theater district. In recent years, most of the other delis has closed, and Carnegie became a tourist favorite for its $20 iconic sandwiches, bursting with stacks of pastrami and corned beef.

After the New York flagship closes, there will still be outposts in Las Vegas and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.