Carnegie Delicatessen

Carnegie Delicatessen, Email:  JeffreyJ@carnegiedeli.com.  854 Seventh Ave. at 55th Street, New York City, 10019.  Voice:  800-334-5606.  To order a Cheesecake by phone Direct From the Plant call 877-898-3354.

Standing in a bone chilling icy wind rushing down 7th Ave. for nearly an hour was not a good introduction.  Being stuck outside the window for what seemed like half an hour with the video monitor displaying the never ending over the top video about the restaurant and its owners didn't help.  Were we in a tourist trap?  No one near us online, at our table, or nearby tables were New Yorkers.  We were all tourists sucked in by the hype.  While standing online, a women, a real New Yorker, going into a building entrance we were blocking with our line told us that the pastrami across the street at the Stage Delicatessen was much better and that we wouldn't have to stand online.  No one budged.  We were waiting for the Carnegie Deli experience and we would freeze to death for it if we had to.

Eventually being herded into the deli by a burly bouncer was not the gentle prelude I expect to a good meal.  Told to stand in one place and then another so that we wouldn't be in the way of the food servers was humiliating.  At least we were inside and could see what was being served.  It was warm in the deli, actually hot feeling, after being cold for so long.  Just as we were getting warm and feeling comfortable we were hustled off to another room that was frigid and positioned at a long table for 6.  We had two Asian women on one side and a father and son on the other.  The table was so cramped that it reminded me of trying to eat in the economy seats of airlines.  During the whole meal I had to keep my arms glued to my sides and remain immobile.  Welcome to the Carnegie Delicatessen. 

Our server was friendlier than we expected.  She took our orders with skill.  We ordered a pastrami sandwich to share.  She replied in an automatic tone, "Three dollars to share."  There is also a minimum charge per person.  We ordered drinks and an order of fries with trepidation.  We wondered how much it would cost to share an order of fries.  Although our server was efficient at taking orders she was incompetent as a server.  We never received our fries and it took some cajoling to get an extra plate for a "Three dollars to share" sandwich.  Other customers around us also had problems with their orders.

While we waited for our meal we tasted the free pickles from the little bowel on the table.  The half pickled pickles were unpleasantly similar to canned hamburger dills. 

Well, we thought, at least we will be treated to a great deli pastrami sandwich.  Our hopes were dashed when the pile of meat arrived.  It was thickly cut, fatty, and coarse.  The rye bread accompanying the sandwich was marginally adequate.  There was only one kind of mustard on the table and it was mediocre.  It was served in a metal pot with a lid that looked like a restaurant teapot. 

Diners at a nearby table were having a problem with their meal.  Something was seriously wrong with their food.  I couldn't bend my head or move my body so I couldn't get a good look at what the problem was.  A head waiter was called to the table, but the diners were not satisfied with the results.  One of the managers came to the table and made a big deal of quickly solving the problem.  He chided the servers for not handling the problem better.  The manager then began to gather the wait staff into a group.  A first I thought he was going to instruct the staff on how to better handle problems or prevent them from happening in the first place.  Instead, he had a more theatrical solution in mind to divert attention away from the food problem.

Midway through an unsuccessful attempt to bite through the tough pastrami the assembled wait staff began to sing God Bless America.  Us customers were supposed to join in with the manager and staff.  Although I am as patriotic as the next American I recoiled at the idea of breaking into patriotic song in the middle of a not very good meal.  I felt put on the spot and made uncomfortably defensive.  If I did sing, it meant that I supported the artificial theatrics of the restaurant.  If I didn't sing I my inaction could be construed as unpatriotic.  The two Asian, not American Asian, women sitting next to us on one side were also put in an uncomfortable position of either being for America and singing a song with lyrics that did not apply to them or being against America by being silent.  They were stressed by the situation and I couldn't think fast enough to find a way of putting them at ease.  Once the singing was over we returned to eating our now soggy cold fatty sandwich.  I wondered how patriotic it was to use the singing of God Bless America to divert the attention of diners away from a food-related problem.

Our server was competent enough to figure out that she had not delivered our fries when she came to distribute checks.  We was not competent enough to show regret for our order not being filled.  I was thankful she had forgotten the fries.  I doubt if they would have been very good and they would not have stayed warm in the frigid room while we sang.

The Carnegie Delicatessen is a tourist attraction and not a particularly worthwhile one.  I wouldn't recommend going there for the food.  Then again I wouldn't recommend going there at all.  The next time I visit Manhattan I'm going to take my money to the Stage Delicatessen.