The Carnegie Deli, so named for its proximity to the renowned music hall, will close the doors of its original location on the corner of Seventh Avenue and 55th Street on Saturday. Celebs like Henry Kissinger, Meryl Streep, Bob Fosse, Warren Beatty and John Glenn plus many others stopped in over the years for a bite.
Henny Youngman, the king of one-liners, was a regular and eulogized co-owner Leo Steiner on his death in 1987 as “the deli lama.” In fact, Steiner’s service was more of a yuckfest than a time for tears.
Woody Allen immortalized his love affair with the deli when he used it as the setting for much of the 1984 comed
y “Broadway Danny Rose” — in which he played a fast-talking but hapless talent agent who pretended to date a character named Tina, played by Mia Farrow.
‘All good things come to an end,” current owner Marian Harper, Parker’s daughter, said recently over a bittersweet lunch of The Woody and the equally artery-clogging $29 Reuben — about two pounds of meat, sauerkraut and melted Swiss cheese.
“I’ve been here since the day my father took over,” she told The Post. “I started as a cashier.”
Scores of old-timers and regulars have flocked to the deli since the closure was announced earlier this year — including Allen, who had a final dinner there with his wife, Soon-Yi, friends and Harper’s daughter, Sarri, in November.
Despite his short stature and frail frame, the man can apparently pack it away. The order for the table included, among other items, latkes, cole slaw, gefilte fish, chopped liver, the massive Reuben, knockwurst, a beef-tongue sandwich, pickles — and cheesecake.