Iconic New York City restaurant the Carnegie Deli, which first opened in 1937, will close at the end of the year.
Restaurant owner Marian Harper Levine told employees of the eatery’s closing Friday morning, reports said.
“Moving forward, Marian Harper hopes to keep her father’s legacy alive by focusing on licensing the iconic Carnegie Deli brand and selling their world-famous products for wholesale distribution,” spokeswoman Cristyne Nicholas told ABC7. “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, whose family has own the restaurant since 1976, told the New York Post. Closed for nine months in 2015 over an illegal gas hookup, itreopened last February with a ceremony attended by Mayor Bill de Blasio and humanpickles, according to ABC7.The owner will reportedly still license Carnegie Deli restaurants in other cities and at sports venues. The restaurant, know for its “‘gigantic Jewish-style sandwiches’ like the 4-inch-high, pastrami-and-corned beef ‘Woody’on rye, according to the Post is not closing due to rent issues, like many other iconic New York businesses that have disappeared in recent years, as Levine owns the building. But beyond the illegal gas hook up issue Levine faced a bitter divorce and was forced to pay over $2.6 million in back wages to employees, which she blamed on her husband, who she also said was embezzling from her, according to the Post.