I walked into Carnegie Deli on Christmas Morning, hoping to get an audience with Sandy. I’d called eight times before this and this was my last ditch effort at roping him in. After all, when setting this project up, there were going to be some days where people wouldn’t answer the phone or make decisions. For everyone but the Jewish delis, one of those days was Christmas. I figured that this would probably be one of the biggest days of the year for them, but it was fairly quiet when I got in at 10AM and asked for Sandy. I believed I’d spoken to the hostess all eight of the times I had called in, but she didn’t remember me. Either that’s a really bad sign or there are a lot of calls that come into Carnegie. She was able to grab Sandy for a second, I let him know what I was doing, and he was on board immediately. That’s another perk about this business – meeting such stars of the NYC food community.
One of the stars along my trip and probably my most anticipated dining companion had to be David Fishman. He’s the only guy I knew who had a story done on him by Alan Richman (link). The hook here is that he is thirteen years old; he is aware of this novelty and plays it off easily. He is more polished and professional than many I met on 93 Plates and it was a pleasure to dine with him.
David knows his stuff. He’s spent his entire life in the city, so he has been around some of the greatest food America has to offer and is able to understand quality. He’d let me know that he ordered roast beef at Artie’s on the UWS, and he wanted to compare here. I knew that he’s had pastrami sandwiches before, so it was hard for me to hold off on recommending he select a more traditional Carnegie sandwich, especially when I was having the bruiser of them all, the “Woody Allen.” Of course, we had to have some starters and dessert.
 Guss’ Pickles
I just had these for breakfast. Seriously (link). That wasn’t gonna stop me from killing another half-sour. |
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 French Fries
You absolutely must expand this picture in a new window. Look at that golden-brownness on these babies. And the krinkle-cut? I feel that the krinkle-cut is the least appreciated version of the french fried potato. Even the processed ones are pretty solid, but these, these are full-on whole potato krinkle-cuts. I don’t think I’ve ever seen these before. How do they even make these? I asked for mayo with mine (as I do with all my fries) and ate too much of them. |
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 Cole Slaw
Nice and vinegary, not too much mayo, ultra crispy lettuce. This was my second cole slaw of 93 Plates and I don’t know why I didn’t have more. I used to be a cole slaw snob, only liking my mom’s slaw, but I think that was just because my mom said she didn’t like any cole slaw other than her own. I stretched my wings and now regularly order cole slaw out and enjoy many different kinds of slaws. |
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 The Woody Allen
The tagline is “Not all skyscrapers are made of glass and steel.” This thing is a fookin’ moonstah! I took a side angle shot so you get the idea of what’s going on here (pic). I just left NYC to clean up a few items in Baltimore and I almost schlepped my 75 pound suitcase up there to pick one of these bad boys up for the ride home. Look at that gorgeousness! It’s impossible to eat with your hands, splitting one would probably be sufficient, but then you wouldn’t have leftovers, which is what you will want to have when you leave here. If you’re thinking that you couldn’t finish even half of that sandwich, I have a recommendation for you (click here). Pastrami; 100% to frickin’ die for – Corned Beef: Awesome, but the next time I am here, I will just get a whole pastrami. |
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 The Roast Beef
I told him he should have gotten a pastrami sandwich! I had a few bites of his sandwich but didn’t really spend too much time on it. I knew what was good here. This sandwich was still good, and it’s got about two pounds of beef in there, but come on, when you come to Carnegie Deli, you get Pastrami. |
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 Celery Soda
The one thing that neither of us knew about before the man who sat down with us ordered it was the Celery Soda. The order seemed to have a swagger to it, so we knew we had to try it. The sandwiches were wrapped up and the cheesecake had been ordered, but we needed to try it – we ordered a can and shared it. David called it the anti-coke. It was sweet and salty – I can see how they go together, and I’ll be sure to order it the next time I get a pastrami sandwich. |
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 Cheesecake with Strawberries
DO NOT MISS the cheesecake. Save room. Definitely one of my top ten dessert items of 93 Plates. I love cheesecake, I don’t think I had any legit, NYC cheesecake anywhere else on the trip, and this was a fitting end to the journey (well, pretty much). Even the cheesecake is ginormous here. I guess everything is bigger at the Carnegie Deli. |
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Here’s our video:
Guest Writer: David Fishman
The IRL Arts Foundation and The Wandering Foodie thank Carnegie Deli for providing this meal.
Carnegie Deli
854 7th Ave
New York, NY 10019
(800) 334-5606
