How to Feed Friends and Influence People
The Carnegie Deli has become a successful commercial
enterprise because it has operated on sound business
principles. Today, it is an internationally recognized
brand known to both New Yorkers and tourists as a
must stop.
In 1937, the deli embarked on a 67-year journey to progress
from a modest 92-seat restaurant to a national award-winning
delicatessen. It has been featured prominently and often on the
Food Channel cable network, television shows, and also in domestic and foreign magazines and newspapers. When the media
want to wax nostalgic about delicatessen food, the Carnegie
Deli always comes to mind.
Leo Steiner and Milton Parker, the partners responsible
for the restaurant’s success, had no million-dollar revenue
stars in their eyes. Their initial goal was simple: to make a decent profit at the end of the day. Parker has said, “If we were
left with more cash at the end of the week, we considered the
deli a success.”
Of the more than 300 New York-area delis in 1976, when
the Carnegie changed hands, only 30 exist today because dining tastes changed over time. In addition, a delicatessen, if run
correctly (like the Carnegie), is a 221⁄2-hours-a-day, hands-on
operation. Few new restaurateurs have elected to make delicatessen work their life’s profession.
CARNEGIE DELI: BUSINESS 101
What business guidelines has the deli employed over these
many years? What are the keys to its commercial success? Why
did it survive when so many other famous New York City delicatessens (e.g., The Madison Avenue Deli, Wolfs on West 57th
Street) faded into obscurity?
At the outset, the Carnegie Deli—a multimillion-dollar operation—has no thick book that contains a Mission Statement
or an elaborate, numbers-driven business plan. Current management never speaks of “company culture” or “core competency.” The deli sticks to basic business principles.
It follows 10 straightforward business practices:
1. Keep it simple. The Carnegie Deli’s product is delicatessen
food and only deli food.
2. Do one thing better than anyone else. Customers have a choice
where to eat deli in New York City, so the Carnegie consistently succeeds in serving a higher-quality, better-tasting,
and larger-portion product than any other competitor.
3. Create a family atmosphere among the staff. Time and time again,
the staff, many who have been working at the Carnegie for
15 years or more, use the phrase, “We’re family here.”
4. Promote from within. The deli grooms people to fill the slots
when workers retire. The upper, supervisory levels of the staff
(cooks, countermen, servers) started out at the lowest rank. 5. Have an open ear to staff and customer comments. At the deli or at
the commissary, senior management are constantly asking
customers and wholesale clients about quality. In addition,
the staff know they can discuss matters with management
in an open and free exchange.
6. Make it yourself. The Carnegie commissary cures, pickles,
and smokes its own fresh meats and bakes its pastries daily.
The deli also purchases only high-quality fresh bread, pickles, and so on, from leading suppliers.
7. Own the premises. The Carnegie owns the building on
Seventh Avenue and the 22,000-square-foot commissary in
New Jersey.
8. Management is always responsible. There’s no finger-pointing. If
something goes wrong or is mishandled, management is at
fault.
9. Do not be greedy. The Carnegie Deli could license its name
for similar products that could be made by other food companies. But the Carnegie insists that only products made in
its own commissary will be sold at retail or wholesale.
10. Have fun working. The staff at the deli and at the commissary
enjoys coming to work. They’re happy to be part of the
Carnegie Deli family.
There are many business decisions—most profitable, others less so—that contributed to the Carnegie’s success. Attempts to open branches in other cities have failed. The
original commissary in downtown Manhattan (a leased
arrangement that supplied only the deli) eventually became a
Carnegie Deli-owned, 22,000-square-foot plant that now accommodates all of the wholesale and retail demands.
The growth of the Carnegie Deli is a Cinderella business
story, starting out as a plain, nondescript, hole-in-thewall restaurant and emerging as the delicatessen of choice for presidents, celebrities, one sultan, and, most importantly and
profitably, the world’s delicatessen eating public.
The first Carnegie Deli opened in 1937 in a small interior
space. It started without pretensions, just another deli in the
West Fifties, an area made more famous by the 1931 construction of Rockefeller Center (not completed until 1940). The
sprawling office, retail, and cultural complex changed forever
the dowdy tenement look of the area.
There are many famous restaurants in the United States,
but there is only one Carnegie Deli. narrates its marvelous tale.
1937:
THE OPENING
The location: 854 Seventh Avenue near West 55th Street in
Manhattan. In 1937, the building code for the area changed to
permit retail establishments at street level in former residential
buildings. Soon after, Seventh Avenue south of West 57th Street
started to attract more retail stores.
The event: Izzie and Ida Orgel opened a 40-seat restaurant,
which they named the Carnegie Deli because of its proximity
to Carnegie Hall. In those days, it was typical for Manhattan
retail establishments to name themselves after nearby landmarks. Today, Milton Parker jokes, saying, “They named a
world famous concert hall after us.”
The restaurant featured a small kitchen and a dining room
counter for making sandwiches. The cuisine consisted of Eastern
European/Jewish deli food: cured meat sandwiches, hot brisket
or flanken, chicken in the pot, chopped liver, matzoh ball soup,
and apple strudel or rice pudding for dessert. Sandwiches were
50 cents.
Seven blocks downtown on West 48th Street and one west
on Broadway, another 40-seat restaurant opened in 1937. It was
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