RIP

Carnegie Deli Owner Milton Parker Dies at 90

Save the Deli reports that Milton “Corned Beef and Pastrami Maven” Parker, the beloved owner of the Carnegie Deli, died last Friday at the age of 90. Parker acquired the deli along with his wisecracking partner, Leo Steiner, in 1976 — the showmen quickly drew comedian regulars, tourist crowds, and the ire of the Stage Delicatessen by supersizing their sandwiches and curing their own pastrami, corned beef, and tongue. After Steiner died in 1988, Parker opened and closed an ill-fated Beverly Hills Carnegie Deli, moved the Lower East Side food-processing plant to New Jersey (after which sales doubled to somewhere “less than $10 million”), and eventually left the deli to his son-in-law in 2002. Though Parker hasn’t been a presence at the Carnegie for some time, he will certainly be missed.

Milton Parker: The Passing of a Deli Man [Save the Deli]

Carnegie Deli Owner Milton Parker Dies at 90