In the understandable schadenfreude over the slow-motion meltdown that appears to be Chris Christie's POTUS aspirations, you probably totally overlooked a bit of a potential recent scandal across the Hudson River, which is understandable, because the stakes are much less important, unless you're really into your mile-high pastrami sandwiches. It involves the recent closing of Carnegie Deli, on April 24, as reported by Patrick McGeehan (not to be confused with No. 6) in the NYT here, where allegedly:
"....Con Edison says the restaurant, famous for its massive piles of sliced meat on rye...[misappropriated] natural gas for six years until it was abruptly shut down on Friday."
This is in the wake of the March 26 gas explosion in the East Village of NYC that caused 2 deaths. In this particular instance, no deaths, fortunately, although it's easy to see Carnegie Deli as the big loser here. More, such as it is, below the flip....
Granted, in a story like this, the accused is innocent until proven guilty. But the coverage here certainly doesn't do Carnegie Deli any favors, on the sheer principle of cheating the utility out of payment for gas. They might have kept on getting away with it, except for a bad break on their side and a lucky break for Con Ed, per McGeehan:
"Con Edison workers stumbled onto the siphoning setup at the Carnegie Deli last week, after they responded to a report of a gas odor outside the restaurant."
After digging further, the Con Ed investigators determined that Carnegie Deli
'At the Carnegie Deli, however, Con Edison said about half of the gas that the utility was delivering to the building was being diverted before the meter and, therefore, not showing up on the deli’s bills.
After determining that the diversion had lasted six years, Con Edison demanded that the deli pay $40,050, the estimated cost to deliver all that unmeasured gas, said Bob McGee, a spokesman for the utility. He said the deli’s owner “cut us a check on the spot.”'
I suppose it's a measure of how successful and popular Carnegie Deli has been that the owner could cut Con Ed such a big check "on the spot". But it may also sound like more than a bit of Captain Louis Renault from the 1942 film
Casablanca to read this bit, according to a spokesman for Carnegie Deli, Chris Giglio:
"The current management is outraged over this situation and will do everything possible to find out exactly what happened. The Carnegie Deli will reopen as soon as possible, and we thank our employees and patrons for their patience and consideration.”
Of course, this begs the question of "what did the Carnegie Deli owners know and when did they know it?". Time will obviously tell. It turns out that Marian Levine, the owner, has had other personal issues to deal with of late, as reported by Michael Kaminer of the
Forward here:
"The closing is the latest woe for owner Marian Levine, who was forced to pay $11,000 a month to ex-husband Sanford Levine in a nasty divorce proceeding last year. He had allegedly been having an affair with a waitress."
Regarding damage to the Deli's reputation, if nothing else, there's at least one quote from
this article in the
New York Daily News, from Samantha Van Die, a past customer:
"That's terrible. That's exactly what happened on Second Ave. They have a reputation but they don’t want to pay for gas. They’re cheap. We’re going to Katz’s."
Granted,
Katz's is on the Lower East Side, rather than midtown, if anyone in the vicinity of Carnegies Deli and/or Hall want to get a sandwich. But there is another joint just to the right of Carnegie Deli that you can see in the photo on the top of the
NYT article, which might be an unintended beneficiary of this situation, the Premier Deli Cafe, whose owner:
'Nick Athanasatos....On Monday, he posted a sign on his window that read, “Special today! Pastrami & corn beef, $14.95.”
On Day 3 of life without the Carnegie Deli, he felt it was wise to advertise that he, too, offered the meats that drew so many people to the block. “Of course we’ve had more people today,” Mr. Athanasatos said. “Carnegie’s closed. But we have the best pastrami, aside from Carnegie.” He ran to the back, and held two large racks of the cured meat aloft like trophies for everyone to see. “Who needs Carnegie when you have this?” he asked.'
I've only been there once in my life, even during the short time that I actually lived in NYC. Of course, I was on my way to a concert across the street (natch), and had enough leftover to nosh during intermission. I have no idea if this will lead to criminal proceedings, or if it's possible to just settle up outside of court. And granted, it's not as though NYC lacks for delis and restaurants, far from it. But given the notability in some aspects of popular culture of Carnegie Deli, if nothing else, it's worth learning one lesson: don't try to gyp the utility. It's not worth it.
With that, time for the standard SNLC protocol, namely your loser stories for the week......