There sure is a whole lot of pastrami in that sandwich.
"Pssst," confides Sandy Levine, sotto voce, “I don’t actually eat the stuff anymore.” Levine is a principal in New York’s famous Carnegie Deli, our best and most authentic New York deli. And he is talking about pastrami, as he wolfs down a combination plate of his restaurant’s delicious tuna fish and chicken salads.
Levine is an ebullient man with an infectious grin who married into this venerable institution when he was ostensibly a two-fisted pastrami nut. Carnegie Las Vegas, inside the Mirage, is the first venture outside New York City for the famed Seventh Avenue eatery, and what stands it apart from the competition is the fact that the deli gets its pastrami and corned beef from its own commissary in New Jersey.
Pastrami is a particular passion of mine, but I admit it’s no health food. I’ve always considered Langer’s in Los Angeles, where the meat is slow steamed to the consistency of chocolate pudding, to be the most addictive pastrami in America. But the Carnegie, which gives you a sandwich big enough to choke a thoroughbred horse, has its devotees.
I met Levine two years ago, when the Carnegie opened, and got a short course in pastrami from the maestro himself. “Most delis used what is called the deckle of the brisket, but we use the navel, a fattier, more marbled, smaller piece of meat from the last rib. That yields meat that is more tasty and tender than most.”
Levine also explained how the deli hand-injects brine into both pastrami and corned beef and uses its own smoke house for pastrami. (Ask a layman to explain the difference between pastrami and corned beef, and you will probably get a puzzled look. Pastrami has a peppercorn crust, but the main difference between the two meats is that pastrami is smoked, while corned beef is simply brined and cured.)
“You’ve also gotta have fat,” he says. “When we buy our own meat, we get extra fat from the suppliers. If you can get your mouth around it, somebody in the kitchen made a mistake. There is no way a person finishes a sandwich here.”
He’s right. My wife and I share a pastrami sandwich, and we take home part of her half. Before the sandwich comes to the table, we are plied with a dish containing two varieties of pickles, pale green garlic pickles and bright green half sours. Levine is passionate about pickles, as well. “Our own recipe,” he boasts.
Naturally, there are many excellent deli items here. Giant, dense potato knishes, made especially for the deli, are as filling as the sandwiches. Crisp, golden potato latkes (pancakes), fat cheese-stuffed blintzes and matzo brei, a Passover breakfast specialty made from eggs scrambled with matzos, are consistent treats here.
There’s smoked fish, too, such as the excellent sturgeon, which you can have in a soft scrambled-egg creation flanked by crunchy home fries. The fluffy matzo ball soup is wonderful, two feather-light orbs sitting in a bowl, into which the server pours an intense chicken broth—Jewish penicillin—from a metal tureen.
And all the classic deli appetizers are available: pickled herring, stuffed cabbage, chopped liver and gefilte fish (think matzo balls made out of minced fish). One of the dishes here I’d pass on are pirogen, served fried or boiled. Pirogen are flour dumplings with minced-meat filling, and these, topped with sour cream, wouldn’t float in the Dead Sea. I do give the chopped liver and pickled herring especially high marks. But these dishes may be a trifle ethnic for some.
And of course there are lots of gooey, caloric desserts. The restaurant’s signature cheesecakes, also made in the Carnegie commissary, along with 22 other types of cakes, are sold all over the country and are especially good plain or topped with blueberries or strawberries. Chocolate seven-layer cake is your basic yellow cake with multiple layers of a delicious chocolate frosting.
The big indulgence, though, has to be the Hershey’s Fifth Avenue Bavarian chocolate cream pie. Picture a huge pie wedge, its crust lined with a sweet peanut butter cream. To this, add around a foot of fluffy chocolate cream, and then, the capper, take two or three Fifth Avenue bars, crush them and imbed them on top. Whew!
The Mirage spared no expense in making this version of the Carnegie Deli as close to the New York restaurant as possible. The design is by Adam Tihany (who also did Bouchon in the Venetian), who set out to replicate the original while contemporizing it. That has been achieved through the use of white tile, dark wood sconces, hanging salamis and a boisterous atmosphere, offset by Plexiglas cubes displaying appetizing food images.
Now, get in line, and don’t leave your appetite on the casino floor.
Carnegie Deli
Inside the Mirage 791-7310. Open daily, 7a.m.-2a.m.. Suggested dishes: chicken matzo ball soup, $5.75; chopped liver, $ 10.95; pastrami sandwich, $12.95; plain cheese-cake, $6.95.