Relish this?: Amazon revives Carnergie Deli for a week to promote 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'

You may have seen these ads posted on empty spaces along St. Mark's Place (and elsewhere) ...



The Amazon series "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," set in 1958 NYC, is launching its new season by "creating an immersive Carnegie Deli pop-up experience" at 201 Lafayette St. at Kenmare.


[Via HomeoftheMaisel]

According to the pop-up's website, "while it may be 2018 on the outside, it’s 1958 on the inside — the decor, the jukebox, the photobooth, and even the menu."

This version of the Carnegie Deli, open from Saturday through Dec. 8, will sell "The Maisel," marble rye with pastrami, salami, coleslaw and "special sauce," for 99 cents. Other menu items include a mini-knish for 75 cents as well as a black and white cookie, cheesecake slice, pickles, Dr. Brown’s Soda, iced tea and coffee — each going for 50 cents.

All proceeds will go to the Lower Eastside Girls Club on Avenue D.

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@carnegiedeli along with @amazonprimevideo and @maiseltv are celebrating the new season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel by creating an immersive Carnegie Deli pop-up experience. From 12/1 to 12/8, guests can travel back in time to 1958, with everything from décor, to pricing, to the menu. For more info and reservations, check out the link in our bio! PC: @charlie.shoots • • • #themarvelousmrsmaisel #themarvelousmrsmaiselseason2 #maiseltv #carnegiedeli #popup #nycpopup #deli #marvelous #pastrami #thesusie #themaisel #eeeeeats #nyceeeeeats #amazonprimevideo #amazon #mrsmaisel #homeofthemaisel

A post shared by Carnegie Deli (@carnegiedeli) on Nov 20, 2018 at 5:31pm PST

The Carnegie Deli closed its Seventh Avenue outpost on New Year’s Eve in 2016 after 79 years in business. (The Las Vegas location is still in operation.)

As Eater noted at the time, there were numerous setbacks and scandals over the last few years at the deli, "including a wage lawsuit filed by staffers, and the messy divorce of its owner and her husband, who was cheating with a waitress while allegedly helping her open a rogue location of the deli in Thailand."

The number of Jewish delis in NYC has greatly diminished in recent years. According to an article published at Haaretz published in January, there were some 1,500 of them in the city in the 1930s; now there are about 20. Perhaps Amazon can recreate other vanishing elements of NYC.

Claim: Amazon deliveries taking up prime space on 2nd Avenue, hurting business at Enz's

Last month, The Villager reported on Amazon contract delivery trucks "showing up in large unmarked vehicles around Union Square and other Downtown neighborhoods with increasing frequency."

In recent months, an unmarked truck has set up an impromptu distribution center on Second Avenue at Seventh Street — in front of where the three buidlings were destroyed following the deadly gas explosion in March 2015.



"They are blocking me, every day — even on the weekends," Mariann Pizzaia, owner of the 1950s-inspired boutique Enz's at 125 Second Ave., told me. "Sometimes people can't walk on Second Avenue. There are at least six to eight workers banging boxes."

The workers will sort packages in the street or on the sidewalk, loading them on small hand trucks for delivery to neighboring residences.



Aside from being an ongoing annoyance, Pizzaia says that the truck obscures her storefront for periods of up to four-plus hours daily, and she is missing out on potential foot traffic from people waking on the other side of Second Avenue or dining outside at Bar Virage or Cafe Mocha.

There are signs posted stating that this is a No Standing zone 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily in this far Bus Only lane. However, Pizzaia says that the truck parks here during these hours.



For its story, The Villager traced the source to a New York-based trucking and freight-shipping company called Cornucopia Logistics, which has warehouses in New Jersey.

Cornucopia’s corporate parent, Avant Business Services, has a dispatching office in One Grand Central Plaza’s basement. Ken Daniels, an Avant financial executive, refused ... to discuss the nature of his company’s contract with Amazon or to explain why it allows workers to use city streets as an ad hoc warehouse and distribution hub.

The Villager spoke with Julie Jang, the manager of Jay Nails at 780 Broadway.

“Basically, they park all day,” Jang said, claiming the trucks overstay a three-hour metered parking limit on commercial vehicles imposed by the city’s Department of Transportation. “They load up all the boxes on the street where cars park. They have a canopy when it rains.”

Jang said Cornucopia’s street operation has caused business to drop at the nail salon because “they’re right in front of our store and people passing can’t see our awning..."

Pizzaia just reached out to elected local officials, and hopes to get some help with the impromptu unloading zone that she says is hurting her business.



"Honestly I really don't want to fight these people every day," Pizzaia said. "I don't want to close my shop, but this is not fun."

All photos courtesy of Mariann Pizzaia

Updated 10/5

The trucking company has promised to move its operation to the two-block stretch of Lafayette between Astor Place and Fourth Avenue, The Villager reports.