Save the Carnegie Deli group offers $5M to buy pastrami palace

As Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is celebrated, Carnegie Deli might be getting a new start, according to Save the Carnegie Deli, a group dedicated to keeping the 79-year-old deli open.

Samuel Mussovic, a man who said he is a former restaurant owner and was a Carnegie Deli dishwasher 30 years ago, announced on Monday afternoon a $5 million offer to buy the New York City landmark. There is a Change.org petition to save the iconic deli and the jobs that the Theater District’s deli employees will lose at the end of the year.

Carnegie Deli, 854 7th Ave., Manhattan, revealed on Friday that it will close its doors on Dec. 31. Marian Harper Levine, the business and building owner, said it is “time to take a step back.”

“At this stage of my life, the early mornings to late nights have taken a toll, along with my sleepless nights and grueling hours that come with operating a restaurant business,” 65-year-old Harper Levine said on Friday,New York Post reported.

Her family has owned the business since 1979.

Now, Mussovic has to raise the dough and convince Harper Levine he is the person to keep Carnegie Deli’s kosher-style pastrami legend alive.

“[Save the Carnegie Deli] will hand-deliver a letter to the deli with an agreement to give $5 million and a percentage of future proceeds to the current owner,” Mussovic and his corn beef heroes said,Tasting Table reported.

Harper Levine will still license Carnegie locations in Las Vegas and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and keep the mail-order business and the kiosk at Madison Square Garden operating,Eater NY reported.

The deli has been plagued with problems that Harper Levine blames on her ex-husband, Sanford Levine, whom she said was embezzling from her, the Post reported. Carnegie Deli reopened in February after being shut down for 10 months for an illegal gas hookup.