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Carnegie Deli to Remain Closed at Least 2 More Weeks

Carnegie Deli, on Seventh Avenue near 55th Street, still owes New York City $2,600 in fines for violating building codes.Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

The Carnegie Deli, which was found in late April to have been stealing about half of the gas it used for cooking and heating, will remain closed for at least two more weeks, a lawyer for the owner said.

The famed deli’s owner, Marian Levine, was ordered last week to pay $2,600 in fines for violating New York City building codes. On Thursday, Buildings Department records showed that those fines had not been paid, but Ms. Levine’s lawyer, Edward Little, said they would be paid soon with the hope that the department would lift an order prohibiting Ms. Levine from having any repairs made.

Once that stop-work order is removed, Ms. Levine can arrange the work that has to be done before Consolidated Edison will allow natural gas to flow again to the building, on Seventh Avenue near 55th Street. The gas service to the restaurant and the apartments above it has been off since late April.

The shut-off has left the restaurant dark just as the warmer weather draws hordes of tourists to the city, many of them seeking to sample the huge pastrami and corned beef sandwiches that brought the Carnegie Deli renown. It also has left the deli’s workers without paychecks or tips for eight weeks. Mr. Little said he did not know what had become of the deli’s staff.

Even competing businesses have grown wistful in the Carnegie’s long absence. Nick Athanasatos, who owns the Premier Deli Café next door to the Carnegie, said the shutdown was no longer providing a boost to his business.

Mr. Athanasatos said that, at first, he sold more sandwiches to people who had intended to eat at the Carnegie.

“Initially, we were very busy due to the fact that the Carnegie was closed,” he said. “Now, I guess it’s known. The tour bus isn’t stopping by anymore.”

Mr. Athanasatos said he had gone from trying to capitalize on the Carnegie’s troubles to hoping that they will be resolved soon. “When they reopen, we’ll be fine because they attract people to the neighborhood,” he said. “That’s what everybody in the neighborhood wants. They want them to reopen.”

It was Con Edison that discovered on April 24 that gas had been diverted to the restaurant before it reached the meter that measured how much was being used. The utility company determined that, for more than five years, the restaurant had been paying for only about half of the gas it used.

Ms. Levine, who took control of the deli from her former husband two years ago, said she was unaware of the scheme. She paid Con Edison $40,000 for the delivery of the gas that had not passed through the meter, Mr. Little said.

At a hearing on June 11 before the city’s Environmental Control Board, Ms. Levine’s company was fined $1,600 for not having permits for a boiler, water heater and gas pipes and valves, and an additional $1,000 for having gas supplied to the building without the proper inspection and certification by the Buildings Department.

“We’re in the process of paying the necessary fines in order to obtain the permits to repair the gas line and reopen the business,” Mr. Little said. He added that Ms. Levine, whose father bought Carnegie Deli with two partners in 1976, “was not running the business at the time” the pipes were altered to divert some of the gas before it reached the meter.

A correction was made on 
June 26, 2015

An article in some editions last Friday about continuing problems at Carnegie Deli, which has been closed since April, misstated the role of the owner’s father in the business. Milton Parker, the father of the current owner, Marian Levine, bought the Carnegie with two partners in 1976; he did not open it.

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A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 24 of the New York edition with the headline: Carnegie Deli to Remain Closed at Least 2 More Weeks. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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