Milton Parker

Who was Milton Parker?

Milton Parker was a co-owner of the Carnegie Deli, located at 55th Street and Seventh Avenue next to Carnegie Hall in the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the behind-the-scenes preparer of towering pastrami sandwiches while his partner Leo Steiner was the tummler who entertained celebrities, locals and tourists.

Parker was born on January 10, 1919 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to Jacob and Jennie Picker Packowitz, both of whom died while Parker was a child. He worked in Brooklyn diners and luncheonettes as a teen, and opened a coffee shop in a mall near Levittown, New York. He sold the establishment in the 1970s, but was bored after spending a year in retirement. Hearing from a business broker who knew that the Carnegie Deli was up for sale, he was part of a group that bought the business.

The Carnegie Deli was taken over by Parker in 1976, together with Leo Steiner and a third, less-active partner who sold his stake in the restaurant. Steiner died in 1987, and Parker retired in 2002, with management taken over by Sanford Levine, his son-in-law. Parker's business cards described him as "Milton Parker, CPM".