Manny's Deli, iconic Chicago restaurant, debuts new sandwich for 80th birthday

CHICAGO - If you're looking for lunch plans, here's a tasty idea: celebrate with a Chicago icon.

Manny’s Deli is always busy at lunchtime, but it was packed for a very good reason on Tuesday.

The cafeteria and delicatessen in Chicago’s South Loop celebrated 80 years in business with a big anniversary party and a new menu item.

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Manny’s opened its doors in 1942 at Van Buren and Halsted streets and moved to a couple other locations in this area before finding its permanent home on Jefferson Street in 1965.

Anyone who has ever been to Manny’s knows, it is a classic Jewish deli with sandwiches made of heaping mounds of pastrami and corned beef. Of course, you can’t forget the potato pancakes and a matzo ball soup.

Exterior view, looking northeast, of Manny's Cafeteria and Delicatessen restaurant, a coffee shop and deli restaurant in the near South Side, Chicago, Illinois, March 2019. (Interim Archives/Getty Images / Getty Images)

For their 80th birthday, they've introduced a new sandwich called The 80, which is made with smoked pastrami for the first time.

And what makes this celebration especially sweet, is that Manny’s made it through the Covid-19 pandemic, barely.

The business was very close to going under when they put out a post on social media asking customers for help, and help they did. Aid came from all over the Chicago area to buy food and keep the institution afloat.

Manny’s has been run by four generations of the same family, including Dan Raskin who is now in charge.

Manny's Coffee Shop and Deli (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images / Getty Images)

"We've been really fortunate that we've gotten a great following of customers that, just like us, not only are we fourth-generation but there are four generations of customers coming in now," Raskin said. "And it's just amazing to see them all here and to be able to talk to them and hear their stories of when they first came here."

"We grew up in the city, so we've been coming since we were little kids. And we made a family tradition that every Friday after Thanksgiving, we would come as a family. That was our family tradition with our kids," one patron said.

Manny's has a long history with Chicago politics. Every Election Day, nearly every campaign in the city starts with breakfast at the deli in a get out the vote effort with a lot of hand shaking.