20 March 14th-March 20th, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Major Mileage Miracle Mile Deli celebrates 75 years of sandwiches and memorable moments. BY GEORGANN YARA B efore Phoenicians could receive a signal from KPHO-TV - the city’s first television station - they could order a hot brisket sandwich from Miracle Mile Deli. Before the crowds flocked to the Madhouse on McDowell to watch the NBA’s newest franchise, the Phoenix Suns, they could swing by Miracle Mile to fuel up with a bowl of Matzoh ball soup. And the deli’s beloved hot pastrami, melted Swiss and sauerkraut combo on The Straw sandwich has been satisfying customers longer than the University of Phoenix has been educating students. “It’s become part of the Phoenix fabric,” says Sidra Condron, a regular whose best friend’s parents introduced her to the restaurant while in elementary school. “You feel like I’m a true Phoenician because I’m supporting this family-run business that’s been around longer than anything we associate with the city.” Miracle Mile, known for its meaty and mammoth sandwiches and quintessential East Coast deli, is celebrating its 75th birthday this year. Open since 1949, the mom-and-pop establishment is a dining institution that represents a rare piece of restaurant history in a relatively young city dotted with chains. The menu has seen a few additions, entree-size salads and leaner meats like turkey and chicken, for example. And subtractions, like liver and onions and sour cream herring. Still, the lineup boasts tried-and-true pleasers that continue to draw diners. Throughout the year, the restaurant will offer crowd-pleasing specials to celebrate the milestone birthday and birth year. A few to whet the appetite: From March 11 to 17, corned beef, cabbage, Irish potatoes and bread & butter will be offered fo $19.49; throughout the month of April, get the popular Broadway Burger, fries and a pint of beer for $19.49; and from May 6 to 11, savor a pastrami, The Straw, New Yorker or combo sandwich with a slice of pie for $19.49 As Miracle Mile approaches its eighth decade, a third generation is at the helm. And it all started with a native New Yorker and a bus ride from Tucson. Setting up shop on Miracle Mile In 1949, Jack Grodzinsky left Brooklyn with his wife Eleanor for Arizona, seeking the desert air as a cure for their oldest daughter’s asthma. Grodzinsky had run a restaurant in New York and hoped to bring the taste of his hometown to his new home. Tucson was Grodzinsky’s original landing spot. But he found the city too small and took a bus north to Phoenix hoping to find a restaurant to buy. Walking from the bus station he spotted Pat’s Cafe at First and Monroe streets, says George Garcia, Miracle Mile’s president and Grodzinsky’s son-in-law. “He approached the owner and instantly had a deal,” says George. “He was determined to bring a restaurant back here. That led to other locations.” Two years later, Grodzinsky and his sisters purchased Herman’s Corned Beef Junction at McDowell Road and 16th Street. The area on McDowell from Seventh to 16th streets grew into a business district known as Miracle Mile. That inspired Grodzinsky to change the name of his restaurants to reflect that road. In the decades that followed, the Miracle Mile Deli brand grew to encom- pass multiple locations, mostly in shopping centers such as Park Central Mall, Christown Spectrum mall, Camelback Colonnade, Arrowhead Towne Center in Glendale and the Scottsdale Promenade. Today, operations are streamlined at a single location at 16th Street and Campbell Avenue which opened in 2015. Successful succession Jill Garcia, then Grodzinsky, was not yet born when her father embarked on his deli empire. But she was about 10 when she worked her dad’s hot catering gigs. Her job was to put parsley on plates before they were served. “I thought it was really important,” says Jill. “That was every Saturday night. Growing up, that was my parents’ social life.” The grind of running a restaurant on top of doing catering jobs was one The storefront of the former Christown Spectrum location of Miracle Mile Deli, circa 1972. (Photo courtesy of Miracle Mile Deli) ▼ Food & Drink Food & Drink Speakeasy Sirens Platform 18 debuts new menu inspired by ‘queens of New York.’ BY SARA CROCKER T he celebrated train car cocktail experience inside Century Grand has a new story to tell – and new drinks to go with it. Walking inside Century Grand, you’ll see Hollis Cottley Pennington’s Presidential Pullman train car. The immersive experience uses technology and cocktailing prowess to transport its guests to locales along the Transcontinental Railroad, from the snow-capped Rockies to the bayous of New Orleans, without ever leaving Phoenix. Platform 18 has rolled out its latest menu with a new destination. On this ride, guests are headed to New York City. It’s 1924 – think the Jazz Age, the era of Art Deco and, of course, Prohibition. It’s evening and there’s a bit of rain, but no matter, the lights of the Big Apple shine in the distance. Originally, Jason Asher set out to create a menu inspired by a “little black book” to help train passengers navigate the city. But, as he got deeper into his research, the founding partner of Barter & Shake Cocktail Entertainment – the group that runs the award-winning trio of Platform 18, Undertow and Grey Hen Rx – found himself taken with the history and the people of the city. The resulting menu and story is a departure from the bar’s previous long, illustrated, storybook-like menus. “Our menu, rather than having a fictional narrative along with illustra- tions, utilizes these individuals’ names or nicknames or clubs to tell our story,” Asher says. >> p 22 >> p 24 Drinks on Platform 18’s menu reference people and places in New York’s Prohibition era, including actress turned speakeasy hostess and proprietor Mary Louise Cecilia “Texas” Guinan. (Photo by Sara Crocker)