At Manny’s, corned beef on rye’s price is up, but, like many restaurants, deli’s still struggling amid high inflation

At Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen, the storied Jewish deli on the West Side, the corned beef sandwich now costs $2 than it did pre-pandemic. With high inflation, the deli’s fourth-generation owners raised the price on corned beef sandwiches while keeping some other prices, say, for turkey sandwiches, the same. (Manuel Martinez / WBEZ)

About a mile west of downtown, on a drizzly Friday, the lunchtime crowd at Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen is a little sparse.

Friday used to be Manny’s busiest day. But today it’s “a ghost town,” says Dan Raskin, the fourth-generation co-owner of the beloved Jewish deli, a longtime favorite among its devoted regulars, out-of-towners and power-brokering political figures.