Miracle Mile Deli celebrates 75 years of sandwiches and memorable moments

Before 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 encompass 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 Jill’s mother wanted Grodzinsky to stop. After much pleading, Eleanor took a different approach.

“One night she took a stack of dishes and threw them on the floor. She said, ‘That’s it, you’re done,’” Jill says with a laugh. “He didn’t take new (catering) jobs after that.”

Jill was 12 when she met the new dishwasher, George, who was 15. Over the years, Jill says he liked her but was intimated with all that comes with being the boss’ daughter. They were in their 20s when the sparks officially flew.

“My parents always loved George,” Jill says.

The couple got married and took on more restaurant responsibilities. They raised their only child, Josh Garcia, in the business.

After school, Josh did his homework while sitting on a pickle bucket behind the serving line. At the former Christown location, there was a long wood plank on a staircase used to move merchandise into a downstairs storage space.

“I remember sliding down that piece of wood,” Josh says, also recalling sitting on a stool as he watched his grandfather slice salami or corned beef.

“He would slice a few slices and eat a few slices. Mom would yell ‘Stop eating!’” Josh recalls. “He’d say, ‘I’m not eating, I’m just tasting.’”

Josh’s first official Miracle Mile job was when he was 11. He stood on a milk crate so he could see over the counter and serve coffee to customers on Saturday mornings.

Going into the family business was never assumed by Josh or his parents, who didn’t push the idea. He studied for a while in London and thought he’d stay there.

But family and Arizona beckoned and he returned to learn the ropes. Within three months, Josh found himself managing the Glendale location after the manager became ill. He was 21 and in charge of a 6,000-square-foot restaurant and 15 employees.

“That’s a lesson, you learn to grow up very quickly,” he says.

After years of hands-on learning, Josh is now vice president of Miracle Mile and handles the day-to-day operations after adapting the restaurant to changing times.

“Josh took it to the next level. When George and I took over, we took it to another level,” Jill says. “But we’ve always prided ourselves on a family atmosphere, cleanliness and quality. Those staples keep you in business.”

A place to belong

Regular customer Condron’s childhood Miracle Mile location was at Christown Spectrum. As she got older, she frequented the Scottsdale and Camelback Colonnade locations, which were close to her workplaces.

Today, Condron’s family has season tickets to Grand Canyon University basketball games and the restaurant is a convenient pregame spot between their north Phoenix home and the university.

Right now, the Hungarian stuffed cabbage is Condron’s go-to. She’s also had a baked cod phase and called the beef stew “phenomenal.” But the food is just one reason she’s been a decades-long regular.

“It’s the connection and friendliness of the people who are there and seeing familiar faces,” Condron says. “You feel like a regular even when time may lapse… like I belong.”

A boss and benefactor

Greg Rivera was 16 when he approached Grodzinsky at the restaurant’s Park Central location in 1974. Grodzinsky was wiping down tables when Rivera, who knew no English, asked him for a job through a Spanish speaker.

Grodzinsky agreed but on the condition he would commit for more than a single paycheck. Rivera assured him he would.

“Every few years I’d remind him, ‘It’s been five years…it’s been 10 years, been 15,'” Rivera recalls.

Forty years to the day after that first conversation, Rivera retired from Miracle Mile. He started a handyman business and still goes to the restaurant every few days to say hello and do minor repairs.

Rivera has been through the highs and lows of the restaurant, through expansions and closures. He knows the quality of the ingredients, the customer service that always feels personable and how the size of the famous sandwiches causes jaws to drop.

“I saw all the things that make you want to go back,” he says.

Rivera still has an institutional knowledge of who Grodzinsky was as a boss and man. And he has stories for days.

Back when Miracle Mile had liver on the menu, Grodzinsky taught Rivera how to clean it and how it’s easier to slice when frozen.

When Rivera was in his 20s, he struggled to pay rent and keep a roof over the heads of his wife and two children. When Grodzinsky found out, he bought Rivera a house. Rivera made the mortgage payments to him.

“I’m getting choked up now,” Rivera says. After a long pause and a deep inhale he continues. “What more can I tell you about a man that would literally take the shirt off his back and give it to me?”

Rivera talks about a rough childhood in Mexico with his father. He says Grodzinsky helped him pick up the pieces of a broken home life.

“But, he took care of a lot of people, not just me,” Rivera says. “I wish there were more men like him. The man that is most like him is Josh.”

'Our Katz’s Deli'

While a third generation helms Miracle Mile, Mark Asher’s sons are his family’s third generation of Miracle Mile customers.

Born and raised in Arizona, Asher has been going to the deli for most of his life. When he was a kid visiting his dad at the office, they’d walk across the street to the Park Central location. It was a treat.

Asher has been getting the same thing for 42 years: The Straw, and always on an onion roll.

“As a kid, I remember it being huge. I’m pretty sure my dad and I shared it,” says Asher, who lives in Peoria and visits the midtown Phoenix restaurant about 10 times a year, usually with his three sons. “I grew up on it and love it. And I love how my kids love it now.”

It’s also a spot where you can get a true East Coast sandwich. Asher’s New York City relatives who’ve tried it say the food is just as good. Asher calls it “our version of Katz’s Deli.”

Asher has recognized the same faces behind the counter, around the tables and greeting him at the entrance for decades. He’s also witnessed George and Josh talk to customers and not just run the business from afar.

When Josh sees Asher, he packs a side of pickles for him to take home because he knows his sons love them.

“Little stuff like that, seeing my kids enjoy what I enjoyed… Sometime down the road, it’s something their kids will enjoy with their dad,” Asher says.

And whether it’s a long-time patron raving about the beef stew, a dad creating third-generation customers or a former employee tearing up while talking about his boss’ generosity, George is always up for hearing it.

“A lot of people want to share their Miracle Mile stories,” George says. “What a pleasure it is to talk to them and they say, ‘I remember when…’”

Miracle Mile Deli

4433 N. 16th St.