Ken’s NY Deli Granted Victualer’s, Wine and Malt Licenses

By Kim Siebert MacPhail

The long awaited re-opening of Ken’s New York Deli at 72 The Great Road in the so-called Blake Block, is finally in sight. On October 21, the Selectmen granted two licenses to Blackbeard Enterprises, doing business as Ken’s NY Deli—one for permission to serve food and the other to serve beer and wine with meals. Now that all necessary permits are in place, owner James Garabedian and owner-manager John Cronin report that they expect to open the restaurant very soon—probably on Friday, October 25 or Monday, October 28.

In an interview prior to being granted the licenses, Garabedian said that much of the menu will remain the same as before—fresh turkey, roast beef, corned beef and pastrami sandwiches—but brick oven pizza, pasta and nightly specials have also been added. Hours of operation will stretch from breakfast through dinner.

“A lot of people don’t want to eat sandwiches at night—they want to have meals,” Garabedian said. “So we’ve added some dishes to our menu and people can have a nice glass of wine with their meal. We’re a family restaurant— a family business that’s family-operated. John [Cronin] also owns the Wicked Good Yogurt Shop, we both live in Bedford. We’ll do fundraisers for the schools, we’re going to give back to the community.”

“The only thing that concerns me is the school day afternoon,” said Selectman Mark Siegenthaler. “Somehow it feels different to me to have the typical school population there eating fries and people going in to have a sandwich and a beer. I understand the appeal of both of those things—it’s the mix in this particular location that somehow I’m struggling with.”

“We’re serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” replied Garabedian. “We’ll have a lot of business meetings, a lot of companies coming in. If they want to get a pasta dish and a glass or wine or a gourmet sandwich with a glass of beer, we’re going to cater to them. Obviously, we’re going to have the young kids coming in, too. We’re going to cater to them, too. Of course, we’ll card everybody. Everybody’s “TIP” [alcohol] certified. We’ve been in the restaurant business for thirty years.”

Selectman Margot Fleischman said she has walked by the storefront recently and noted the “change in atmospherics” from the previous version of the restaurant. “I certainly think that people walking in there will get a different feel from what they did before,” Fleischman said. “The thing that is probably hanging people up is that it has the same name— it still says “Ken’s Deli”—and that was kind of a kids’ hang out. This is much more upscale. It’s lovely. I can imagine you’re going to get some business from the corporate folks and people from base. I would just stress the diligence about carding.”

Garabedian and Cronin agreed that asking for age verification would be important. The Selectmen then unanimously approved both licenses.

It was noted by Town Manager Rick Reed that Bedford is allowed, based on population— to grant three wine and malt licenses as well as a number of full liquor licenses. Reed said that Chipotle currently has one of those beer and malt licenses. With Ken’s NY York Deli being granted the second license, one more wine and malt license remains available to an eligible applicant.