New owner for Franklin Square Deli plans to keep quality high

After more than four decades in business, Franklin Square Deli has changed ownership for the first time. The new owner of the downtown Kent-based restaurant known for its sandwiches, soups and gyros will keep the restaurant's popular menu items, but plans to make slight changes to the decor.

Franklin Square Deli’s former owner Carl Picelle, who established the restaurant in 1983, has retired and sold the restaurant to friend and former employee Jamie Reamer of Sugar Bush Knolls on Jan. 1.

The Franklin Square Deli. Jeremy Brown/The Portager

The eatery has earned a reputation in the Kent area for producing tasty, well-thought-out menu items at an affordable price, such as its State Fair Fried Bologna ciabatta sandwich or its Motor City bagel sandwich, but it’s Picelle’s undivided attention to the little details that he believes keeps customers coming back. 

“You know, you got to run a right and tight ship,” Picelle said. “I just, I guess I grouped together all the things that not only were important to me, but they were important to a whole hell of a lot of other people, too.”

Reamer was attending Kent State University’s physical education program when he began working at Franklin Square Deli as a cook in 2005. He was eventually promoted to night manager, but in 2011, he started a new job at Verizon Wireless. 

Reamer and Picelle stayed friends after Reamer moved on. The two had joked about Reamer buying the restaurant back when he worked there, but three years ago, Picelle told him he would actually sell it to him. But first, he wanted Reamer to come work at the shop again for a few years, to learn the recipes and to become accustomed to the routine tasks that the business requires, to see if he could handle it. 

Artwork depicting the Franklin Square Deli, made by a local artist, hangs on the wall in the sub shop. 

“I immediately sat down and told him: this is what you have to do when you come in and make a soup. And when you make it and it turns out to your liking, and whatnot, you go downstairs and put it in print, and you save it on the computer, and you have your recipe on a piece of paper. Not only can you make it, but somebody else can, if they had to, follow it step by step, right up to every ingredient, every seasoning, when it goes in, how much water’s in the pot and what you add,” Picelle said. “It's a system. It's not hard to teach, but it's a system, and it's got to be, right? The soup’s got to taste as good as the sandwiches. So you just get your recipes out there. You look for recipes, and then you can find them everywhere.” 

Some of Picelle’s soup recipes are ones his mother created; others he created on his own. He said he’s built quite a clientele of soup lovers in town.

Reamer said Picelle was determined to make sure the restaurant went to someone who would retain his high standards.

“Carl's awesome. He's a very passionate person. He's proud of the work that has gone into making the deli successful for as long as it has been,” Reamer said. “There aren’t many local spots that have the longevity that this place has, and he's got his fingerprints all over it, and his high standards have kind of led the way. He isn't afraid to hold people accountable, the standard is the standard, and he has a high expectation. I think that shows in the product and the environment. It's an institution that he's built.”

Carl Picelle and Jamie Reamer.

 

Picelle is convinced that he’s made the right choice by passing the restaurant on to Reamer.

“I can't be putting somebody in here that's going to run the business down and then hand me an empty restaurant with broken down equipment and cockroaches running around everywhere,” Picelle said. “So, I'm very happy that I've ended up with Jamie, because he gets it along those lines.”

The history behind Franklin Square Deli

Picelle got his start in the food industry when he took a job at Demari’s Submarines sandwich shop in Ravenna in 1975, when he was 17. While there, he found out he liked restaurant work and was soon promoted to a managerial position. It wasn’t long before Demari’s was looking to franchise the business, so Picelle opened his own Demari’s in Ravenna. 

After five years in business, Picelle decided to look for a better location for his sub shop that would attract more traffic, and he also wanted to open a shop of his own creation. He saw a rental advertisement for a location in downtown Kent, so he inquired. The location was being leased out by First Federal Bank.

“First Federal Bank was at the mast, and they were the ones that were trying to lease the property. They weren't really too interested in a 25-year-old kid with a semi-failing sandwich shop in Ravenna,” Picelle said. “And so, anyhow, I was persistent, and it didn't seem like they had anybody else in line.”

The Franklin Square Deli sign.

 

Picelle was able to negotiate a deal with First Federal to lease the space to open his new restaurant, and Franklin Square Deli was established in 1983. He said keeping the doors open was a little rough in the beginning, and it got even more complicated when Davey Tree relocated its offices. 

Davey Tree had leased most of the office spaces in the building where Picelle operated his sub shop, but in 1985, the company built a corporate office building in north Kent and relocated. As a result, First Federal Bank decided to sell the building.

“They sent me a letter that they're not renewing my lease, and that they're going to put the building up for sale. [They said] we encourage you to come over and talk to us; maybe we can put together some kind of package that would be mutually beneficial. I said, ‘Oh God, here we go. Gosh dang it. I'm going to stumble and fall again,’” Picelle said. “And they were able to, they gave me a package that I could afford, and I bought the building in 1988. It took me a long time to get it paid off, but I did, and have been taking care of it. That building is in very, very good condition. And yeah, I'll keep that for a little while longer.” 

Motorsport racing artwork can be seen on nearly every wall of the Franklin Square Deli, including several works by renowned artist Jerry Gambaccini.

 

Picelle bought the entire building, which includes the deli and eight office spaces. It was built in 1839.

Picelle’s attention to detail regarding the sub shop has always gone beyond having creative and tasty menu items and a clean environment for diners. In the early years of the restaurant, Picelle sourced flowers from his friend, Dick Richard at Richards Flower Shop, to decorate the restaurant. 

“I always had flowers on the tables, and I thought that was a warm touch. I always put a flower on top of the toilet tank, both bathrooms,” Picelle said. “Now, the reason behind that was because I wanted, and I would tell my employees this, I said, ‘It's important that this bathroom looks as warm and inviting as the restaurant.’ They're only in there for maybe a little bit of business, but their first thought ought to be, you know, the bathroom is spotless and clean.”

Picelle eventually stopped using flowers for the deli’s decor, opting to adorn the walls with motorsport artwork. That was an ode to his love for the sport that started when a friend of his took him to the races when he was 11. 

Several works by renowned artist Jerry Gambaccini hang on the wall of the sub shop.

 

“I think he took me down to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and I got to witness, for one day, the Can-Am race cars on a road circuit, and I was hooked. I couldn't sleep that night. I just loved it. If you skip forward to about 2000 or so, I started monkeying around with auto racing and whatnot with a Porsche 944. That explains to you why I have all the motorsports artwork that's all over the deli.”

During Picelle’s racing career, he qualified for nationals four times and made it to the podium three of those times. He gave up the sport in 2012, but the artwork still hangs on nearly every wall of the eatery. Although Reamer said most of it will be replaced with historic pictures of Kent, he’ll keep some of the racing artwork in commemoration of Picelle.

Beyond just business

Picelle said in the 42 years that he owned the Franklin Square Deli, he saw eight marriages that transpired from couples meeting at the sub shop (he kept count). Reamer and his wife were one of those.

Reamer’s wife, Mallory, started working at Franklin Square Deli a few years after he did. She knew right away he was the one when she first saw him.

“I was cleaning the windows. I was on the inside, and Jamie walks in. I'm standing on a chair with a squeegee in one hand and a rag in the other, and I saw him, and I just thought to myself, oh, this is going to be a problem,” she said.

The couple married in 2013 and have two children, Maxwell, 8, and Ethan, 9. They call Picelle Uncle Carl.