It's Your Business: New York Pickle Deli

The owner of the New York Pickle Deli uses the unique variety of his menu and quality customer service to make sure his patrons leave with a smile and keep coming back.

Ken Yavis, who was 23 at the time, founded the New York Pickle Deli in South Windsor in 1985 and went to two locations when he opened the Rocky Hill restaurant in 1990. In 1994, he sold the assets to the South Windsor location and doubled the space of the Rocky Hill eatery in 1995.

"I learned a lot in the first couple of years," he said. "Even after the many years that I have been in business, I still have a real passion for the business and my customers. I try to instill that in all my employees."

He came to Rocky Hill over 22 years ago because of the business climate and the good ratio of companies to homes here.

The restaurant specializes in breakfast, lunch and corporate catering, but customers love the uniqueness of the Pickle Deli's menu.

"It is one of the places that you can sit down, get waited on and have a great sandwich," Yavis said. He added he wanted his menu to be different so each menu item has its own name.

"People don't want to order, this, this and this. They want to order something that sounds good like the Rachel," he said. "It's easier for both sides (customer and employees.) It's more efficient."

Cinnamon wheat pancakes served with homemade, warm maple syrup is becoming a hot item with clients on the weekends. For lunch, customers are still ordering two classics, pastrami and corned beef.

"We do our own corned beef here and cook it for four hours. It is slow cooked, tender and it's great," he said. "It is authentic New York pastrami."

Yavis said good value and quality service have helped his business attract and retain customers during the economic recession.

"Value and service are the two most important things in this business," he said. "And I say value on purpose. Because if it's a $20 item or $5 item it has to have value to the customer. And the rule is you don't ever reduce your value to your customer in quality, service, and price."

By paying attention to his customers' wants and needs, Yavis has continued to bring new patrons.

"Always know that (value) drives your business," he said. He added "keeping an emerging menu is a must" and it should be updated every six months to a year with new items.

"You cannot have a stale menu," Yavis said. "You should always be willing to change."

Mother nature assisted his business's growth this year. During both the autumn snowstorm and Hurricane Irene, the New York Pickle Deli did not lose power and stayed open past its normal business hours.

Yavis said during both storms, he had to make tough decisions on whether to close at normal time or stay open, especially when lines were out the door to the old Blockbuster location. Some restaurants closed during those storms at normal business hours, but not the New York Pickle Deli.

"You want to feed those people," he said. "You want to feed those people because they need you. Because it is an opportunity. We were extremely successful for that."

For many of those customers, the storms were the first time that they had ever visited the New York Pickle Deli. Yavis's wife and part owner, Darlene, calls those new patrons, their "storm customers."

"It got them to see our place and what we do," Yavis said about his new customers. "We took good care of them and did not disappoint them. And from now, they became customers."

After the storms were over, Yavis rewarded his staff's hard work with a much-needed day off and closed the restaurant.

In the next five years, Yavis sees the New York Pickle Deli growing in the catering field, but wants to "keep his hard costs stable." Even though he has received several offers, there are no plans for another New York Pickle Deli at this time.

"It is not always in the best interest of the company overall," he said.

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