Berd-House Deli celebrates Beatles, rock ’n’ roll in decor, music – Canton Repository

The Canton Township deli has added a “Yellow Submarine”-themed Pepperland Porch.

CANTON TWP. Wednesday was Ringo Starr’s 80th birthday and, not surprisingly, was the focus of Lunch With Larry, the music-themed Wednesday feature at the Berd-House Deli.

In the deli’s Vinyl Room, a dining area decorated with nostalgia-inducing framed album covers, Larry Kessler was spinning Ringo tunes on a turntable and star-shaped cookies (Starr, get it?) were being given away.

“Anytime something big happens with the Beatles, it’s a huge red-letter day here,” said Barney “Berd” Kessler, Larry’s brother and owner of the deli at 2103 Gambrinus Road SW.

Perry High School grads Barney, 62, and Larry, 69, both are big-time classic-rock fans, but Barney is crazy about the Beatles.

“Dad didn’t like the Beatles,” Barney said grinning. “’Long-haired, no-good bums.’”

“In tight pants,” Larry added. “But Dad was okay with Elvis.”

Hanging framed in a corner is one of their dad’s prized Eddy Arnold albums, with an added mustache and beard that Barney claims he doesn’t remember drawing.

Barney’s Beatlemania is showcased in the new addition to the deli, Pepperland Porch. The formerly open porch has been enclosed into a dining room whose enveloping decor salutes the Beatles’ 1968 animated musical “Yellow Submarine.”

Canton-based artists Kat Francis and Steve Ehret were hired to paint the walls with vibrantly colored scenes from the trippy movie.

“The idea was to have a little mural, and then it kept growing,” Barney said.

Adding to Pepperland Porch’s decor are Beatles lunchboxes, framed Beatles records and posters and, in the windows, strung-together 45 records in rainbow colors.

Inspired by a 4-year-old

The porch was inspired by Barney’s grandson, Everett, age 4. Once when babysitting the boy, Barney realized he had no Disney movies to show him but he did have a copy of “Yellow Submarine” that he slipped into the DVD player.

“Everett loved it. But he was afraid of the Blue Meanies. He told me, `Papa, please skip this part,” Barney said. “By the end he was singing `All You Need is Love’ at the top of his lungs.” Everett, who lives in Delaware, Ohio, hasn’t seen the new room yet but his grandfather is sure the boy will be excited.

For COVID-19 protection, there are free-standing plexiglass walls dividing tables in the Pepperland Porch and suspended plastic panels (decorated with 45s) between tables in the Vinyl Room.

Workers wear masks in the cafeteria-style deli, which serves sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches, salads, soups, daily specials and baked goods. Barney’s daughter, Shannon Archibold, runs the kitchen. Hours are 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, expanding to 4 p.m. starting July 20.

“Before the pandemic, most Wednesdays it was full in here,” Barney said about the Vinyl Room. “We have people who come in just to hear the music.”

The Vinyl Room

The Berd-House Deli opened in 2010 in what was previously a duplex home, as an extension of Aunt Alyee’s catering, which also uses the kitchen. Barney previously was a meat cutter at Smith’s Waco Market and a salesperson for Shearer’s Potato Chips.

The deli’s indoor seating area, now the Vinyl Room, opened in 2016 and Barney covered its walls with albums by the Beatles, Lou Reed, Cyndi Lauper, Neil Young. Elton John, Lady Gaga, the Eagles and many more, including a prized pink-vinyl copy of “Animals” by Pink Floyd.

“I just wanted to create something different for when you sat down for lunch,” Barney said. “All these guys who work around here come in. I didn’t want just another burger place.”

Larry gave up on vinyl records when compact discs became the chosen music format in the later 1980s. “I was fooled by CDs,” he said, to the point that when he got divorced in 1992, he abandoned his record collection at his ex-wife’s house.

Then a reawakening happened. “Twenty years later, my older brother said, ’Do you want my records and turntable? I’m never going to play them again,’” said Larry, who accepted his offer. “When the stylus hit vinyl, it was magic.”

“All the stuff we play here, people have given us,” Barney said. “We have a six-foot table in the basement that’s covered with records.”

He calls the Vinyl Room “a man cave away from home.”

Reach Dan at dan.kane@cantonrep.com.

On Twitter: @dkaneREP