Bigger fish to fry
with Kelly’a seafood

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

The slogan on the menu tells it like it is. You’re never a stranger at . . . Kelly’s.
After all, there has been a Kelly cooking in the kitchen for their Northeast Philly customers since Jan. 13, 1958.
Ron Kelly was just 21 when he came out of the Army and opened a luncheonette at 9800 Bustleton Ave. with his father, William T. Kelly, on that date.
In 1964, the Kellys bought the old Adam’s Café — now the site of Kelly’s restaurant and bar at 9363 Old Bustleton Ave. — and opened Kelly’s Tavern.
By that time, Ron Kelly, who married his wife Jean in 1960, had four children — "Irish twins" Denise and Tim were born in the same calendar year, while twins Brett and Brian arrived a year and a half later.
Kelly laughed at the notion that having children is a smart business move to staff the restaurant. He did acknowledge, though, that family is very important in the restaurant business.
"Family does mean a lot. I don’t think there’s ever been a time when one hasn’t been (at the restaurant)," Ron Kelly said. "My aunt worked there — my father’s sister — for fifteen years. Another relative, Mary Young, has been there twenty-five years."
Since 1978, the four Kelly kids have worked in some capacity at the family restaurant — busing tables, washing dishes, tending bar or cooking.
Now 44, Brian Kelly still remembers walking across the field from Maternity BVM, where the siblings attended grade school, to work.
The Kelly kids lend their education and expertise to the operation, be it a degree in hotel and restaurant management, culinary skill or accounting. Working with siblings day in and day out can be challenging, Brian says, but they all get along.
"We can have a blowout in the kitchen for three minutes and then ask, ‘What are you doing Monday?’" he said, a common question since the restaurant is closed on Mondays.
The restaurant family extends beyond the Kellys. Marie Bramble has been working there for 35 years. Chris Brown has been a server for 25 years.
The restaurant’s customers are comfortable with the staff, so comfortable that they’ll chat about their kids and happily bring family pictures to share.
In fact, many Northeast families have celebrated milestones at Kelly’s. One just booked a graduation party for the same child who celebrated a christening, first Holy Communion and confirmation during other parties over the years at Kelly’s, according to Brian.
Though the warm family atmosphere is an enticement for patrons, the Kellys are confident that those folks keep coming back because of the food they’ve been serving for five decades.
"Our food has been consistent through the years," Ron Kelly said. "When we started out, we started making everything ourselves. A lot of the places buy theirs. We still do it from scratch. Our customers got accustomed to our own snapper soup, potato salad and fresh seafoods. It’s easier to buy it prepared, but we couldn’t buy anything that compared to what we serve."
While Kelly’s food remains reliable and flavorful fare, the most significant change — beyond expansions of the menu — has been the size of the restaurant, and even those improvements occurred some years ago.
In 1983, the Kellys purchased an adjacent drugstore and doubled the restaurant’s seating area to 150. In 1988, three more properties were purchased for the restaurant’s parking lot. Kelly’s also offers banquet facilities and off-site catering, bringing its famous seafood to even more family celebrations.
The legacy that Ron Kelly and his dad undertook a half-century ago should live on for many years to come.
Today, a fourth generation of Kellys works at the Bustleton restaurant — Ryan and Brynn Kelly, like their fathers, their grandfather and their great-grandfather.
And it’s only fitting that a current city councilman by the name of Kelly — Jack Kelly — would recognize Kelly’s with a proclamation to honor the family’s business milestone and applaud them for feeding generations of Northeast Philadelphia families.
The councilman-at-large recently presented Brian Kelly with the City Council citation, recording his family’s place in the city’s history of culinary tradition. ••
For more information, call 215-969-5950 or visit www.kellysseafood.com