Dugan’s: A food & family
success story

By Jon Campisi
Times Staff Writer

If a destructive fire couldn’t wipe Ilona Keller’s Dugan’s banquet hall off the map, unfounded rumors of its impending demise certainly won’t do the job.
After all, Czechoslovakian immigrant IIona Keller and her family have been running one of the area’s most well known banquet facilities for 40 years now, and nothing has stood in their path to success.
"We’ve been here so long, a lot of people seem to know about it," Keller’s daughter, Anne Keller-Kane, said during a recent interview at the combination banquet hall and restaurant at 7900 Roosevelt Blvd.
The origin of Ilona Keller’s Dugan’s can be traced to the 1960s. At the time, Ilona Keller and her former husband were running a taproom in Fox Chase — where the family lived — called Martin’s Grill. But the partnership went sour after about a year and the business folded.
Some years later, when the couple were going through a divorce, it was the attorney for Ilona Keller’s husband who suggested she go into business for herself, while also drawing a connection between the business-savvy Keller and a character from the television series Gunsmoke. The name of the character was Kitty, who ran a bar in the show.
"If you take the business over, I will call you Kitty; if you don’t, I will call you a fool," Keller-Kane recalled the lawyer saying upon urging her mother to buy Dugan’s, a local banquet facility that was for sale.
So in 1968, Keller purchased the business from then-owner Jerry Dugan. At the time, Dugan’s was a decent-size facility specializing in virtually the same things the business focuses on today — wedding receptions, graduation parties, funeral gatherings. It had been a mere bar when Jerry Dugan started out — the date couldn’t be determined — but grew as the former owner added to the building, constructing a banquet room and dining room, and later a restaurant.
For its first 12 years, Ilona Keller opted to keep Dugan in the name of the business because of the public’s familiarity with the local landmark — which operated out of a building just next door to where the establishment stands today.
But in 1980, tragedy struck.
It was around 11 one morning when employees and a small number of people in the building noticed smoke. Fire, which had started in the basement, made its way up the stairs to the kitchen. The fire marshal later determined that a cigarette ash had landed in a linen basket in the basement and started the blaze.
"Then, employees were allowed to smoke. It’s not like today," Keller-Kane said.
The building could not be saved. And because the Keller family was living in an apartment above the business at the time, they found themselves out of not only a job but a home as well. The family stayed at a relative’s condominium until they could get back on their feet.
Amazingly enough, a little more than a year later, Ilona Keller’s Dugan’s was once again up and running, albeit in a new facility. Keller had learned that the building, which housed an Acme supermarket at the time, was up for lease. The business-minded Keller convinced the owner to sell the building rather than lease it, and the rest is history.
Keller-Kane said her mother, now 82 and semi-retired, was sort of a pioneer, since it was rare for women in years past to take on such a venture without help.
"When you think about it, women didn’t do that then," Keller-Kane said. "Today, it’s not that unheard of."
Keller-Kane is the only one of Keller’s three children who works at the business. Formerly employed by a law firm, she helped out a bit during her younger years, when her mother was in surgery, but didn’t make it a full-time career move until she learned the benefits of self-employment.
"I kind of liked being my own boss," she said.
Today, Ilona Keller’s Dugan’s employs about 35 workers.
"It’s a family-owned business, and it will remain so," Keller-Kane said.
Her husband, Michael Kane, is the kitchen manager. He has worked for the business since its days in the building that was leveled by fire. Actually, he met his wife through work; the two were married in 1983.
The facility, which is open every day except Christmas, also served — and continues to serve — as an amusement park of sorts for grandchildren in the family. During the Christmas holiday in particular, the youngsters could be found riding around the spacious facility in their toy cars or on small bikes.
"Especially the lobby, the banquet rooms. They could really go," Keller-Kane said of the fun the children have when the family has the whole place to themselves.
But Keller-Kane would rather have the place filled with customers, and they have built a good client base over the years.
"We get a lot of repeat business," she said, noting business most often comes through word-of-mouth.
You can count Alison Rife among the list of happy customers. Rife, who grew up in the Northeast but has lived in Shippensburg for more than a decade, recently attended three events at Ilona Keller’s Dugan’s: a high school graduation party, a college graduation party, and her own surprise birthday party thrown by her husband.
"They’re extremely outgoing and very accommodating," Rife said of the Keller family during a phone interview. "You don’t get that kind of customer service anymore. For those special moments . . . I think they still give top service."
Rife recalled accompanying her father to Dugan’s during the 1970s. Her dad, who worked for a local Shop ’n Bag, would take part in company outings at the banquet hall. She remembers going with him to drop off door prizes for employees during the annual Christmas party.
But she also remembers witnessing the devastating fire firsthand. "I actually remember being there at the fire because I remember my dad taking me," she said.
In 1990, Rife also celebrated her first marriage with a reception at the banquet hall. Whatever the occasion, aside from the fire, Rife has fond memories of Ilona Keller’s Dugan’s.
For Keller-Kane, it’s memories like these that the family business aims to create through top-notch service.
"Anytime somebody needs a banquet hall, we are available," she said. ••
The restaurant at Ilona Keller’s Dugan’s is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information about the restaurant or banquet facility, call 215-333-7900 or visit www.dugansbanquets.com
Reporter Jon Campisi can be reached at 215-354-3038 or jcampisi@phillynews.com