Kelly's is Back

Feel free to ignore this if you're not a Villanova alum. But I couldn't help but take note of the most important news of the week...

The legendary Kelly's pub of Bryn Mawr reopened to the public on March 9 as Kelly's Restaurant and Taproom after being closed for nearly a decade. The original bar, which stood at the corner of Lancaster Avenue and Roberts Road since the 1940s, was a longtime favorite of University students.

Eugene Mitchell, '89, along with a group of fellow University alumni and local residents, bought the building in an effort to recreate and expand upon the popular bar. "When the opportunity came up to buy the land all of us thought it was a great idea," Mitchell said. "We remember what Kelly's was when we were in college - it was the place to go."

...Many University alumni and former Kelly's patrons, however, are surprised at the reformed watering hole. Bill Sheridan, '76, remembers Kelly's as "a complete dive."

"But when it closed," he added, "it was like the University closing. It was part of your education."

Sheridan and fellow alumnus, Bill Apsey, '76, recall the jukebox, pool tables, cheap Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and frequent raids by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board as inherent parts of their Kelly's memories.

"It was definitely just a college hangout," Apsey said, adding that occasionally professors also stopped by. "Every junior and senior was there every week."

Apsey was especially surprised by the addition of a kitchen. "The nicest food they used to have was a Slim Jim," he said.

But more than anything, alumni remember the Kelly's atmosphere. "It was a place where you would run into everyone you knew," Tim Whitaker, '70, said.

Rev. John Stack, O.S.A., Vice President of Student Life and class of 1971, also frequented Kelly's in his undergraduate days.

Despite differences from the original bar, he anticipates current students taking the new establishment under their wing.

"Students now don't have any recollection of what it used to be like...so if the students decide to frequent it, it will be because of their own experiences," he said. "We don't have a senior bar [near] campus and if run responsibly, it could be a great addition to the social scene."

I don't know if I can get used to the idea of eating dinner at Kelly's. Then again, even if they had served dinner there 10 years ago, I probably would not have noticed.