Kelly’s from his history, didn’t start out life as a college bar.
Further back in the 19th century it was originally called the Ivy Inn. Located on the corner of Roberts Road and Lancaster Avenue in Bryn Mawr, it’s always just kind of been there.
The building it is today is kind of a flat roof monstrosity that I’m not quite sure how it ever got built. I remember when the Biggins brothers wanted to expand it and make it something different. All of a sudden it was this unfinished monstrosity and the place that gone belly up. Then the current owners bought it.
Honestly, I swear I’ve heard more complaints about that bar under the current ownership than the prior ownership.
There were lots of joints in Bryn Mawr years ago. Not fancy or pretentious, just bars. Like the Erin Pub and then I swear there was a place called Bob’s Mystical Garden. And also a place called You Bet Your Life we called You Beat Your Wife (then it became Mallory’s and is now and still The Grog.)
Kelly’s seems like it has had a growth of issues with the reincarnation of what was once a dive bar with pool tables in the back. When I knew it. that was fine. It was a joint.
Once the students cleared out for the year, or even certain times of the week there were local characters, some quite sad. One I met by accident once. It was while I was interviewing for first “real jobs” a million years ago. You know those in between days before true adulting started? I will also note that I never got in there underage because I never had fake ID etc.
Anyway, I literally went this one random day many, many years ago to Kelly’s with one of my friends. Yep we went to check out what they call “day drinking” today. I don’t like beer, so for me not so much drinking. It seemed quite scandalous to do that, and I remember thinking at the time how pissed of my mother would have been – who didn’t like those places to begin with – so that is probably why I did it.
There were some older locals in there that day. There was also a somewhat more refined older and really, really drunk Main Line-ish woman. Blondish hair flirting with the bartender. She was too wasted to drive. Came in that way apparently. I still think she was doing her own crawl. We hadn’t been there that long so we drove the woman home. She lived down College Avenue, on the other side of Haverford Road where the houses get more grand again closer to Merion Golf.
We made sure that she got into her big, overly quiet house and left. Seemed very lonely. Wanted us to come in and have a drink with her and that kind of killed us on the day drinking experience. We figured that when she sobered up, she would call a cab to get her car or maybe a family member would help her. My friend and I commented at the time to each other after we had left of how that could’ve turned out very differently for her if a pair of women hadn’t helped her get home.
That was like 40 years ago and I never forgot that. A lesson learned- what not to become. A very sad and lonely bar fly, whomever she was. And that was a beautiful house she lived in.
But that was old Kelly’s. I was not ever a regular, it was just an occasional place for me. So many people were these devotees of this place and that’s the only place they would ever go. They definitely had a devoted following back in the day. I remember like a giant moose head and a really big jockstrap hanging up. I also remember the old bar and always wondered what it would look like if it was truly cleaned up?
It was of course also a fun place to play pool once in a while. I am and always will be a less than mediocre pool player, but back then it was still fun. However, even my younger self knew residents and small businesses didn’t love the Kelly’s crowd. But I don’t remember the place getting as bad a rap until the current ownership. Or maybe none of us were aware of prior issues because it was before social media and everything all over the Internet?
I remember there was this roof deck thing when it first reopened and I remember there were actually pictures that the neighbors had taken because it was so loud at night and lots of people on these roof areas, and I think the Bryn Mawr Civic Association was trying to deal with it and I know this is actually true because I found an old email that I had been sent. It’s completely random that I had this email because it was from 2011. Not sure if it was prior or current ownership, but there were a flurry of court cases back then.
Recently I noticed in the media coverage of Kelly’s issues at present, they (the owners) feel like they’re being targeted, but are they really? Or is this just a continuation of past issues?
And the college-age behavior (and bars) is something that has always existed, but the attitude of some of the students now I think is different. Big senses of entitlement, yes? I also still think this has to do with the school, in this case Villanova University, because in my opinion they’re rather hands-off about their students off of campus and they’re a big presence in the area so I don’t know that they really can be anymore can they?
And do the students behave the way they do off campus because they feel that the school does not really care about their behavior in the community anyway? I mean, look at Mount Pleasant in Tredyffrin? It’s back to business as usual over there with new student rentals. Delta Chi frat bros in some of the rentals, and oh the richness of the other fact that a couple of the ones charged with disturbing the peace from the last round pled not guilty and are taking this to court because you know it’s fine to scream whore (among other behaviors) at a full time resident in the middle of the night, right?
Now to be honest, we tried going in there a couple of times over the past few years because new look Kelly’s advertises themselves as a pub and you can get lunch, etc. etc. Well I thought the food sucked. Both times we went there was like a Saturday and it was also empty. I don’t think school was in session both times we were there.
So maybe the people that own the place should be honest as you know people aren’t going in for the food and gastropub-ish ambiance, and it’s not really catering to the entire community just the student community, correct?
The bottom of their online menu says it’s the only place you’ll ever want to be. No, not really. And if they actually really tried to make them themselves an all age more inclusive feeling pub, maybe they would have different reception from the community and the police and the local townships?
I also had to giggle at the bar’s recollection of the history on that site when it opened as “The Ivy Inn” in the 19th century. I don’t know that it was ever completely respectable, and you weren’t going to find people on the Main Line staying in their “summer cottages” there in my opinion. I mean maybe the gents on occasion but definitely not the ladies as it would not have been socially acceptable. I kind of mentally did an eye roll on that. Yes the place started in the late 19th century but to me it was probably more of a location for the average Joe working man, versus fancy-schmancy.
I do remember reading a thread online at some point in time where somebody had a elderly relative that remembered it had a side door for ladies.
And it’s a bummer because I can’t seem to find any old exterior or interior photos or anything of even the late 20th century rendition of Kelly’s before they turned it into what it is today. And I honestly do think these old joints play a part in local history not just the fancy houses. I’m not looking for people partying it up in there, I was looking for what it looked like inside. When I was cruising around the Internet for old shots, I found one random photo from 1985 and you can’t even really see the bar or anything it’s just a bunch of people.
Now, when I was looking to see if I could still find some of these old threads about the history, I came across a guy remarking about something that happened in 2018 and it was some kid basically was followed from the bar and stabbed in Bryn Mawr.
College bars are college bars. Yet they need to co-exist in the regular world which they are a part of. If Kelly’s Taproom has a bullseye on it then they need to take some responsibility don’t they? Based on the past it’s nothing new.
Pope picture 🤮🙄)
Maybe Bryn Mawr doesn’t want college bars anymore? What about hookah bars? Are they still in existence?
I am going to share the recent media. But in my humble opinion it is not so simple as a college bar merely being targeted. Lower Merion’s s current police superintendent doesn’t start these things unless he has proof. I might not know what the heck is really going on, but I do know that much.
Also as I went this morning to noodle around for more for this post that there is a petition circulating by the owners to stop foreclosure. Didn’t know there was a current issue with foreclosure? Also a bit of a Hail Mary?
Sharing links on present and past.
And again, I don’t have a problem with the old joints so to speak. Like one of the best hamburgers you will still ever get anywhere is Roache and O’Briens in Haverford. Somehow they have managed to survive just the way they are since 1933. Kelly’s should take a page out of their book.
Thanks for stopping by.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/popular-bryn-mawr-bar-under-041214238.html
https://www.suburbanlifemagazine.com/article/1805/Serving-with-Spirit