#InauguralReview @KellysBarNYC by #GerryDoyle Named After His Mother #MarieKelly #IRISH #1154SecondAvenue at #61stStreet #Manhattan
Say muenster cheese and smile when you say "Enchante" to the French Onion Burger!
Remember, GUINNESS IS GOOD FOR YOU!
It's common knowledge that Peachy Deegan absolutely was born to love hockey and drink Guinness and her late Grandmother taught her that there are two kinds of people in this world, those who are IRISH and those that wish they were. There would be a lot more Irish places featured in this column if only they made the culinary effort that the others published on have...and we are absolutely thrilled to announce we have found a brand new great one: Kelly's Bar! When you eat here, your stomach will smile like Mario Lemieux. Castleknock, Dublin native Gerry Doyle came to the USA in 1993 and has shown us his dedication to quality, fresh cuisine in a 50-seat casual setting. This is his first restaurant; he also has a bar downtown. A former Rugby player, Gerry tells us that this is his favorite sport and you can see Rugby Union at Kelly's along with nearly all other sports. Kelly's Bar opened in April 2025 at 1154 Second Avenue at 61st street. We are impressed with their stellar sports bar menu that is clearly superior. We will call Kelly's IRISH because Gerry is Irish and we consider Irish and Irish American the same thing as far as food goes. Of course this is an all-American spot. Gerry graciously greeted us the minute we walked in and is tops in hospitality. He is a restaurant owner who takes tremendous pride in his vocation.
Every competitive venue in Manhattan ought to have a commanding burger, and the burgers at Kelly's are cast-iron crafted. The French Onion Burger sounded great to us and it tasted even better. We have eaten a lot of burgers this year and this is one of the very best so we hope they keep it up! It was served perfectly medium rare as ordered with muenster cheese, caramelized onions and roasted garlic mayo that hit the spot. Burgers in general are served with a side of fries, cole slaw, potato salad, green salad or onion rings. We praise the variance of choices; usually it is just fries or fries or salad but Kelly's is better because they have four side choices. We chose green salad and they listened and put the dressing on the side. The salad is intelligently presented in a bowl to keep it separate from the delicious burger. This may sound like common sense but we see that common sense is not so common, especially in casual spots.
The Tex-Mex Burger was suggested to us and if you like a kick, the generously applied Queso will give you one! The oozy cheese is joined by crisp bacon (Sorry Miss Piggy we adored the bacon) and avocado and also it was correctly medium rare as ordered, shown below. Onion rings came to this party and they were crisp and fantastic companions.
Note we do not edit pictures.
We publish the truth and the truth is Marie Kelly is having a party upstairs reading about her son and his efforts to make your sports bar culinary endeavor fabulous.
A weak point for many casual places is salads at all and when they do have them, fresh salads.
Have no fear because there are three salad options right now at Kelly's and all three are full of freshness. The House Salad, above, boasts cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, and parsley and arrived in style with dressing on the side as requested by Ms. Pretty Picky. And she did like the ranch dressing. Next, the Caesar Salad is so correct that anchovies are included but the hospitality is tops so they will ask you if you want them to be present. Chopped Romaine, mixed greens, parsley, parmesan and croutons are a classic made even better by adding the extra of grilled chicken.
The fresh dill added to the Greek Salad really punctuates it perfectly. It parties with the mixed greens, cucumbers thoughtfully cut with the wet middle taken out, tomatoes, red onion, feta, and olives. Three Quesadilla options are presented and we chose Chili and Cheese, as this was different to us. It hit the spot and paired well with the Guinness, which we love. The beer lines are cleaned every two weeks here we are told and there are ten beers on tap including Guinness. If you don't drink alcohol, there are Guinness 00 and Heineken no alcohol options as well as an evolving mocktail list.
Gerry has built a winning team of General Manager and Executive Chef Patrick Lydon who is responsible for the admirable menu and Bartender Johnny Holmes of County Cork and obviously you can't get any better than UCC and living in Cork (thanks to our Cork following!) and their hospitality skills are equally strong as the leadership coming from Gerry. The traditional BLT (Bacon Lettuce Tomato) is exactly what we were looking for with its crisp bacon, fresh lettuce and tomato assembled mightily on superior sourdough with a side of mayo. The potato salad is the best we've had in recent times and it's full of boiled red skin potatoes, scallions, dill, parsley, Hellmann's mayo and brown mustard all in perfect proportion to each other. Most sports bars just give you frozen fries as a side with no other options but Kelly's gives you great choices. The french fries here are cut daily from Idaho potatoes and they join the seven ounce Cod, delivered twice a week that sizzle from Kona Ale golden beer in the line fifteen minutes prior to becoming your Golden Fried Dinner in a Fab Four Fish presentation. These are the best Fish and Chips we have had anywhere in 2025.
Finally for all of the Boston College Eagles of Peachy's era, you ought to know that Gerry also has been to the late great Kells in Boston just off the B line of the T where Peachy spent many, many Thursday nights and maybe all of them before she graduated senior year.
Kelly's Bar impressed us on our first visit and we look forward to seeing what they do next.
