Location: 102 N. Page Ave., Endicott, New York 13760
Phone: (607) 785-4444
Cuisine: Bar Food
Attire: Casual
Price: $20 for two
Review:
Kelly's is a bit of a one-trick pony as food goes. They have a wide array of deep fried appetizers like onion rings, french fries, sweet potato fries, jalapeno poppers, and other similar items. They also have a sandwich menu with several different burgers and wraps, as well as the local delicacy, spiedies. If you're going to eat at Kelly's, I highly advise against going with any of these options. Instead, go with their specialty--the wings.
Kelly's is a bit of an oddity in terms of layout. There are two entrances, a bar entrance and a restaurant entrance. There are some small tables adjacent to the bar, a small room of circular tables between the bar and the main dining area, and the main dining area which is comprised of huge rectangular tables with another bar on the right side of the room. They used to have a couple pretty good waitresses, but fired their entire staff one day about four months ago. Ever since, the service has been less than spectacular, with the wait staff being largely less-than-attentive. Around the restaurant are several large televisions. They offer the NFL Sunday Ticket during football season so you can watch all games in the same place. I'd imagine it'd be a pretty good place to watch the games; I've never actually done so. What I have gone to Kelly's for, many times, is the Wednesday night Team Trivia hosted by DJ Thaddeus. For those who like trivia, I find this one to be (generally) one of the best in the area. It's a really good atmosphere for trivia. $50 cash to the winner, $25 gift certificate for second, and a chance to win even more in the jackpot.
This is a bar, so it'd probably be worthwhile to discuss the beer selection briefly, which is pretty poor. It's not the worst in the area, as they at least have Newcastle, Bass, and Magic Hat #9, which are reasonable I guess. No microbrews to speak of, though, which is a drawback. But it's not as if I would come here to drink independent of trivia night.
As for the food, like I said, pretty mediocre. Over the years I've had a lot of the stuff on the menu. The pizza is edible but unspectacular, the french fries and sweet potato fries are OK for something to munch on. Of the appetizers I think I prefer the onion rings best. Even still, they are ordinary, fried, greasy onion rings. Blah.
The burgers are nothing to get excited about. The Bacon Bleu Cheese Burger is probably the best of the lot, but I make better burgers at home. The Spiedie Platter is one of the menu's better options. You get an enormous portion of either chicken or pork spiedies, with grilled onions, peppers, and mushrooms, together with several slices of Italian bread (the appropriate bread option for spiedies). These spiedies are good but I don't find much comparison with the best spiedies in the area, like Spiedie and Rib Pit or Sharkey's. The bread they give you is flimsy Wonder Bread-ish stuff which doesn't help the cause.
Onward to what Kelly's actually does well--the wings. These are good-sized wings with several different sauce options, and are among the better wings you can get in the Southern Tier. You can get them mild or hot, garlic or hot garlic, BBQ or hot BBQ, or honey mustard. If the hot is too weak for you, there's also a flavor called "suicide" which I presume jacks up the heat a bit more. I'm partial to the hot BBQ (a recent menu addition). The BBQ sauce has a pretty strong flavor that I didn't care for at first but have grown to like quite a bit. If you're going to eat at Kelly's, the wings are probably your best bet. Still, they aren't anywhere remotely near the best wings I've ever had, or anything like that.
Overall, Kelly's is an average local sports bar. Average beer selection, average food menu somewhat redeemed by a wide selection and its above-average wings. The Team Trivia is a good time with the layout of the restaurant and its big tables providing a good atmosphere for nerding out with a larger group of friends. The service can be pretty bad from time to time, but could be worse. It could be the Ale House.
Grade: C+
