PJ Kelly's in Peekskill Closing

[TrishNY12]

I just read in the North County News that PJ Kelly's in Peekskill is closing. Here's the article:

PEEKSKILL – The owner of PJ Kelly’s restaurant and pub at the Peekskill train station has decided to end his family’s 15-year run at the city landmark.

Matt Kelly, who inherited the business 10 years ago at the time of his father’s tragic death, has been accepted into the Master’s program at Notre Dame University and will relocate his family to Indiana to purse an advanced degree in business.

Kelly has been operating his business at the train station on a month-to-month lease with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) since last June. He made a bid for a long-term lease earlier this year but his proposal was rejected by the MTA as being too low. He was offered the option to continue month-to-month but has decided to move on instead.
Kelly was the only bidder to respond to the MTA.

In its request for proposals, the MTA sought extensive capital improvements at the train station and nearly triple the current monthly rent that PJ Kelly’s pays.
Kelly said he offered to make the capital investments but sought a lower rent in return and the MTA said no.

“My bid was considerably lower than what they were asking for, but I had considerable capital improvements to the premises,” he said. “They were looking for improvements with an increase in rent and I gave them capital improvements with a decrease in rent.”
Kelly said the decision to close PJ Kelly’s had more to do with his future business career than seeking a new long-term lease with the MTA.
“I’m not interested because I’m going back to business school,” he said. “That’s a good decision for my family.”

The restaurant portion of the business will likely close on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, while the bar will remain open until the end, most likely Father’s Day, in tribute to Kelly’s father who built up the business at a time when the train station area was struggling.
“Shutting down on Father’s Day would be a fitting end to the whole run,” he said.
The timing of the closing will depend in part on the MTA’s schedule and how quickly the restaurant’s seven employees can find new jobs, Kelly said. He expects to have to vacate the premises entirely by July 1.

[xsteveg]

KELLYS ROCKS!!

the food is very good the atmosphere great!! the new owners are so authentic irish! its fantastic! lots of revelars always show up when ever my band plays there!! when i am packing up at 230 am, there are people still partying

great place! great energy! my favorite place to play!

steve - push!
http://www.myspace.com/pushgo

[divadev]

That is a shame. I heard that MTA is putting a micro brew pub in there - does anyone know for sure?

[MisterBill2]

That makes no sense as a brewpub opened right across the street not long ago. Maybe you got your stories mixed up?

[culturelady]

We passed by Kelly's 5:00 PM yesterday and were pleasantly surprised to see that the restauarant was open. It wasn't raining (for a change) and people were sitting outside enjoying the food and good weather.
Does anyone know if it was purchased by someone else? I had read that Matt (the son) was leaving the area.

[rkaene]

I saw a sign on the blackboard that said new management

[kimmykimmy]

Yes, Kelly's has been taken over by someone else. Seamus Quigley is the new owner. I'm not sure what will be the same and what will be new, but i do know they have been on a crazy cleaning frezy. Whatever it becomes, i wish him all the luck, it's not the best time for this industry.

[jellyn]

I had a terrible meal tonight at the new "Kelly's". Horrible dry "Derryburger", wretched uncooked fries. I told the waitress, but didn't get any response. I ate nothing, but they charged us for the meal and took it away. Terrible service too. So sad, because the location is beautiful. Such a disappointment.

[Nancy C]

You should call and ask for the owner, and have a civil discussion about your problematic meal. Smart owners want to satisfy customers, esp in this economy. Better to comp you on a future visit than lose potential repeat customer! Did you dine with anyone else? How was their meal?

[A.Peekskill]

There are definitely still some kinks that they are working out, but we have had some good meals and the service is usually very good - I would give them another chance. Plus, it's a great location and an asset to the area, we'd hate to see it not make it.

[MisterBill2]

I missed this post. Is Seamus running it as part of the Garrison group he was running last time I heard (The Garrison and Valley) or on his own? For those who may remember, Seamus used to be the maitre'd at Xaviars in Garrison.

[ChefDell]

Went (4ppl)for lunch there Tues around noon and was very dissappointed. We sat outside and there were 2 other tables sat and one waitress. It took forever for her to take our order. We had shrimp cocktail, corned beef sandwich and 2 caesar salads with chicken. The shrimp was fine with nice sized shrimp that were cooked well. The corned beef came on a hamburger roll and we were told that they ran out of rye bread and the owner was bringing some in at some point that day. We asked for another bread choice but whole wheat seemed like a worse option. We were in a rush and didnt have time for something else so my companion took the meat out of the bun. There were 3 small thin slices of watery corned beef. Not at all tasty. The caesar salads had good grilled chicken but the dressing was obviously a pre-package(not homemade)dressing and was not good. It was that tangy kind of dressing. The croutons were inedible as the were soaked with oil. We would have complained but the waitress never came back again. We did tell her about our meal when we called her over for the check. She seemed flustered and explained that she had no busboy that day and was a little crazy busy. Again, 2 other tables besides ours. Well 2 of my guests had to go before we could get change because it took so long. I think that $60+ for what we had, and 4 club sodas, was crazy not to mention that the food was not up to par. Will not return.

[GIOny]

That's a shame, sorry to hear it's leaving. I'm sure the greedy MTA will find a way to make up for the loss of income.......can you say "fare hikes" again!! Good luck to Matt Kelly and his family.