the fifth generation takes over one of Delaware's oldest bars
When Michael P. "Mike" Kelly Jr. would give tours of his beloved 158-year-old Kelly's Logan House, he would tell of his family's four-generation ownership of one of the oldest bars in Delaware, even showing the horsehair plaster used on some walls with the hairs still embedded.
Each tour at the oldest continuous family-owned Irish bar in the country would end the same way: a demonstration showing the proper way to pour a pint of Guinness by Kelly, usually clad in a kelly green jacket for St. Patrick's Day and other special events.
Seven months after Kelly succumbed to gallbladder cancer following a five-year fight, his children Michael Patrick "Pat" Kelly Jr. and Joanna Kelly were behind that same bar for a photoshoot with Delaware Online/The News Journal after the fifth generation of the family took ownership.
And, yes, Pat wore his father's old jacket, which still bears some stains from over the years, surely a few from long ago past pints.
Not only does the Logan House legacy touch generations of customers over the years, it is part of the fabric of the Kelly family — the site of family weddings, baby parties and funeral receptions, including Mike's father, John D. Kelly, the colorful former New Castle County sheriff who died nearly 20 years ago.
As Pat, 26, and Joanna, 30, take the reigns, the Tower Hill School graduates feel the weight of responsibility, entrusted to keep this part of the family legacy going forward as their mother, Deanna, keeps a careful eye.
"Our father grew up just a few doors down from the Logan House. He really valued history and the Logan House was central to his identity," said Joanna, an attorney like her father, living in Philadelphia and working as a public defender. "We really can't overstate how important it was to him and how much pride he had in it.
"We think about that all the time, and that's why we're so grateful to carry that on."
With all that considered, don't expect a revamp from the younger Kelly generation. No major changes are on the horizon for the bar and restaurant, which hosts live music, karaoke, DJs and Quizzo as the eyes of late Kelly members look on from their framed photos that dot the walls.
"We're talking through a lot of ideas, but we have nothing major to announce in terms of changes," said Joanna, who earned her law degree at the University of Virginia School of Law after graduating from Columbia University. "I anticipate that we will have some great additions in the future."
While Joanna continues her day job in Philadelphia, Pat moved home to Wilmington when his father died. The University of Miami graduate had been living in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and working in medical device sales before returning home and turning his focus to "Logies," as his father liked to call the bar. Pat will be applying to business school this fall.
The historic spot first opened in 1864 as a hotel, and the Kelly family took over in 1889, living on the second floor. Logan House lore states that everyone from gangster Al Capone to showman William "Buffalo Bill" Cody stayed at the Forty Acres hotel, which had a tavern on the ground floor.
Logan House patrons won't be able to miss Pat when he's working at the bar, a 6-foot-7 former tight end topped with a mop of blonde hair.
His earliest memories of the bar come from past St. Patrick's Day celebrations, riding on a float with his father before ending up at the family haunt at an age "probably younger than I should have been to be allowed on the premises." (The Logan House's tavern license makes it a 21-and-over-only experience.)
Once he was 21, Pat visited from college to fully experience St. Patrick's Day at the Logan House with a proper pint in his hand for the first time. He brought friends from the University of Miami along, mixing with some old childhood Wilmington friends for the daylong bash.
"I just remember my dad wearing his green jacket and leading the charge through the mob of people a the bar, trying to get us where he thought we would be best positioned," Pat recalled.
Even when they were children, their father would comment that the bar would be theirs to run one day. As they got into their 20s, the conversations became a lot more realistic. And as their father fought cancer, it became clear that their time was coming and began to be included in business decisions to ensure a smooth transition.
Pat already finds himself leaning on some of his father's advice from over the years, including the adage, "Don't sweat the small stuff — and it's all small stuff."
Some of Mike's legendary joke and storytelling skills have been passed along to them, but they are not quite the overgrown personalities of their father and grandfather: "Our mom was a moderating force, fortunately or unfortunately," Joanna joked.
They still chuckle at some of their father's go-to lines, like when he would tell people about his twin brother, John, adding as an understated aside, "Good looking guy."
It's those memories that still flood their minds as they walk the bar's wooden floors, the same planks that felt the footsteps of four generations of Kellys before them.
"We take this legacy as seriously as our father," Joanna said, "and we're really excited to be the ones to bring this tradition forward."
