Kelly's Bar Hamtramck
Bar · Hamtramck ·
Smash burgers, dollar wings, backyard, live music, drink specials
Smash burgers, dollar wings, backyard, live music, drink specials
"Kelly’s has achieved cult-classic status in just a few years for mouth-watering smash burgers and dollar wing nights. It proudly bills itself as a dive bar and sticks to the classics when it comes to food and drink, though it was revamped under new ownership relatively recently. Expect cheap beers, solid food, and great company, especially when the sun is shining in the backyard." - Mickey Lyons
"Kelly’s Bar in Hamtramck began serving shots and beers to wary auto factory workers more than a century ago. Current owners Kiersten Schilinski and Garrett Ragsdale have modernized the space with a new exterior, leveled floors, and a new kitchen — though they’ve maintained some of the spot’s grungy/vintage charm, such as keeping the doors to the large back yard covered in layers of stickers and signatures and maintaining tin ceiling tiles. Expect cans of Hamm’s and Modelo, a rotation of food pop-ups, and a rotation of some of your favorite Hamtramck bartenders." - Serena Maria Daniels
"The dive bar will serve paczki and pierogi from Srodek’s for Fat Tuesday. To pair with the outrageous pastries, they’re shaking up the Krakow Cream cocktail, made with Detroit City Distillery’s Paczki Day vodka, paczki cream liqueur, coffee liqueur, and a floater of heavy cream." - Courtney Burk
"Operating under its original name since 1917, this Holbrook dive bar was purchased in July 2021 by Kiersten Schilinski and Garrett Ragsdale from Brad Ruff and Patti Banas (Ruff was killed a month later by a drunk driver). Schilinski and Ragsdale have spent the past 18 months honoring the bar’s legacy while modernizing it — bringing it up to health code, adding ADA-compliant ramps, refacing the exterior, leveling floors, gutting and rebuilding the kitchen, and installing a new back bar built by local woodworker Daniel Ross while retaining the original piece beneath. The renovation replaced the hot-pink plastic bathroom walls and obscene graffiti with slick black tile and pink grouting as a cheeky nod to the past, clad the exterior in vertical black steel while preserving the sticker- and signature-covered doors to the large backyard, and kept the bar’s straightforward identity: “a regular bar where you can come and drink.” Kelly’s will reopen with a party at noon on Saturday, February 18 (running until at least midnight), will celebrate Paczki Day beginning at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, February 21, will be open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., and will host food pop-ups for now with hopes for a regular lunch and dinner menu down the road." - Mickey Lyons
"A 100-year-old Hamtramck dive bar that Brad Ruff bought in the mid-2000s, Kelly's was transformed by Ruff—a charismatic former American Axle jobsetter—into a place known for fish fries, periodic barbecues and for hosting bands from all over the world. Ruff, who liked making people happy and had a contagious joie de vivre, sold the bar just days ago to Detroit Marble Bar owner Garrett Ragsdale as he prepared to retire; Ruff was later killed in a motorcycle crash in Eastpointe that reportedly involved an alleged drunken driver and also critically injured his wife, Patti Banas. Owners Kiersten Schilinski and Garrett Ragsdale have spent the past 18 months polishing both the interior and exterior—leveling floors, gutting and rebuilding the kitchen, sprucing up restrooms—and added a custom-built bar rail and revamped backyard, while taco nights, Kellyoke and (motor)bike nights have kept the regular crowd coming. Ragsdale reportedly has plans to turn it into a biker bar." - Monica Williams