Kelly's to open in Allston

Kelly’s beefing up in Boston
By Donna Goodison / Restaurant Of The Year | Thursday, November 19, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets

Bostonians looking to satisfy their cravings for a Kelly’s Roast Beef fix should be able to avoid a road trip by next April.

The 58-year-old restaurant chain that takes credit for inventing the roast beef sandwich plans to revamp the former Marty’s Liquor store in Allston into its first Hub location. The 140-seat eatery will be the sixth for the Saugus chain that’s been named the 2009 Restaurant of the Year by the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.

The company that got its start when founders Frank McCarthy and Ray Carey opened the first Kelly’s at Revere Beach in 1951 now rakes in some $26 million annually. It sells almost 1 million pounds of roast beef and 45,000 pounds of lobster meat per year.

The business has been led since McCarthy’s death in 1982 by his son, president and CEO Brian McCarthy, who got his start as a 13-year-old cleaner in the Revere takeout location. The second-generation McCarthy, 62, credits the company’s success to “having a father who had a great concept and not screwing it up.”

“It’s paying attention to business and serving one customer at a time and actually trying to care,” said McCarthy, who co-owns Kelly’s with the Carey family.

With its Allston location at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Harvard Street, Kelly’s hopes to finally tap into the college market, which it’s been serving by catering for Boston College athletic teams and visiting schools.

McCarthy did some “research” on his plan’s viability by spending weekday nights in April through July having a few beers at Boston bars and quizzing college students about where they go to eat.

“We think it’s a great opportunity to break into that market,” he said. “The population density is incredible. There are over 8,000 people who live within a quarter of a mile of this proposed store.”

If the restaurant is successful, McCarthy said he’d consider a second Boston location near Northeastern University, where he has two kids enrolled.

Kelly’s also started selling branded clothing this year, and McCarthy hopes to see a bump in sales when “The Company Men” is released in 2010. The film, which stars Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Kevin Costner, shot scenes in McCarthy’s Marblehead home, and Costner was wearing a blue Kelly’s T-shirt during filming.

“I negotiated with them,” McCarthy said. “I gave them quite a bit of money back . . . so this shirt could be worn in the movie.”
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