Since my freshman year, I remember the first thing I wanted to do when I turned 21 was step inside the famous Kelly's Saloon. An idea that became impossible last summer when Kelly's caught fire and burned entirely to the ground. Many of the people who once swore they would sprint there on their 21st no longer had the option. But now, all those who never had the chance can enter again come next year.
Kelly's has been a staple in the nightlife since the 1970s, making losing it that much harder for both the locals and the college students. Many were infuriated with the fire because they thought it meant this bar would be no longer. Thankfully, the owners' granddaughter, Sarah Dieter, has taken the wheel on the reconstruction. We already know her parents have left the majority of the construction to her, hoping she will reopen in the same style that Kelly's conveyed over the years.
This past Monday, nine months after the fire that started it all, ground was finally broken. Though not many of the students are around to monitor the construction, the locals are responding with much excitement to the this ground breaking news. Dieter, who received approval from the Town Board for this, plans on rebuilding the two-story building that once stood at 71 Main. It will be mixed use, apartments and the bar, just as it was before.
With the loss of the Vital, the IB and Kelly's in just two years, it seemed as if, to many, Geneseo was going downhill. The IB was a fantastic place to meet up with friends, drinking or not, to relieve a little stress for $5 (or free if you were over 21). While the Vital, home to everyone's favorite Tuesday game, Trivia, closed down shortly after the IB left us. While the Idle and the Statesmen do a lot of work to keep the Geneseo bar scene up and running, it truly is good news to see people working hard and opening new bars to take the place of the old. Bar-Eat-O, though mainly a fantastic Mexican eatery, serves alcoholic beverages (only until 12 on weekends) and the Idle has taken over trivia on Tuesday nights.
The Statesmen has good intentions, but the problem with the Unders and fake IDs has become more and more difficult to handle with extreme consequences that may turn some people away in the future. And there is still one more bar, that I think has yet to be named, but will be opening at that old tattoo parlor on Center Street, right across from the Idle. No one knows how well that bar will do, yet, but we are hoping for the best.
Hearing the news about Kelly's reopening in the next few months is just the news all of us wanted to hear this summer. Geneseo has become the home to a lot over the past one, two or three years and we love to see it preserving the culture that has been around for decades. Losing Kelly's was hard, and here's to hoping that it is just as good (or at least close) to how great it was before!
