June 06, 2006
Kelly's Diner in Somerville
In my ongoing quest to find the best Diners in my world, I had repeatedly heard about Kelly's in Somerville (not to be confused with the excellent seafood/roastbeef place in Revere).
Kelly's is just up the street from where I used to live in Somerville, so it always struck me as odd that I'd never tried it back then. And these days, it just wasn't near my beaten path.
But this morning, my location and my urges converged, and I found my way to this classic diner in Ball Square, Somerville.
It totally lived up to its reputation.
It's a renovated O'Mahoney diner-car diner. These are the legendary prefab diners, originally built in the mid 20th century. The mystery of why I'd never eaten here, when I lived in the neighborhood back in the late 80s, was solved when I discovered that this Diner was moved here in 1996. It had spent the previous 4 decades in Delaware.
The food was great. My omelet was big, yet fluffy. It arrived hot. It was neither over- nor under-cooked. The coffee was served in genuine, heavy ceramic, diner mugs, not these distressing little thimble-like things you find most places.
The service staff was friendly, prompt with the refills, and while I ate at the the counter I listened to them pleasantly grumbling about lost checks and the malfunctioning soft-drink machine.
The menu lists a turkey club sandwich. I'll have to stray into this neighborhood again some time soon.
[Photo by Hugo Haas. I hope he doesn't mind me using it.]