Pat Kelly’s been behind the bar at Ryan’s Pub for more than a decade, and he still loves the job.
How long have you been at Ryan’s? About 10 years.
What got you started here? When I turned 18 a neighbor of mine bartended at Maddie’s, so I got involved too. When I turned 21 I was hanging out at Ryan’s, and I got offered a job bar-backing. I barbacked for about one-and-a-half years, then a spot as a bartender opened up.
With a name like Pat Kelly, I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise you were hanging out at an Irish pub. Well, I’m definitely American, although my grandfather is from Ireland. It just happened to be where all my friends were hanging out, so I hung out here a bunch. I think we all congregated at Ryan’s because of the bartenders. They were really down to earth and treated everyone who came
into the bar like a person. I always felt like when I came in, I’d be welcome and I’d probably know somebody.
So you left Maddie’s to come work where you were hanging out. I had stopped working at Maddie’s some time before that. I was actually doing a regular job at the time, and I picked up a couple nights at Ryan’s for extra cash.
What was the regular job? At the time, I was at a medical supply company in Malvern. So, bar-backing was always sort of a second job. But, when I started bartending, Ryan’s became the primary job, and the other jobs were part-time.
What’s the situation now? Now I work the bar on weekends and am fulltime at Market Street Print.
Wait, you choose to work weekends when you’ve already got a nine-to five? I enjoy it. I like being here. If I need to take off, I can, but I usually don’t—I’m here Friday and Saturday night. And the money definitely doesn’t hurt; I like having the extra money in my pocket. Plus, on weekends my friends end up here anyway, so I figure if my friends are gonna be here, I might as well make some money at it.
Is it kind of a young crowd those nights? Not until pretty late. For the dinner hour, there’s a family crowd—people eating in the booths, or maybe having a drink and some food at the bar. Around 10:30pm, it turns into a younger crowd.
What enables you to have both audiences? I think it helps that we’ve been here for a while. We got established in this town at the right time, right as the town was growing. Today we have our regulars, and the nightlife kinda comes.
A lot of bar owners work really hard to have that nightlife. I think all the people that owner Pat Ryan hires are good people, and I think customers appreciate that. Plus, Saturday nights we have really good late-night specials from 10pm to midnight: $3 flavored vodka drinks, $3 Miller Lite bottles, and $5 energy bombs.
I imagine that gets the crowd turned up a bit. Yeah, a little bit…
Photo: Sabina Sister
Interview: Dan Mathers
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