Barley Brothers and Perkins in Old Kelsey's Locations

Barley Brother in Kelsey's Old Empress Location

Back in March of this year, two Kelsey's suddenly closed on Empress and Kenaston. Presumably they had the same franchise owner. The locations immediately went up for lease and it in the last month, new tenants have moved in.

The Kelsey's at Kenaston is now a Perkin's Restaurant. By Perkins standards, the location on Kenaston appears smaller than what we have seen in this city. However, aside from the morning coffee places like Tim Horton's or Ikea breakfast or McDonald's, the Kenaston area has been crying for a casual dining place that serves a variety of breakfasts. IHOP politely said they were not coming to Seasons of Tuxedo despite the plans strongly indicating that they were.

I have no idea why Kelsey's closed two locations. Suffice to say that the restaurant style was junior to Montana's and Milestones, their flashier and larger siblings. Other Kelsey's remain in the city so whatever happened was localized.

While Kenaston's old Kelsey's landed another restaurant franchise in Perkin's, the Empress location for Kelsey's saw a local outfit move in. A craft brew pub but the name of Barley Brother's has opened next to Montana's across from Polo Park.

By all accounts, they are landing some good publicity and hopefully their timing of open just before Christmas will endear them to a large audience.

One wonders how they might have done if the stadium or alas, the arena had remained in the area.

Still, Polo Park is a target rich environment for customers and where Kelsey's eventually fell out of favour, Barley Brothers might have a long and fulfilling run on Empress.