Raising the Bar: How Hard Work, Quick Thinking and a Thick Skin Have Made Mike Kelly a Success

- 6/3/2009 By: Kip Tabb

In 1985 Mike Kelly had lived and worked on the Outer Banks for 15 years, was well-respected for his skills in restaurant management, had a growing family and a good paying job--in short, life was going on a safe path to success.

It was the year Kelly opened Kelly’s Outer Banks Tavern.

“I had managed two restaurants down here,” Kelly says. “The owners had been very fair with me. The second restaurant was being sold. The new owners had made me an offer. But I was 35 years old. It was time for me to either work for a new owner or work on my own.”

It was not a good time to start a new business. Interest rates were at 16% and Kelly had other obstacles as well. “The bigger problem was I didn’t have any money to speak of,” he says. “I had one banker who believed in me. I had a $900,000 loan and a lot less than that in the bank.”

It was not an overnight success. “I worked really hard for the first two and a half years. I worked about 90 hours a week,” Kelly says.

But there were some skills that Kelly had that seemed to give him a little better chance of success. “Why did I work so hard?” he asks. “Why do I still work so hard? There things that have to be done. This is what I’ve always done . . . how I’ve always been.”

He had another skill, as well. “I really enjoy interacting with people,” he adds.

According to Kelly, his ability to listen to his customers and react to what they are telling him has been a key to his success--although it come with a grain of salt. “You have to be willing to expose yourself to what the public has to say,” he explains. “But when you do that, you have to develop a thick hide to evaluate the feedback.”

Although Kelly’s Tavern is the best known of his restaurants, Kelly is owner or part owner of two other businesses--Pamlico Jack’s (until recently Penguin Isle) and Mako Mike’s with Frank Gajar, owner of Port O’ Call in Kill Devil Hills.

Kelly attributes his success to hard work and an ability to listen to his customers, yet the fact is, he has an extraordinarily good sense of where business opportunities lie and is willing to move quickly to take advantage of them when they appear. “A lot of things are timing,” he points out.

In the 1990s, there was a micro version of the banking crisis that our country is now experiencing. Businesses and banks were failing, the government suddenly found itself owning property it did not want and for people at the right place at the right time there were extraordinary opportunities.

The owners of Restaurant By George had gone bankrupt and Kelly and Gajar purchased the business at a great price. “We were concerned that someone would put a business in there that would compete with both of us,” Kelly recalls. “So we bought it so nobody could. It was a great price.”

The restaurant closed after Hurricane Isabel caused so much damage to the roof that repairing the building was not practical, but until that time, it was a profitable operation.
Other opportunities have come along as well. Kelly’s Tavern was well established as an Outer Banks dining and nightspot and Penguin Isle was opened and building its reputation for fine dining and a spectacular view. Gajar called a second time. “Frank called me and told me I needed to see this,” Kelly says. “He told me it was a great price. That was on a Monday. On Tuesday we bought it.”

That restaurant became Mako Mike’s. “We really didn’t have to do too much,” Kelly says. “Just make the interior more user friendly.”

Seeking new challenges--taking on new projects and reinventing how he presents his businesses to the public seem to be very much a part of who Kelly is, and why he continues to be successful. “As soon as you open the doors and routine sets in, the creativity goes,” he says. “Complacency--you really have to fight it.”

That sense--that complacency is a danger to a successful business--is one of the reasons that Penguin Isle is being completely refurbished and renamed Pamlico Jack’s. “We knew we had to make some upgrades and changes,” Kelly says. “But two things occurred. In 2008 our accountants told us the we might be going into a recession. And everybody started writing about foodservice saying there would be no growth overall and many expected fine dining to have a very difficult time.”

The wait staff, chef and management will remain the same, but the restaurant will focus on families and more affordable dining. “We’re going to put a deck out there. It will be a place for dining or just have a conversation,” he says.

Certainly the Kelly Restaurant Group--which is the official name for Kelly’s food service holdings--has become a very visible part of the Outer Banks community. As a part of the community, Kelly has become well-known for his role in charitable activities in the area. “Food service in the community is very visible,” he says. “When you live in a community, becoming involved in that community is part of living there.

He sits on the board of directors for the Outer Banks Community Foundation and it is through that organization that the annual Kelly’s Golf Tournament has been held. “The golf tournament has raised over $280,000 that we’ve contributed to various causes. Dare County is very generous for the size of its area. People are very involved with charities here.”

As he talks, Kelly notes that the success of Outer Banks fund raising has drawn attention to the area as a viable location for a number of organizations. “The fact that the (UNC) Cancer Institute is down here--I don’t know if people know how big a deal that is,” he says. “And I don’t know if people know how much work and how much effort Senator Basnight put in to this to get it here.”

“By being involved in the community you begin to see there is a lot of need,” he says. “By being involved it’s good both personally and it makes good business sense. You’re raising the bar for everyone else. The waters in the harbor rise with the tide.”

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