Midtown goes Irish

COEUR d'ALENE - St. Patrick's Day is exactly four weeks from today, but Walter "Duke" Keith's new restaurant already has the decorations for the greenest holiday of the year up.

On Monday he quietly opened Kelly's Irish Pub at 726 N. Fourth St. in the former Grumpy's restaurant at the corner of Reid Avenue.

"We will have some good sandwiches and seafood," he said. "The Reuben is the house specialty, served open-face. It's gigantic."

Keith took the long route to Idaho, starting out in New Jersey working on fishing boats.

"I'm an original Jersey boy, from the Jersey shore," he said.

In the early 1980s he started working for a Kelly family in their restaurant, while not fishing. He later branched out on his own in 1996, owning and operating Kelly's restaurants in South Carolina and Georgia.

"I've been visiting Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Idaho," Keith said. "I liked it here."

While owning restaurants, for 18 years he also worked as a firefighter, and that is reflected in the fresh decor, now featuring green walls and a life-size fireman figure at the front door. He also spent a few years as a police officer in Georgia.

"This is the first time I don't have another full-time job," he said.

Little needed to be done to get ready for the opening. Grumpy's was open a year, and extensive remodeling was done prior to that opening. Fresh paint and plenty of Irish decor, plus a new bar/counter with about a dozen seats were about all that the place needed to give it a new look appropriate to the pub aspect.

A half dozen beer taps will include some local beer, India pale ale and Guinness, and a selection of bottled beers and wines will also be available.

Hefty sandwiches, salads, appetizers and dinners will include half-pound burgers, prime rib and Philly cheesesteak and of course corned beef sandwiches.

Appetizers include mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce, wings with several sauce choices and fried mushroom caps.

Fried shrimp, scallop and combo seafood platters, New York strip steaks, pork loins and roast beef will round out the dinner menu. All are under $15, with Caesar and chef salads and sandwiches in the $7 to $9 range. The BLT is less than $5, and club, ham and cheese and chicken salad are also available, along with a chicken tender basket at $6.95.

Daily specials for lunch and dinner will also be on the menu.

"It's delightful," said Carl Carr, working over a heaping three-scoop plate of chicken, tuna and shrimp salad on Monday. "You're not going to get cheated, that's for sure."

Naturally, come St. Pat's, the green beer and corned beef with cabbage will be plentiful, said Keith, who is half Irish, half Italian.

The back room of the restaurant will later be turned into a venue for private parties, with seating for 30-40, and when the weather turns warm sidewalk seating will be added.

Kelly's Irish Pub is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with dinner starting at 5 p.m.

Visa, Mastercard, American Express and checks are accepted. "If they're good," Keith said. "I was a cop. I'll hunt them down."

Information: 667-1717