By Chef Christina Martin
When someone in your group is plant based, vegetarian, vegan or gluten free, it can be difficult to find a restaurant that offers all these dietary preferences and does it well; a place where you are not just eating a house salad.
Enter Josie Kelly’s Public House on Shore Road in Somers Point which has something for everyone and is making it a mission to offer healthier options for all tastes.
Kathleen and Dermot Lloyd purchased the building in 2018. The former Mac’s Restaurant, was sitting dormant since 2016.
They did some major renovations, and renamed it after Dermot’s grandma, Josie Kelly, who is from Adare, a village in County Limerick in Ireland. Josie is a former culinary instructor, pastry chef and amazing cook. Many of the recipes on the menu are hers.
The Lloyds are no strangers to the restaurant/hospitality industry. Dermot has a degree in hospitality from University College Birmingham, England, and has worked in the hospitality field for most of his career. Kathleen has worked in food and beverage and attended the Atlantic Cape Community College Academy of Culinary Arts.
I sat down with Kathleen who took the time out of her busy schedule as being mom to three boys, overseeing restaurant operations, doing charity work in the community to see what inspired her to offer vegan options on the menu.
She is focused on health and wellness and the impact that things like pollution are having on our food supply. Kathleen said we are the second generation of consumers who are dependent on packaged food. Noting that her sister has been diagnosed with celiac, she wanted to have menu options that are safe for those with allergies, and are healthy, delicious and not processed.
While they do not use any fake meat products in their menu, they do use vegan replacements like vegan mayo, tofu and nutritional yeast. Josie Kelly’s has a separate menu for gluten free and has the vegan and vegetarian options clearly labeled.
They have a dedicated fryer for these items. There are also symbols similar to a caution sign you see in your car when you have a flat tire. The symbols communicate to customers that the dish needs to be modified to adjust to the dietary preference.
The trinity knot symbol means the dish is vegan, and the leaf symbol is for vegetarian options. One note indicates that the balsamic dressing has honey in it, so consider choosing the sherry vinaigrette; it is delicious and vegan.
The most popular menu item for vegans is the garden pie. I was told even non vegans come in for it. The recipe comes from a friend of Kathleen’s who writes a food blog. It is my favorite also and the reason I first started dining at Josie Kelly’s, besides its charming atmosphere.
The dish includes lentils and veggies topped with vegan mashed potatoes and comes in a cast iron pan with a side salad of arugula. It’s a warming, hardy and so good. I am also a fan of their sweet potato fries with a side of the vegan aioli.
The top seller on the menu is the sprouted flatbread, which is gluten free but vegetarian because there is cheese inside the crust. Topped with shaved brussels sprouts and drizzled with vegan aioli, it is a favorite for those who are gluten free. Kathleen said, “The key is to make it tasty enough that everyone wants to eat it.”
The vegan fab cakes are not gluten free but are homemade with hearts of palm, panko and are a top seller on Josie Kelly’s Food Truck. Yes, I haven’t gotten to that part. They have a food truck and it can be booked for private events, employee appreciation days and festivals.
Another vegan dish on the menu is the Farmer’s Medley and I tried it for the first time on this visit. It includes roasted cabbage, broccoli, red onions, leeks, carrots, with pistachio pesto on top of whipped tofu. I was digging under all the veggies to get to that spread. It was so delicious I wanted a container to go. Kathleen’s favorite dish is the Queen City Salad topped with a fab cake.
The restaurant setting is quiet, charming and feels like a place where you would want to stay a while. Hence there are many regulars who dine there. The night I visited there was live music and it made for an enjoyable dining experience. I was even singing along.
There are also two private rooms. There is the whiskey bar which holds up to 50 people and has its own balcony with views of the Ocean City bridge. It is great for retirement parties and baby showers. The Adare Ballroom holds up to 200 and has live entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights. It is also great as a wedding venue and they even had a vegan wedding with a custom menu.
They did takeout during COVID when inside dining was closed. They learned some new techniques, including serving some items in brown bags, such as fries, to keep them from getting soggy. It’s these little details with the consumer in mind that Kathleen and Dermot focus on. She feels good when people thank her.
Josie Kelly’s is closed Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas which is different than most restaurants, but a nice break for their employees to spend the holidays with their friends and families.
While I was dining and enjoying the live music, a customer came up to talk to me, overhearing that I was vegan and gluten free. Gerri Shober, from Lancaster, Pa., was there dining with a friend for the first time. She is vegetarian and gluten free and we bonded over the struggles we often face when eating out. We recalled the days of having to carry nuts/seeds for protein and our own salad dressing in our handbags so that we would not impose when we were dining with friends.
She shared that Kathleen had stopped at her table and asked, “did we represent you well?” Gerri said they did and is looking forward to a second visit during the week before heading back to Pennsylvania.
This quote by the Irish Poet William Butler Yeats sums up Josie Kelly’s Public House:
“There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t met yet.”
Chef Christina Martin is a dedicated chef educator, passionate advocate for healthy eating, and mother. Christina’s expertise has been spotlighted in Independent Restaurateur Magazine and she has been awarded 2024 Chef Educator of the Year from the Professional Chef Association of South Jersey.
