Kelley Square Pub
Don't let the name fool you Kelley Square Pub in East Boston is not an Irish Pub. It's owned by the Italian Mastrangelo family and they specialize in pizza, pasta and barbecue. This place has been around for 40 years. Johnny Mastrangelo is the founder. He's still here every day, along with his two sons including Rock Mastrangelo.
This place has been a part of East Boston for awhile. There's no place around like us. You can't find a local restaurant that cares about people more than us.
This is one of those restaurants that is lively and loud and yet intimate and comfortable. Whenever I come here with friends or my family, I just always have the best time.
When you walk in the place, you see my father sitting in the front of the restaurant; just watching people come in and greeting them. It's an iconic place that everybody loves to come to. They love the quality of the food and they enjoy the people and the atmosphere.
My pop, the great Eddie Andelman basically invented sports radio. He came up with the Hotdog Safari for cystic fibrosis. He convinced my mother to marry him. But I think his top accomplishment has got to be having his own room named after him here, the Andelman room.
Mr Andelman used to have broadcasts here and we his whole wall right there. When you walk in you see a lot of photographs of famous figures that have been in here and we put on the wall.
This place invented the shrimp scampi pizza. They invented it and perfected it here. The scampi sauce goes on top of the pie with the mozzarella cheese. The shrimp is cooked along with the pizza, plenty of garlic. If this pie is in the dining room, you can smell it from the bar. As a matter of fact, I think you can smell it from Bennington Street.
People can say that they invented the shrimp scampi pizza, but it's not true. My father was the original creator of the shrimp scampi pizza. The crust is just golden brown. The shrimp is just perfectly cooked. It's delicious.
I never thought I'd see Detroit style pizza in East Boston but it's all the rage these days. Here's their version of it. It's a rectangular pie cooked in the pan. So it's thicker but not too heavy.
It's delicious. It's nice and thick and cooked to perfection. It's so light and so crunchy. You get a taste of crunch all over each bite that you have. It's fantastic.
They're known for their steak tips here and at Kelley's they may come in two varieties. They do a honey tip and then more of a traditional barbecue steak tip.
The honey steak tips is unusual because you have a sweet and you have a hot and then then you have the delicious steak tip which is tender. So then you have this perfect combination of flavors in your mouth that you just like oh my god. This is great.
There aren't a lot of restaurants where you can get pizza, pasta and ribs but the ribs are a specialty here. They are cooked low and slow for hours and hours. And the meat is super tender and flavorful.
The ribs are unbelievable. We have a full rack and a half rack. What we do is we cook them for hours inside the oven. When you bite into the meat just comes right off like you're biting into heaven.
One of the best appetizers here is the stuffed quahog or quahog. This is big in Rhode Island or the New Bedford area served on the half shell that big clam and seafood stuffing. Great way to start your meal.
We make them here. And what we do is we get the quahogs and we mix them with clams, and seafood stuffing and we bake them in the oven, and they come out delicious.
I know I'm a scallop and bacon freak and this is one of my favorite renditions. Starts with a big, plump, fresh scallop. Then they wrap it in bacon twice. They deep fry it then they need a real sturdy toothpick to even keep this thing in place before you eat it.
It's wrapped once that way and once this way. So none of the juices come out. And then when you bite into it, you can taste the juice of the scallops coming out of your mouth. It's unbelievable.
If you're gonna serve chicken parm in East Boston, yours better be good and this one is great. It's a gigantic piece of white meat chicken with that beautiful browned cheese on top, fresh marinara sauce served over homemade fusilli.
Our chicken parm is really probably one of the best in Boston. It fills the whole plate. And then we have our homemade sauce. My mother's recipe. Some people complain that it's just too much but take it home and eat it. Have leftovers, right?
Given their expertise in chicken parm and pizza, you may want to try the chicken parm calzone. This thing is absolutely gigantic served with a virtual bathtub full of marinara sauce for dipping.
There is a small parking lot and if you go up and down the street. You will be able to find a parking space. But if you want to try the shrimp pizza, barbecue, just have a really great time. Head to Kelley Square Pub in East Boston.
