Kelly’s Serves as Shelter to Locals

Amid the rows and rows of mini-malls along Yorba Linda Boulevard as you pass into Placentia is an old redwood-looking mall of years past that houses a famed local beer joint.

Kelly’s Korner Tavern is the name on the green-and-white sign out front, but to the dismay of the new owner whose name it bears, most everyone knows the place as the Shelter. (In fact, a small ‘70s-era sign made from soda-bottle-looking greenish glass reading “Gimme Shelter” still occupies its place in the window.) As it was known as the Shelter for some 20 years before being renamed 18 months ago, the new name faces a battle for locals’ loyalty.

During the afternoons, blue-collar workers drop by on their way home from work. They banter across the U-shaped bar about construction jobs and past military service while Sunny, the bubbly bartender, keeps glasses filled.

Three brands of domestic beer (Bud, Coors and Miller) are on tap, and there’s a surprising selection of imports (including Fosters and Pete’s Wicked Ale) for a small bar. California Chardonnay and Zinfandel reside in the cooler.

At night, the black-clad college-age crowd comes in from nearby Cal State Fullerton to shoot pool, drink American beer and play hip oldies on the CD jukebox.

“The young ones come in and they’re walking like this because of their earrings,” says Sunny, wise beyond her six months behind the bar, laughing and hanging and twisting her head to one side to mimic the younger generation.

The menu, strictly cold sandwiches and chips, shows that most folks don’t come to Kelly’s to eat. They come to get away from the look-alike bars that dot the local landscape and to enjoy Kelly’s funky woodsy exterior and its dark, murky ambience.

And they come, of course, for the shelter.

Kelly’s Korner Tavern, 909 E. Yorba Linda Blvd., Placentia. Open daily, 10 a.m to 2 a.m. (714) 961-9396.