Kelly's Kitchen badge (c.1989)
Kelly's Kitchen is on the more obscure end of former British roadside restaurant chains. A rival to Little Chef and Happy Eater, the chain and it's management had high hopes for the brand in the 80s. They wanted it to become the second largest chain in the industry - ahead of Happy Eater but still behind the huge Little Chef chain. The chain did have indeed success and rapid expansion for a while - quickly opening up branches in the Midlands. This was partly as a result of its big company backers: first Norfolk House/Petrofina, and later Bass through their subsidiary Crest Hotels. But I did write "obscure" in that introduction - the Kelly's Kitchen chain only lasted for about four years (1987-1991). The end came about when Trusthouse Forte, the huge hotel and catering company who just so happened to own both Little Chef and Happy Eater, bought the Crest Hotels chain - a sale which included Kelly's Kitchen. As a result, Kelly's Kitchen got absorbed into the already mammoth Little Chef chain, a decision which was perhaps the noticeable start of what would soon become a big problem on the roadside in the 1990s - too many Little Chefs, and not much else. This didn't go well in the end. But onto the object itself. This badge is a promotional item for the chain from it's time of rapid expansion. There's a noticeable resemblance to a certain yellow badge one of Kelly's Kitchen's rivals was famous for giving out, which I'm sure was totally not at all intentional whatsoever. This badge is much bigger, which I think says a lot about the aspirations the business people behind the chain had for Kelly and her numerous Kitchens. When I bought this badge, something else came with it attached to the pin which is so interesting in itself it will get it's own post soon.
In terms of it's legacy still visible on the roadside today, Kelly's Kitchen has one particularly strange one:
It has a roundabout named after it in Milton Keynes.
Yes. For real. Here you go. https://tinyurl.com/humhmtv8
For those wondering why this exists - the adjacent service area used to have a Kelly's Kitchen (demolished to become a McDonalds) and the name must have stuck so much it became the place's official name.
As well as that, there is still a good few former Kelly's Kitchen buildings dotted about, notable as they have a rather distinct design involving a brick shaped funnel and an overhanging Mansard roof (see here on MSO: https://motorwayservices.uk/Kelly%27s_Kitchen#/media/File:Kellys_Kitchen_Fradley.jpg).
