About a dozen Red Hat societies in Manteca and neighboring cities want to become part of the 10 percent solution that the Kelley Brothers Brewing Co. and Brickyard Oven restaurant needs to stay in business.

“We’re going to start meeting there more often to try and keep them going,” said Joan Collins of the Diamond Lil Red Hat Society, one of five Red Hat groups in Manteca alone.

In a recent story in the Manteca Bulletin detailing the dilemma whether the restaurant could stay open after Dec. 31, owner Joe Kelley said, “We’re not looking for a ‘Wonderful Life’-type of miracle. We’re just hoping that people who haven’t stopped by in a while will do so and hopefully we’ll get a 10 percent increase in business.”

In response to Kelley’s statement, Red Hat members from the Manteca societies, as well as others from Modesto, Stockton and Lathrop are meeting this afternoon at Kelley Brothers to discuss how they can help the restaurant that has hosted many of their meetings and other special gatherings through the years.

“It’s a short notice, but we’re going to meet there at 1 o’clock. We’re trying to help them and get people to go and eat there because Joe is very gracious and is really good to us. He also has a good staff and he has a great menu,” said Collins, who, besides being one of the restaurant’s longtime faithful customers, is a former business owner herself and is also involved in several other organizations in Manteca.

She added that the reason the Red Hat Society groups prefer the Kelley Brothers venue for their group gatherings is because the restaurant “has a lot of room.” When the women gathered for a St. Patrick’s celebration, for example, they had the entire second-floor section of the restaurant reserved.

Kelley Brothers, besides having a premiere location in the heart of downtown Manteca on East Yosemite Avenue just a skip-and-a-hop away from Main Street, is also the biggest restaurant in Manteca in terms of capacity, with more than 350 seats available downstairs and upstairs.

The building that is home to Kelley Brothers is also steeped in local history, with a special claim to national and international fame. The restaurant was, at one time, the El Rey Theater which was built to the tune of $110,000 and opened to great fanfare on April 15, 1937 at the height of the Great Depression. The theater, which boasted luxury for those times with air-conditioning system and tiled floors, elaborate art on the walls and the ceilings gleaming with gold-leafed patterns, had a great 48-year run before it was gutted by fire on Aug. 6, 1975. The movie that was showing in the theater when tragedy struck is what catapulted the small-town theater into game fame – The Towering Inferno. This bit of irony became part of the once very popular Trivial Pursuit game.

After standing as an eyesore in the heart of downtown Manteca for nearly a quarter of a century after the fire, the towering blight that stood like a giant sore thumb in the heart of the city’s business district was metamorphosed into the Kelley Brothers Brewing Company, thanks to the optimism and enthusiasm of the brothers Joe and Shon Kelley plus a financial leg up by the city’s redevelopment agency. The restaurant opened as the toast of the town 12 years ago just before the beginning of the new millennium. But just when the business paid off its 10-year loan plus interest on the property with the city’s redevelopment agency well ahead of schedule, the Great Recession hit bringing Kelley Brothers to its present dilemma.

In the Manteca Bulletin story, Joe Kelly stated that unless business rebounds in the next months up to the end of the year, he and partner Mark Abram may decide to close their doors or go to Plan “B” which is to sell the business.

Some of the Red Hat Society groups in Manteca, Stockton and Modesto whose members are meeting at Kelley Brothers this afternoon are the Diamond Lil, the Red Hattitudes, Divas and Diamonds, Happy Red Hatters, and Red Hat Mamas.

For more information on how to get involved in the effort to save Kelley Brothers restaurant, call (209) 239-3711.