This story originally published Oct. 31, 2025
The restaurant was still. Midday light slipped through the windows of J’s Breakfast Club on 26th Avenue and Broadway Avenue. In the back office, Joslyn Kelly sat at her desk, as the soft rustle of her staff moving in and out of the kitchen carried through the restaurant.
It was Wednesday, the only day J’s is closed for breakfast, offering a pause before another busy stretch of mornings. No catfish sizzling, no eggs frying, no biscuits baking — just a quiet afternoon inside Gary’s busiest breakfast spot.
This October marked 10 years since Kelly opened J’s Breakfast Club, a restaurant that has grown from a small carryout into one of Gary’s defining community spaces. What began as a dream has become a local institution, a place where community can take on a physical form.
At a young age, like many others, Kelly landed her first job at McDonald’s. Her manager noticed her talent and suggested that she attend McDonald’s University to open her own franchise eventually.
“Who knew, decades later, here I am actually sitting in a position owning a restaurant,” she said, laughing.
With a background in economics and finance, she’s had extensive experience as a consultant for small businesses. Additionally, at the time, she had a side business helping a partner rehab homes to sell to potential homebuyers.
While she was running both businesses, she was approached about getting involved in the restaurant industry. Her partner at the time had started working with a restaurateur who was seeking to hire additional staff to help expand the business.
“I’ve always wanted to own a restaurant,” Kelly said, thinking about that memory. Today, at 51, she understands that everything happens for a reason, even when you don’t understand it.
Seeing an opportunity to diversify, she seized the chance. And on Oct. 22, 2007, she embarked on a new journey.
“We literally just walked into this business and took over it,” she said. Within the first 90 days, she said, they tripled sales. While a fun and impactful endeavor, she said the mental and emotional toll of running the restaurant was more than she expected.
Kelly decided to pivot to another restaurant after some friends asked her to join their business and run their kitchen. When that venture lost its lease, personal challenges also mounted, including the loss of her home. She found herself at a crossroads.
So she moved to Dallas to start over. Her son, Jalyn Jones, was supposed to join her but kept delaying the move. Missing him and home, she returned to Gary so she could spend his last years of high school with him and be back in her community.
Then, in 2014, tragedy struck. Jalyn died by suicide while serving on active duty in the Army. Several months later, Kelly lost her job.
“All this stuff is happening, and I [asked myself] what does life to mean to me and what direction do I want to go,” she said.
Deciding to take time for herself to heal and figure out life, she decided to travel. And everywhere she went, she ventured to a breakfast club.
“I [would] go in and I’d sit there and look around. [I would look around] at everybody so excited, like, ‘I’ve done this, and I can do this,’” she said matter-of-factly.
When she returned home, she started mapping out a plan.
A new beginning
On Oct. 1, 2015, Kelly opened J’s Breakfast Club on 12th Avenue and Grant Street.
“I spent most of my corporate career trying to find what I was passionate about,” she said.
Raised by Southern parents who ensured that everyone ate when they entered their home, she wanted to bring that tradition to her restaurant in the community. And that included creating a menu that unintentionally honors her son’s legacy.
“When we first opened back at the first location, my mother and I were sitting in the lobby and I didn’t realize it, but she says: ‘When you look at the menu, you realize that these are all of Jalyn’s favorite foods,’” she said. “On a daily basis, I get to give homage to his legacy, because the decisions that he made changed the full trajectory of my life.”
Eventually, Kelly wanted a permanent home for her restaurant. After moving twice, she decided to build her own space at 26th Avenue and Broadway.
“This is just where my divine path has led,” she said. “It’s not easy, but I am having the time of my life because I get to share my love with the community.”
On Feb. 1, 2022, she opened the doors to J’s current home.
Keeping family and community at the forefront of her business, she ensured they were included. When she needed the money to build the new location, she went to her family. Her father, who had given her the hardest time in the past over finances, was one of her biggest financial supporters. Before he died in 2023, he’d walk around the new restaurant, amazed at what she had built and teasing her to let him “hold something,” jokingly asking for money as a sign of how far she’d come.
Wanting to honor his legacy, she dedicated the plaque on the patio that says, “Let me hold something.”
Similarly, Kelly’s mother, a retired educator, now hosts Silver Mondays, a weekly gathering for adults to discuss life, share stories, and enjoy good company. In addition, her husband and others help make the environment she wanted — one that includes everyone.
“I call them all family by J’s,” she said.
Her Impact
From employing community members to paying homage to the people in her life, she consistently maintained an air of family, love, and unity in her mission. One employee, Robert Ford, has been with her since she started her first restaurant.
“I just want to see her do good,” he said. “I want to see it grow. She tries to build anything she can as much as possible.”
Ludden Kilgore has been a longtime customer of J’s. A Southern girl at heart, she said it was the warmth of the place that drew her in.
“There’s a light around her,” she said. It was her friendly customer service, which can be traced back to her parents, that drew her in the first time she walked through the door of J’s.
When the restaurant relocated to its second location, she loved it even more, as it was within walking distance of her home.
“She’s always been a community advocate,” Kilgore said. As part of the Gary Black International Film Festival team, she has been someone they’ve been able to turn to whenever they wanted to highlight filmmakers and vendors in the community. “She’s always done things to uplift me, and we became really close because [of my work] and it just really solidified what it means to be community.”
As a longtime customer, Kilgore said she has seen the establishment evolve from a take-out window to seating 30 to 40 people, to offering Uber Eats and DoorDash, to now having the location it has today.
“That corner wasn’t used for anything except to turn around. So she’s changed the landscape and is writing the blueprint for things that are new to Gary,” she said.
Another longtime customer, Terrance Millard, has watched her journey unfold up close.
“I’ve seen all her dreams come true,” he said. As a business owner himself, he said he enjoyed discussing the business world with her.
“She had a good foundation around her; they’ve always been supportive. So just to see her tell me a vision of when she first started and the things that she was going through, and to see it flourish and become something has been the best thing.”
Six mornings a week, Kelly arrives at the restaurant around 6 a.m. Sometimes, before the lights come on, she sits in the dark for a moment — proud of what she’s built and mindful of the journey that brought her here.
Now, a decade later, she’s been using her ideas to expand the impact in the community and do more in the city.
“The cornerstone of J’s is community, and the core of the word community is unity,” she said proudly. “As long as we’re pulling each other together in common, we all gotta eat and we all love a good meal.”
This year, she introduced J’s Supper Club, opening Tuesday through Friday evenings from 4 to 9 p.m., featuring themed nights like Tuesday Tacos and Vibes, Winning Wednesdays, Thursday Step, Sip and Savor, and The Fryday Flow — each one blending music, food, and fellowship.
With a motto of “Doing what we love, where we love, for the people we love,” Kelly said she hopes to continue growing and creating a place that can change the community.
“Ten years means a lot,” she said, smiling as she got ready to open the restaurant for the evening. “These 10 years represent true resilience, faith, and going through the process. You never know what’s on the other end, but you definitely have to keep walking to find out what that thing is.”