J’s Breakfast Club
Comfort food, restaurant owner feed positivity to the community
At J’s Breakfast Club in Gary, comfort and community are combined to create a warm and welcoming space serving homecooked meals for breakfast, lunch, and soul food on Sundays.
“It is more than a casual dining establishment,” says owner and visionary Joslyn RW Kelly. “It is an experience that inspires positivity through love by doing what we love, for the people we love, where we love.”
Joslyn opened J’s Breakfast Club in 2015 after finding herself at a pivotal point in her life.
“In 2014, I experienced the most traumatic life change with the death of my only son, Jalyn D. Jones, by suicide while actively serving in the U.S. Army. Six months later, I lost my job,” she explained. “Decisions had to be made regarding what I would do from that point on, and the result was J’s Breakfast Club.
“J’s Breakfast Club is a culmination of my life experiences, skills, talents, and abilities used to redirect my pain into purpose that has birthed a passion allowing me to honor the legacy of my son each and every day.”
J’s Breakfast Club uplifts community by spotlighting small businesses on Saturdays, providing resources to seniors on Mondays, along with a host of other outreach activities. Joslyn recently expanded her efforts with “This is Gary,” an annual 5-day celebration focused on highlighting Gary’s rich history, current happenings, and future opportunities. The event championed youth empowerment, the community’s physical transformation, strength of the community’s history, and engagement with trailblazers leading the charge to bring about positive change by showcasing the positive spirit within her city.
“We seek to encourage our community to dare to dream, love to live, live to love, be the change – beginning with me – by telling the story, and propelling the positives that equal ‘This is Gary,’” she proclaimed.
Joslyn is in the process of watching her vision expand with the construction of a new location for J’s Breakfast Club, centrally located at the gateway of I-80/94 on Broadway. This allows her to dish even more positivity through love along with more great meals. There are plans to expand the menu and add people to the team.
Joslyn says, “I am in my element when I am strategizing, implementing, executing, and empowering the greatness in others while transforming dreams turned visions erupting into reality.”
She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., Gary Alumnae Chapter, founder of the Love for Jalyn Foundation Inc. in memory of her son, and a servant leader immobilizing change through her companies, including “This is Gary Inc.” along with the “Victory Way” project.
3669 Broadway in Gary (new location coming soon: 2601 Broadway in Gary)
219-455-6959