Carrie McFall didn’t quite believe it when she checked her horoscope during a few idle moments Saturday morning, and it told her something interesting was going to happen.
Turns out, it didn’t lead her astray.
A few hours later McFall was waitressing a table for Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, who sat down at Table 3 in the Beef Haus on Main Street, Wellsville.
McFall, a huge Bills fan, immediately recognized Kelly, who was wearing a Hard Rock café t-shirt and Nike pants. Still, she suspected her eyes were deceiving her.
“I was like, 'No way, we’re just in little Wellsville. Why would he be here on a Saturday?’” McFall recalled. “I said ‘Hey, does anybody ever tell you that you resemble Jim Kelly a lot?’ He had a lanyard on that said NFL Hall of Fame, so I knew it was him but I didn’t want to be overbearing. He said ‘Yeah, I get that a lot.’
“I went to clear a table and he put his hand out when I came back and said ‘Hi, it’s me.’ He asked, ‘Why did you think it was me?’ I said ‘Oh, I’m a really big fan.’”
Just how big of a fan?
McFall happened to have a Kelly jersey sitting in her car. Beef Haus staff wore Bills jerseys for the Wellsville Wine Walk this spring, and she’d stashed Kelly’s jersey in case someone on the team needed it.
“The look on the whole table’s face when I said that was incredible,” said McFall, who also happened to wear a Bills scrunchie to work Saturday. “They were like, ‘What?’"
Kelly happily autographed Carrie's jersey and a $1 bill for her brother, Dillon, another rabid Bills fan and coach of several Scio-Friendship athletics teams.
McFall said Kelly sat down around 3 p.m. with his son-in-law and a friend. Kelly ordered a full rack of ribs with mashed potatoes and a salad.
Beef Haus owner Bob Insley is normally in the restaurant behind the beef bar, but was out of town on this Saturday attending a graduation party in the Rochester area.
“How many times do you get a Hall of Famer in town?” said Insley. “Coming from a family that follows sports, and certainly follows the Bills, it was a bad day to be out of town. The staff was on cloud nine, though. Jim was super nice.”
The Beef Haus has had a few high-profile diners over the years. Former Buffalo Sabres owner and Rochester billionaire Tom Golisano and his wife, former tennis star Monica Seles, have visited on several occasions. McFall didn’t want to bother Kelly with questions about what brought him to the Allegany County restaurant on Saturday.
She had actually met Kelly before, many years ago at a horse show in Erie County.
“I always remember him being such a genuine, caring, soft kind of person. Years later he’s still the same,” she said. “I can’t stop smiling. That doesn’t happen every day in this area.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0