There are several ways to experience Remlik’s Grille & Oyster Bar.
You can grab a seasonal cocktail at the sprawling bar, settle into the intimate Office or the Derby Room, find a seat in the main dining room or escape to the secluded outdoor deck.
Then there’s the food. Remlik’s has built a following around steaks, fresh oysters, sushi and a legendary double bone-in pork chop butchered in-house.
The restaurant has all the features of a fine dining destination, but Co-Owner Kelley Wesoloski and her partners never wanted it to feel reserved solely for anniversaries, business dinners or other special occasions.
“It is nice. It’s fine dining. But, I don’t want you to feel like you have to be at a fancy place,” she said. “I just want my guests to walk in and be happy – comfortable.”
That balance has helped make Remlik’s a favorite for locals, Binghamton University families and travelers just passing through the area.
Kelley and Eddie Wesoloski were born and raised in Binghamton with another partner, Sylvia Sysak, coming from San Francisco. All three were at a crossroads in their careers when they decided to pursue a place of their own around 2010.
The space inside the Kilmer Building helped shape what Remlik’s would become. An initial vision for something more casual evolved as the partners considered the architecture, clientele and talents of the chefs working in the kitchen. The menu evolved with it.
“Binghamton has a distinct palate,” Kelley said.
That has meant combining familiar favorites with fresh ideas, good ingredients and careful preparation.
“We have hundreds of regulars that we know by name,” Wesoloski said. “I want you to come back for not just a special occasion. I want you to come back once a week.”
The restaurant’s connection to Binghamton goes much deeper than its menu.
Remlik is Kilmer spelled backward. It was also the name of a yacht owned by Willis Sharpe Kilmer, the magnanimous entrepreneur whose family operated its patent medicine company inside the building that is now home to the restaurant.
It was Dr. Sylvester Andral Kilmer developed medicines from roots, herbs and alcohol in the 1870s. He brought his brother Jonas and nephew Willis to Binghamton to help grow the company. Willis used the marketing and advertising know-how he collected at Cornell University to transform the business into an international, multi-million-dollar enterprise.
The factory was built in the early 1900s to manufacture Swamp-Root and the family’s many other remedies.
“He was also a visionary. He was incredibly competitive,” Friends of Kilmer Mansion Founder and President Lisa Blackwell said. “He did what he wanted and he went for it.
“Willis Sharpe Kilmer was … a character,” she said.
Willis’ ambitions stretched well beyond questionably effective patent medicine. He founded the Binghamton Press specifically to combat unfavorable local newspaper coverage. When he learned another building under construction would be taller than the Press Building, he had additional floors added so his structure would claim the title of tallest in the city.
He raced yachts and established a prominent thoroughbred program. Exterminator, his longshot entry, miraculously won the 1918 Kentucky Derby.
Bain News Service, George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-26203
Trademark registration by Dr. Kilmer & Co. for Swamp Root brand A Remedy for Certain Named Diseases, U.S. Patent Office Trademarks Collection, Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-trmk-1t25899
Kilmer was also complicated. The stories surrounding his business practices and personal life are not always flattering. But the Kilmers played an undeniable role in the growth of Binghamton while it was at its industrial peak supported by Endicott-Johnson shoes, IBM computers and dozens of cigar makers.
“The Kilmer family was important to building the Binghamton that we now know,” Blackwell said.
The Press Building – now Binghamton University student housing – still stands downtown. The Jonas M. Kilmer Mansion welcomes visitors on Riverside Drive. And the old factory has found a new purpose as a home for businesses, events and one of the city’s signature restaurants in Remlik’s.
Wesoloski remembers when the building was in disrepair and offered little reason to visit. Its eventual restoration preserved original floors, high ceilings, decorative details, and fascinating nooks and crannies.
“The building is just unique and beautiful,” Wesoloski said. “You don’t get that kind of architecture nowadays.”
Remlik’s represents the kind of creative reuse found throughout Binghamton. A building once filled with workers bottling patent medicine is again bustling with activity. Its history has not been hidden or erased. It has become part of the experience.
“I think it is so wonderful that Remlik’s is here,” Blackwell said. “That we’re able to keep a building like this in the community.”
You can explore the Kilmer legacy and the larger Binghamton story through the architecture and fingerprints of colorful characters who helped shape Binghamton all around town. But first, take a seat, order a cocktail and find out what everyone has been saying about that pork chop.
At Remlik’s, history is not kept behind glass. It’s all around the table.
