One meal after a game in Detroit particularly sticks out.

“Dan came by and asked if I’d like to have dinner at a Greek restaurant famous for lamb chops,’’ Csolak said. “I told Dan I didn’t care for lamb, but he said, ‘You will after you try these, I promise you.’ After filing my story, I met Dan at the restaurant and he’d already polished off an order of seven lamb chops. I told him I wasn’t really wild about lamb, but he said, ‘Look, you order the lamb and if you don’t like it, I’ll eat it.’ I did and I didn’t care for it and he proceeded to eat another seven lamb chops while I ate steak.”

Dinner with Dan was an experience, as he referred to some of the cities in the NHL by the name of restaurants.

‘’You’d ask him where we played the next night and he’d say, ‘Lichee Garden,'" former Bob Plager once said. "Right away you’d know we were headed for Toronto.’’

Kelly was a connoisseur.

“Every NHL city meant a favorite restaurant for Dan ... Chinese in Toronto, Greek in Detroit, French in Montreal and Quebec, steak in Chicago, etc,’’ Mueller said.

And Kelly became a celebrity.