6-Year-Old 'Shirley Temple King' Becomes Overnight Sensation for Brutally Honest Shirley Temple Reviews
Restaurant bartenders may want to brush up on their Shirley Temple technique, because you never know if your next customer might be Leo Kelly.
The 6-year-old Connecticut resident—who calls himself the Shirley Temple King—has been ordering the classic non-alcoholic beverage at various establishments and posting his reviews on Instagram since August. Kelly is not easily impressed, however: He has strong opinions about grenadine ratios and maraschino cherry minimum requirements, and grades every Shirley Temple on a scale of one to ten.
When we first discovered Kelly on Monday night, he had just over 300 Instagram followers, but as of Tuesday afternoon he has over 20,000 and counting, thanks to his review of restaurant chain Longhorn Steakhouse’s version of the drink, which went viral on Twitter. “First of all, this is the biggest Shirley Temple I’ve ever seen in my life,” he says in the video. “So, that’s good news. The bad news is to say, no there are cherries,” he adds, before ultimately giving a lower score of five.
just found this instagram account that’s a kid who calls himself the Shirley Temple King and goes to restaurants and gives brutally honest reviews of their shirley temples. it’s so pure and I love him so muchhttps://t.co/5UqM1wJbDk pic.twitter.com/mlSQzgtnjz
— Shay Spence (@chezspence) January 28, 2020
Kelly has reviewed other chain restaurant’s Shirley Temples (“It doesn’t even taste like a Shirley Temple; it tastes like cherry-flavored Ginger Ale,” he said of the Friendly’s version) as well as local restaurants in his area and in New York City. His highest rating to date was a 9.5/10 from Hoodoo Brown BBQ in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
A post shared by @ theshirleytempleking on Aug 26, 2019 at 1:54pm PDT
A post shared by @ theshirleytempleking on Jan 25, 2020 at 4:19pm PST
The account is co-managed by his parents, Tom and Lisa Kelly, who told PEOPLE that the idea came about because of Leo’s natural love of the drink. “He’s been ordering Shirley Temples from the age of 3 and always commented on them,” said Tom. “We were on vacation at Gurney’s in Newport, Rhode Island, when Leo ordered a Shirley Temple at the pool and said ‘Dad I think I have an idea’…and the rest is history.”
A post shared by @ theshirleytempleking on Aug 19, 2019 at 9:33am PDT
And if you’re wondering what he’s looking for in an ideal Shirley Temple, it goes like this: “three to four ice cubes, glass cup, a whole can of ginger ale, just enough grenadine, three cherries and an extra-long straw.”
Tom added that Leo is “suprised, excited and mind-blown” by all the attention he’s received in the past 24 hours. We imagine he’ll have a cold Shirley Temple to celebrate his success—easy on the grenadine.
