McGillin’s Olde Ale House has a history that predates Prohibition, radio, television, and all the major American sports leagues, so it’s hard for one night there to stand out above the rest, if only because there are so many nights to choose from.
The Irish pub, the focus of a new documentary that screened there on Thursday, has stood in its Center City location on Drury Street since 1860, serving drinks to patrons through two World Wars, two Flyers Stanley Cups, two Phillies World Series titles, two Eagles Super Bowl titles (and three more NFL championships), and two 76ers NBA championships.
And although it functions more as a historical marker than a sports bar, McGillin’s has drawn significant crowds for Games 1 and 2 of the Phillies’ NL Division Series against the Dodgers. The staff at the bar is preparing for a busy night on Thursday if the Phillies can push the Dodgers to Game 4, thanks to a potential Philadelphia sports equinox.
If necessary, the Phillies will face the Dodgers at 9:08 p.m. Thursday. The Flyers will open their season in Florida against the Panthers at 7 p.m., while the Eagles will visit the Giants on Thursday Night Football at 8:15.
McGillin’s on the big screen
Philadelphia native Eric Carosella directed McGillin’s: Philadelphia’s Oldest Bar, a 42-minute documentary that delves into the history of the landmark establishment from its 19th century founding to the renovations made to the bar during the pandemic. Carosella, 28, said the idea for the project came to him when he was at the bar with a friend three years ago.
“I was finishing up a short series of documentaries … and I was wondering what project to do next,” Carosella said. “I kind of looked around, we were talking about ideas, and I said, ‘What about this place?’”
Carosella, who was born in South Philly and grew up in South Jersey, began the work of getting the film together, setting up interviews with various bar owners, employees and patrons. Pre-production for the documentary took three months, with filming taking place over the span of a year, mostly during the summer.
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“I was so surprised that no one’s ever done this before,” Carosella said. “It’s such a staple in Philadelphia. And I love the people. I love the owner. I love the team here. I felt like it just needed to get captured.”
After Tina Duncan edited the film, it was ready for its premiere. Rather than a traditional theater, the documentary debuted to a crowd on the second floor of McGillin’s.
The film was a passion project for Carosella, who has spent his time since graduating from New York’s Pace University in 2022 making documentaries while working various day jobs. Carosella is also working on a graphic novel, as well as the script for his first feature narrative film.
Chris Gaida, who produced the film, says he is still looking for a distributor to carry the film further than the upstairs projector screen at McGillin’s.
Gaida met Carosella while the two were working at Omnicom Health, a marketing firm that specializes in healthcare communication. Carosella called Gaida, who had experience working as a television producer, to ask if he would be a producer on the project. Gaida accepted and helped guide the production of the documentary.
“We [did not] have a big budget,” Gaida said. “But we knew we could get the best quality possible with hard work. Everybody was so into it, so it’s not like you’re nagging people to get their jobs done. Shared passion is important.”
Big game? Plastic cups
Although McGillin’s has seen a lot in its time, one night stands out to the bar’s owner, Christopher Mullins Jr. Mullins joined his father as a limited partner in McGillin’s ownership in 2006, and is now the primary owner. Oct. 29, 2008, is the night the bar learned something important: plastic cups only when a Philly team plays for a title.
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After Game 5 of the World Series with the Tampa Bay Rays was suspended by rain in the top of the sixth two days earlier, the Phillies secured the second championship in franchise history in a 4-3 win.
Patrons were packed in tightly at McGillin’s, drinking beer that had been dyed red by the bar out of pint glasses and pitchers. When Brad Lidge secured the final out to break the city’s 25-year championship drought, the crowd at the bar went berserk.
“The crazy thing is, we had no experience with dealing with that,” Mullins said. “We had glasses and people’s pitchers, mugs. … When [the Phillies] won, everybody screamed and the tables toppled, and everyone ran out to Broad Street, and we were left with a foot of glass throughout the whole building.”
McGillin’s operators learned their lesson from that night. When it hosted fans for the Eagles’ appearances in Super Bowl LII, Super Bowl LVII and Super Bowl LIX, plastic cups replaced traditional glassware.
“What are you going to do, tell people to settle down?” Mullins asked. “No. It’s a big deal, and we have to give people the space to enjoy it without losing thousands of dollars in glass.”
With baseball playoffs, the NFL, NBA, and NHL all in action in October, Mullins calls the month the “peak season” for McGillin’s.
“Red October, Eagles and documentaries,” Mullins said. “You never know what’s going to happen around here.”
51 years of bartending
John Doyle has been working at McGillin’s since April 1974. Doyle, who grew up in Grays Ferry and graduated from Bishop Neumann High, was drafted into military service in 1964 and deployed to Korea during the Vietnam War. He returned after serving two years as a medic in Korea and took a job as a doorman at McGillin’s a few years after his return.
Doyle took a course on bartending so he could move from the door to behind the bar, where he has remained for the last 51 years. Even at 81 years old, Doyle still picks up a regular shift at the bar on Saturdays.
Tending the bar for five decades has given Doyle his fair share of stories. He worked the night the Phillies won the World Series in 2008 and during the Eagles’ three Super Bowl appearances in 2018, 2023, and 2025. He was off the night of Game 6 of the 1974 Stanley Cup Final, but he came to the bar to watch the Flyers win it all.
Doyle has seen celebrities, politicians, and athletes walk through the door at McGillin’s. He names Chase Utley as his favorite Philadelphia athlete who has stopped in at the bar. Doyle also has served Jason Kelce, who got behind the bar one night during the Eagles’ run to Super Bowl LII. Kelce grabbed a cocktail tumbler, leading Doyle to reluctantly tell Kelce that he “can’t make drinks.”
“It would be a zoo,” Doyle recalls telling the All-Pro center. “He said, ‘fine, fine.’”
When Doyle started at the bar, McGillin’s had just two televisions and was closed on Sundays. The bar eventually opened its doors to crowds on Sundays and increased the number of televisions. Doyle still calls the bar “not really a sports bar.”
Still, McGillin’s fills up on game days throughout the different seasons.
“The city, they just love those teams,” Doyle said.