McGillin’s Olde Ale House opened its doors the year Lincoln was elected president making it the oldest continuously operating tavern in Philadelphia.

But what does it take to operate a bar like this?

For our 10th Owning It Feature, Chris Mullins, owner of McGillin’s, takes us through the tavern’s history, and what it’s like owning the the oldest bar in the city.

While sitting with Chris, he pulled out some old photos of the McGillin family dating back to the early 1900s. Above is a photo of Mr. and Mrs. McGillin celebrating their wedding anniversary at the family restaurant.

To get right into it, how do you own this place? How did this come about?

It’s a family business that has been in my family since 1958. McGillin’s has only been run by 2 families in 160 years which is Ithink part of why we’re still here, we’ve always been family owned, family run, family managed, and has been in my family since 1958. My parents bought it from my grandparents in 1993, and my grandfather and his brother bought it from the McGillin family.

I started here with my parents when I was a senior in high school. We’ve been slowly transitioning to ownership, my mother is 69, my father 73, and they’re still very active in the business.

What were you doing before here?

Right before I started working here I moved to Costa Rica to help my friend open up a hotel, I spent 6 months there. Before that I spent 6 years at the Union League where I was the Assistant General Manager.

So how did you get to where you are now?

Most parents dont want their kids to get into the bar business, especially their bar or restaurant business. You want them to be a lawyer or doctor. So my parents were very much opposed to me doing this and they kept me out of the business for a very long time. In fact, they were probably the first parents to ever cry when their kid got into an ivy league school because it meant I would be in this business forever. Going to hotel school at Cornell and really loving the industry.

Were you thinking at that time about going into the family business?

I always kind of thought I would when they were fully ready to retire. I was in my 20s so I thought in my 40s I would get into it.

While I was in Costa Rica, it was getting harder for my parents to run the business, and there were some comments about them possibly selling it. McGillin’s is way too special to our family and to the city that it would have been way too hard to watch them sell it. So even though it was very premature, I thought, I have to come home to come to McGillin’s--I couldn’t McGillin’s slip out of our hands...and slip out of the city.

So I started about 15 years earlier than I had planned.

Found in the historic McGillin archives, this menu dates back to 1942.

Is there any pressure, the whole oldest bar in Philly thing? Where’s the line between advancing and keeping it old school?

Our goal always is to make it look exactly the same as it did 10 years ago, — if that was the last time you were here — and we always keep that in mind when redecorating and restoring. When my parents took over in ‘93, McGillin’s looked more like a disco than a historic bar.

Part of the success has always been to be Philadelphia’s bar. The place where anybody can come to McGillin’s and feel comfortable. And it’s not always for everybody all of the time.

We want it to be grandparents bringing their grandkids to a place that they went to when they were in college. And then on a Saturday night, those kids are coming in, shoulder to shoulder and dancing…

The best line that we get when we’re talking to a grandparent or a parent, that says, ‘Oh, my college kid just came home from school and said they discovered a bar in Philadelphia called ‘McGillin’s?’ Have you ever heard of it? It’s the coolest place to go on a Saturday night.’ The parents are like, “Heard of it. We were going there in the 60s!”

Bean2Bean Coffee Co McGillins Olde Ale House Chris Mullins Philadelphia Photographer Hadiya Gaiters

It’s the first week of November and you’re already decked out for Christmas? Do you always decorate this early.

We always do that the first sunday after halloween. We’ve been doing it for years. The season is relatively short and the demand is high, so you really have to take advantage of it. We thought about not doing it so early because the demand is lower with the pandemic, but people love the whole tradition, the experience, the look.

So we thought ‘Let’s just kick it into gear right away.’ I think everybody needs happiness right now. We’ve been so beat down for 6 months; we’ve been stuck, we can’t do anything. So we figured, let’s make people feel good.

What’s your biggest events here usually?

Midtown Village Fall Festival. Saint Patrick's Day. New Years Day. Eagles Games. Superbowl. Those major once-in-a-lifetime events are once-in-a-lifetime experiences here at McGillin’s. The World Series parade was awesome.

You seem to have collected many old signs over the years. Can you tell us about that?

It started with the owners of the Wannamaker building, they brought us a big John Wannamaker’s brass sign back in ‘95. Then when Strawbridges closed and Caldwell, they brought their signs over. People saw the Wannamaker’s sign and just started piggy backing off of that. So now anytime a place closes, they just kind of bring us their sign.

Including a pandemic, McGillin’s has seen a lot through its 160 years. Any stories that stand out?

We’ve had fires, floods, natural disasters. This used to be a 4 story building. The McGillin family raised their 13 kids upstairs, and in 1971 a fire broke out right here in the kitchen and it devastated the building. McGillin’s was closed for about 6 months or so. My grandfather told me, and it was in the paper, as the fire happened, there was a band downstairs and they started playing Come On Baby Light My Fire. True story! We can make light, but it’s truly a shame — a lot of history was lost upstairs.

Natural disasters are good for McGillin's though--hurricanes, blizzards--because everyone is stuck at home and they have nothing else to do but go out to a bar.

With COVID and all the shutdowns, we have to ask, what has this experience been like for you? Your family, the business, the money, the employees; what was that like on March 16th?

It was the day before Saint Patrick's Day, the busiest day of the year. At first, it was devastating. All we could think is ‘how much more tortuous could this be?’ Initially, we thought it was only going to be a few weeks, so we didn’t consider unemployment. We really tried to take care of our staff. We gifted everyone money just to help get them through a couple of weeks. We had 80 employees, so that was a lot of money, but worth it to us.

Now we have employees coming back to us and saying, what we did do for them, they will never forget. It’s probably something that no one would ever do. They were happy and grateful, and that just makes you feel good.

One of our missions here is charity begins at home. In the restaurant business, you’re not working with lawyers and doctors and college educated people — we’re dealing with people that work hard, but may not have always has the best luck in life. They are our family, and to us, that’s important. Now, any employee that is able to come back, we’re taking them back. We may not have full shifts, we may be training in other positions, but we’re taking everyone back.

I know you can’t really ask, but what’s your plan for the winter?

Right now, we’re just trying to contain our costs and make sure we don’t have too much inventory on hand. When they shut down on March 16th, the day before one of the busiest days of the year, you can only imagine how much inventory we were sitting on. Beer, and food. It was Saint Patrick’s Day and NCAA Championships, so we were stocked for the whole week. Now we’re smarter and more suspicious about what’s going to happen. You just have to hope that nothing like that happens again. With the winter, people aren’t going to want to come out. And if that happens, we may have to shut down. All we can say is ‘Save your pennies.’ We’ve been saying that to our staff. That $600, just save it. Because it’s going to be a long winter. Not to be negative, you have to be realistic.

What about closing down the street? What’s your relationship with the city?

It’s good, but if we were to say to them ‘close our street down’, what’s stopping everyone else from closing their street down. This street is an artery between trash and deliveries, this street does so much. And that’s the reality. We tell our staff, we may not have outside.

So let’s be real since you’re being real, if you can’t have outside, or not going to do it, are you going to stay open?

We have to see what our tolerance is like and how cold it gets. We have 8 new heaters being delivered so if it’s a mild winter, we’ll stay open as best we can.

Let’s say someone gave you a year or two off, what would you do with that time?

I would probably go to Nicaragua — explore, chill, maybe work at a bar down there. It’s warm, the people are wonderful people, the coffee is awesome. I love Nicaragua because it has a wonderful, fascinating history. I love the city of Grenada. It’s a preserved colonial city, but it’s not gentrified. It’s a beautiful, local-feeling place with volcanoes looming over the city. It’s amazing. If you ever have a chance to go, go.

And the people are truly amazing in Nicaragua. In Costa Rica, hospitality and tourism is the number one industry, so everyone is on that page of being nice.

I went to Nicaragua, and I was like, ‘I think in Costa Rica they teach you that. In Nicaragua, it’s bred. They’re just naturally friendly, they don’t have much of a tourism infrastructure. And it’s central so you can go to Guatemala.

Do you think you’ll retire here?

None of us ever retire from McGillin’s, you usually die on the job haha.

Ivy, who’s working the host stand today at the front door, she’s worked for us for 37 years in our kitchen. 37 years!

Cassie, she’s in her 70s and she’s worked here for 45 years, John Doyle, he’s 74 and he’s a bartender, and he’s worked here for 45 years. We’re all just in it for the long run. It’s family.

Owning It: McGillin’s Olde Ale House