Philadelphia’s oldest operating tavern just became the star of its own streaming documentary, and the result is less a film about a bar than a film about the city itself.
McGillin’s: Philadelphia’s Oldest Bar, a 42-minute documentary from South Philadelphia filmmaker Eric Carosella, debuted on WHYY and is now streaming on PBS Passport, writes Mike Newall for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The project began the way a lot of good Philly stories do — over beers, upstairs at McGillin’s, where Carosella found himself struck by just how much history was packed into the room around him.
That spark grew into something bigger.
The film traces McGillin’s all the way back to 1860, when Irish immigrants William and Catherine McGillin opened its doors, and follows the bar through wars, Prohibition, the Great Depression, and two pandemics.
This is a 165-year run that’s made McGillin’s less of a business and more a fixture of Center City life.
“It’s a place Philadelphians have been coming to connect and have fun and find love and watch sports for more than 150 years,” Carosella said. “Everyone has a McGillin’s story.”
That’s the thread running through the documentary: the people.
Co-owner Chris Mullins Jr., urban historian Stephen Nepa, brewmaster Carol Stoudt, and a cast of longtime regulars all show up to share what’s kept generations coming back to the same barstools, year after year.
“We made this movie to showcase their stories,” Carosella said.
For more on the people, the history, and the staying power behind one of Philly’s most enduring institutions, read the full article in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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