For many couples, McGillin’s is “more than just a bar.” It’s where their love stories began

“I said to my brother, ‘Oh, who is that?’” said Mackin, who is now 82. “And he said, ‘It doesn’t matter, you don’t want to know.’ And with that, of course, I wanted to know. We started dating and I guess the rest is history. We have been married for 62 years.”

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Mackin and her husband, Art, are among the many couples who have met at the Center City watering hole over the years. Art’s parents are also there, and Diane’s friend Maureen also met her husband there.

Owner Christopher Mullins Jr. doesn’t know exactly how many couples have met at the 166-year-old bar, but he knows of at least 229. McGillin’s has four books signed by couples with connections to the bar. Most couples are identified when they return and share their stories with the bar’s servers.

McGillin’s is hosting one on Tuesday meeting for any couple with a romantic connection to the tavern, whether that’s because they met at the bar, had their first date there or stopped by after their wedding. These romantic ties add to the bar’s atmosphere, Mullins said.

“It mIt’s more than just a bar,” Mullins said. ‘It makes it more interesting: we don’t just throw away drinks and food. It really is a culture, and that brings some romance to the bar. It makes people smile.”

Features image/Diane and Art Mackin

Art and Diane Mackin of Gwynedd Valley are among hundreds of couples with romantic ties to McGillin’s Olde Ale House. They met there in 1962.

Bri Amato Parisi, 34, met her husband Tyler Parisi, 35, through a mutual friend at McGillin’s on her 24th birthday. They didn’t officially start dating until 2017, but the bar at 1310 Drury St. was so special to them that they returned regularly. In 2023, Tyler proposed to Bri at the bar and rented the event space upstairs to celebrate with family and friends.

Since getting married in 2024, Bri and Tyler said they have felt “part of the family” of McGillin’s couples. They have stayed in touch with an elderly couple they met through a social media post. They said they’re not sure what makes the bar such a popular meeting place for couples, but that it might be the bar’s different crowds.

“It’s not really a dive bar, it’s not really an Irish pub, it’s not really a restaurant,” Tyler said. “It’s a little bit of everything, so it attracts all different types of people. I think that’s probably part of the reason.”

Mullins suggested it provides a meeting space for people who have been ‘put down’ by the dating app scene. Doing it the “old fashioned” way still works just as well as it did 50 years ago.

Features image/Bri and Tyler Parisi

Bri Amato Parisi met her husband, Tyler Parisi, on her 24th birthday at McGillin’s Olde Ale House. They credit the bar’s different hustle and bustle as the reason it’s a popular meeting spot for couples.

“This is such a pleasant, joyful, life-breathing kind of story that goes on and on, because the stories go on from the people who met here in 1962 to their children, their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren,” Mullins said. “So it’s really just a story that just keeps on giving.”

These days, the Mackins live in Gwynedd Valley and don’t go to McGillin’s often, but they do go there for lunch when they are in town. When they met, Diana said she knew nothing about the bar’s romantic reputation, only that it was a place to meet “nice guys.”

“When I went with my girlfriends, we weren’t really interested in drinking. It was just about meeting nice guys at McGillin’s,” she said. “Because if you went to McGillin’s, they had to be nice guys.”