January 28, 2026
Michaela Althouse/PhillyVoice
McGillin's owner Chris Mullins Jr. flips through one of the bar's many books with the names and dates of couples who met at the Center City bar. On Tuesday, the bar is hosting a reunion for the hundreds of couples on its list.
On a night out with friends at McGillin's Olde Ale House in 1962, Diana Mackin walked by a young man who pulled her into his lap. He turned out to be someone who was pledging at her brother's fraternity at La Salle, and she wanted to know more about him.
"I said to my brother, 'Oh, who is that?'" said Mackin, who is now 82. "And he said, 'Never mind, 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've been married for 62 years."
Mackin and her husband, Art, are among the many couples that have met at the Center City watering hole over the years. Art's parents also are among them, and Diane's friend Maureen met her husband there, too.
Owner Christopher Mullins Jr. does not 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 who have connections to the bar. Most couples are identified when they return and share their stories with the bar's servers.
On Tuesday, McGillin's is hosting a reunion 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 makes us more than just a bar," Mullins said. "It makes it more interesting, we're not just slinging drinks and throwing down food. It's really a culture, and having that brings some romance to the bar. It makes people smile."
Art and Diane Mackin, of Gwynedd Valley, are among the hundreds of couples with romantic ties to McGillin's Olde Ale House. They met there in 1962.
Provided Image/Diane and Art Mackin
Bri Amato Parisi, 34, met her husband Tyler Parisi, 35, through a mutual friend at McGillin's on her 24th birthday. They didn't start officially dating until 2017, but the bar at 1310 Drury St. was so special to them that they returned frequently. In 2023, Tyler proposed to Bri at the bar, and rented its event space upstairs to celebrate with family and friends.
Since marrying in 2024, Bri and Tyler said they feel like "part of the family" of McGillin's couples. They have stayed in touch with an older couple they met through a social media post. They said they're not sure what makes the bar such a popular meeting spot for couples, but that perhaps it's the bar's various crowds.
"It's not quite a dive bar, it's not quite an Irish pub, it's not quite a restaurant," Tyler said. "It's kind of a little bit of everything, so it draws all different types of people. I think that's probably part of the reason."
Mullins suggested it provides a meeting space for people who are "beaten down" by the dating app scene. Doing it the "old-fashioned" way still works just as well as it did 50 years ago.
Bri Amato Parisi met her husband, Tyler Parisi, at McGillin's Olde Ale House on her 24th birthday. They credit the bar's various crowds as the reason for it being a popular meeting spot for couples.
"This is such a pleasant, happy, life-breathing kind of story that just continues, because the stories go on from the people who met here in 1962 to then their children and 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 get to McGillin's very often, but they go there for lunch when they're in town. Back when they met, Diana said that she didn't know 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."
