Is Beloved Philly Dive Bar Closing for Good This Friday?

Two Philadelphia publications have differing stories about the possible closing of one of the city's most beloved dive bars.

McGlinchey's Bar, the cash-only, Rittenhouse Square drinking establishment that still allows smoking, is either set to close permanently this Friday, August 22nd, or is only closing for a week's vacation, depending on whether you believe Philadelphia Magazine's article or Philadelphia Business Journal's telling of the story.

The History of Philly's Oldest Dive Bar

McGlinchey's has been selling cheap drinks with bad service and graffiti-covered bathroom walls at 259 S 15th St, Philadelphia, since at least the 1960s.

Victor Forillo, who wrote the Philadelphia Magazine article about the bar's pending closing, remembers a "nasty bartender" yelling at him on one of his early visits to McGlinchey's back in the 1990s and having a female patron puke on his shoes the next time he went in for a drink.

The guy is still going back to the bar 30 years later, so that says something about it...or him.

McGlinchey's has become beloved as a local watering hole that doesn't put on any airs, to put things nicely.

It is also one of the last bars in the city where customers can smoke cigarettes inside.

Sheldon Sokol's family has owned that bar for so long that they are grandfathered into an exemption that bans other Philly bars from allowing smoking.

Philadelphia Magazine's Story on the Bar Closing

Philly Magazine's Forillo says he received information from a trusted inside source that the bar is closing this Friday.

A source inside McGlinchey’s, who asked to remain anonymous, gave us the bad news late Sunday afternoon. And the bartender on duty on Sunday confirmed the closure, saying, “Our last day is this Friday, so tell everybody to come in when they still can.” The reason for the closing of McGlinchey’s is reportedly simple enough: There’s just not enough business to sustain it.

 

PBJ's Version of the Story Has the Bar Remaining Open

Emma Dolling from the Philadelphia Business Journal followed up on the Philadelphia Magazine story about McGlinchey's intention to close and spoke with owner Sheldon Sokol.

He said the bar will close on Friday, August 29, for a week's vacation, but will then reopen.

As for whether the bar is for sale, Sokol used the tried and true reasoning of "everything is for sale". Sokol also disputed the idea that McGlinchey's isn't doing a good business.

"It's a nice bar. It's a dive bar. It's not anything fancy, but it's sustained the family for many years," Sokol said.

We should know which version of the bar's story is true soon enough.

One thing both articles agree on is that McGlinchey's may be the only public bar in Philadelphia still allowing smoking.

If and when the bar is sold, that nasty practice will end because the grandfather clause does not carry over to new owners.