Every year when the calendar creeps closer to St. Patrick’s Day, one of Philadelphia’s best-known Irish bars reminds its customers why it doesn’t serve Guinness. The annual social media post from\u00a0McGillin’s Olde Ale House\u00a0usually includes a photo of an alternative beer from Ireland available on tap and a slogan of sorts: “You can get Guinness anywhere \u2014 a steakhouse, a sushi place, a Flyers game \u2014 but not at McGillin’s!”<\/p>\n
RELATED:\u00a0From Finn McCool’s to Tir Na Nog, here are the meanings behind Irish bar names in Philly<\/a><\/p>\n This beef with Ireland’s signature stout goes back to 2000, and McGillin’s wasn’t the only Philly bar involved. Roughly a dozen Irish bars in the city stopped selling Guinness over its support of the “bar-in-a-box” company that brought Fad\u00f3 to Center City and, the boycotters said, unfairly infringed on their business.<\/p>\n The company in question was Irish Pub Co., a Dublin-based firm promising clients a unique turnkey service. For a fixed fee, their team of architects, designers and craftsmen would deliver an Irish bar from concept to installation, right down to the tankards. Irish Pub Co. achieved rapid success in the 1990s, thanks in part to its partnership with Guinness. The brewery nurtured the company’s growth by promoting it to investors and offering business advice to new owners. To this day, Irish Pub Co. brands itself as “the official partner of the Guinness Irish pub concept.”<\/p>\n This close relationship led to hundreds of new Irish bars in America and across the globe. Naturally, they tended to sell Guinness. Some longtime operators of traditional Irish-style pubs in Philadelphia took umbrage with this development project, worried that customers would depart their barstools for a new seat at the freshly opened Irish Pub Co. property in town. They also cried foul over Guinness’s business arrangement. Though the beermaker did not own Irish Pub Co. \u2014 “tied house” laws in the U.S. prohibit this kind of entanglement \u2014 Guinness was quite openly invested in its success.<\/p>\n The situation boiled over in early 2000, as rumors swirled that the Irish Pub. Co. chain Fad\u00f3<\/a> was coming to town. Select bar owners cut off their Guinness taps in protest, grumbling that they had helped build the appetite for Irish beer in America without any support from an international corporation. Most of the boycotting bars were located in Center City, not far from where Fad\u00f3 took up residence in 2001.<\/p>\n The movement was, according to Guinness, confined to Philadelphia. But it caught attention. As the story went national, executives from the company’s American base in Stamford, Connecticut,\u00a0met with the bar owners<\/a> in an attempt to smooth things over. The boycotters were apparently unmoved<\/a> and switched to Irish stout alternatives like O’Hara’s, Beamish and Murphy’s.\u00a0<\/p>\n Several of those establishments have since closed \u2014 among them, Dickens Inn, Finnegan’s Wake and the two Walnut Street pubs ironically named Irish Pub. At least one, O’Neals, is now serving Guinness. But McGillin’s has kept up the boycott for over two decades, and shows no signs of abandoning<\/a> its fighting Irish spirit.<\/p>\n Follow Kristin & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @kristin_hunt
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