Livin’ Large on the Union Payroll

Tucked deep in a South Philadelphia neighborhood that decorates for St. Patrick’s Day the way other places do for Christmas, there stands a bar that’s locally notorious for underage drinking and random brutality.

On a sunny afternoon in March, I tried unsuccessfully to visit; conflicting hours were reported online, and all phone numbers I could find for the bar had been disconnected. But when I asked a young woman who lived nearby whether the pub was safe to check out later that evening, she refused to answer directly but repeatedly recommended I go to a bar down the street instead. Another neighbor later tells me by phone that he was almost jumped outside the bar once — he had spoken out when a drunk man flicked a cigarette into his chest as he rode his bicycle past— but makes me promise not to mention his name.

Yelp reviewers are less reticent: “I saw a bunch of regulars/locals beat up a few other guys just because they weren’t locals and therefore weren’t welcome,” wrote one woman last year. “I saw the bartender get involved and violently throw the non-locals out on the street. One guy was beat so bad he was taken away in an ambulance. It was truly horrific.”

More