Poor Phil’s, Oak Park’s first legit bar and restaurant, hits 40 

When asked why Poor Phil’s has thrived for more than four decades at the corner of Marion and Pleasant streets in Oak Park, Mary Murphy, the manager and daughter of the owners, quickly responded. 

“We got the best corner in town!” she said.  

It also helps that the menu is filled with an abundance of seafood: oysters, lobster, soft-shell crabs, shrimp, etc. A wide-ranging beer selection, cocktail menu, wine list and drinks to please the kids (and kids in all of us) has served this bar/restaurant through the decades too. 

The restaurant has a Cheer’s-like ambiance (that bar of perpetual friendliness and TV fame). Casual, relaxed with tap handles from brews of the past hanging from the ceiling, vintage posters and signs line the walls. It also has waitstaff who stick with their jobs for decades. 

The Murphy family has been at this intersection for even longer. Mary’s parents, Dennis and Bunny, have been pioneering Oak Park restaurant entrepreneurs since the 1970s when they opened Murphy’s Off-the-Mall — yes there was an actual downtown pedestrian mall. That famous for its burgers spot was on North Marion Street. 

In the early 1980s the Murphy’s opened Philander’s, Oak Park’s first upscale, liquor-serving restaurant, on Pleasant, just west of what is now Poor Phil’s. 

Philander’s “was a limousines type thing back in the day, very flashy. People wore actual dress-up clothes, suits.” At the grand opening, Mary Murphy remembers, “I was in my twirly red dress, running around. It was so great. What a great time!” 

Later, Poor Phil’s Shell Bar joined the party next door. It was deliberately a casual place and its name was a sly reference to fancy Philander’s next door. Both restaurants took their monikers from Philander Barclay, the eccentric turn of the last century Oak Parker who took hundreds of pictures of everyday life in the village. 

“I always laugh when people come in saying I know Phil. I’m like, no you don’t. There’s no Phil,” said Murphy. At least not in this century. 

In time, the Murphys sold the upscale restaurant to its manager, who renamed it Barclay’s. Poor Phil’s steamed forward, the flagship of the Murphy family. 

Dennis Murphy said, “My wife and I along with our eight kids have been, through the years, joined by some great staffs. Other relatives and friends have come and gone. However, we learned that not everyone is cut out for the restaurant business!” 

 “I’m the only child that stayed. I’ve been here my whole life. I started working here in 1993, when I was 19. Everybody else just kind of went off and did their own thing and I just worked well with my parents. I stayed. And I loved it,” said Mary Murphy. 

While the senior Murphys have mostly retired, Dennis still has a hand in the place. 

Those smiling crabs and winking beer stein cartoons are his and he helps with creating the menu. 

“My dad will still come by and be like there’s a light out. OK, dad. And sure enough there will be lights out,” Mary Murphy said. 

Not that there weren’t some stumbles along the way. The COVID pandemic, as for most restaurants, was a touch-and-go time. 

“Thank God for our regular customers! They came in. They were social distancing, and it worked out. I love that everybody, just the whole community was just like, OK, let’s keep everybody open. And it was great. They all came together and that’s why we’re here. We’re a big community place and we know everybody. People come in and we know their names,” said Mary Murphy. “We’re kid-friendly too. People call sometimes and ask, ‘Can I bring my kid?’ Absolutely.” 

Along with seafood, Phil’s is known for a perfectly crunchy catfish poor boy and the legendary Murphy burger. A lobster roll sandwich just debuted on the menu too. 

Happy hour rolls around Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. with drink specials, half-priced appetizers and shrimp or oysters at $2 apiece. 

Dennis Murphy said, “The average life of a restaurant ain’t great. With luck, five years. Forty years is like ancient.” 

“Poor Phil’s feels like it might be one of the oldest restaurants in town,” Mary Murphy said. 

Perhaps the historical society can sort that out, but there is no doubt that Poor Phil’s has done a fine job anchoring their corner, welcoming in customers hungry for a friendly face and top-notch fare.