(upbeat music) - [Shirley] Here's what's next on you oughta know.

It's all about love as couples share what it takes to keep that love alive.

Hear how love bloomed for a Philly florist and McGillin's Old Alehouse gives us a look at what they're serving up for Valentine's Day.

(upbeat music) Hi everyone, I'm Shirley Min and tonight, love is in the Air.

We're gonna hear the keys to a lasting relationship, check out a few date night ideas and sample some drinks from our favorite place, McGillin's Old Alehouse.

You know what?

Since McGillin's is a place where many have found love, let's take the show there.

We're here at McGillin's, let's go in.

Hi Chris.

Great to see you on your turf for a change.

- It's great that you're here, Shirley.

We're happy to have you.

- I love the decorations in here.

I know you guys always go full tilt with the decorations, but the love, the Valentine's, I'm really digging the vibe.

More than that though, I saw signs from the Lit Brothers, Le Bec-Fin, Wanamaker's.

I love all of this true Philly iconic decor in the bar.

Why did you decide to go that way?

- [Chris] We actually didn't decide to do it.

It's, it was, these, the signs were brought to us by the owners of these buildings.

So they brought us the signs, we hung it on the wall in a ceremonial fashion.

Hung up John Wanamaker's and Strawbridge's and we're proud to be the stewards of that part of Philadelphia history.

- [Shirley] I really love it and you've outlasted these department stores.

You're the continuous, longest, continuously running pub tavern in Philadelphia and yet, there haven't been that many owners.

- No, it's true.

There's only been two families in 164 years.

- [Shirley] Oh my gosh.

- [Chris] The McGillin's family and my family, which is super exciting and really, we're really proud.

- [Shirley] You were the second family.

- [Chris] Yes, absolutely.

- That's quite an honor.

- It is and we're very proud to, to, to be here to Philadelphia institution and, and we're caretakers of the business.

- [Shirley] I love it.

Speaking of love, a lot of people have made a love connection here in this bar, so much so, you're documenting it.

- Absolutely.

- [Shirley] Do you have a number of how many couples have met here?

- [Chris] We don't, but we know we have three volumes of these, these books of all the couples.

So we ask them to come in, give us their information, tell us their love story and then this way, it's preserved forever.

- Yeah, and I, it's interesting too 'cause it's not like they just met here and are dating.

It's they met here, dated and got married.

- And got married and then they're bringing in their grandkids, you know, their own children and hopefully new memories will be made here.

- [Shirley] Well, that's beautiful.

Well, we're gonna meet one of these couples a little bit later on in the show.

Also, we're gonna get a sampling from the drink menu and like have some bites from the Valentine's Day menu?

- Absolutely, yes.

Some of our love is in the airfare for you today.

We're excited to share it.

- [Shirley] Oh, love is in the airfare, you're so cute.

- Yeah.

- [Shirley] Chris, thank you.

Well, speaking of love, throughout this show we are going to be hearing from several couples who all have ties to WHYY, whether they were featured on you ought to know in the past, or they're family members of our crew.

- [Martha] My name is Martha Evans.

- [Quince] And I am Quince Evans.

- [Martha] We've been married 60 years, May the 18th, it'll be 61 years.

We met at the movie theater, the Fans movie theater at 40th and Marker Street, Philadelphia.

- I thought she was beautiful when I first saw her.

I grew up with five sisters and two brothers and I know what good looks look like and from talking to her and everything, she was very, very pretty and very smart.

- I think love is really caring for one another.

You like a person, you like their personalities, you need to have, you have a friendship, you have a romantic and physical attraction and I think that's really what it is.

- Love itself is very, very difficult, but if you care enough to give your vows and marry someone, then that's true love.

That's true love.

- Now to a story about a florist who found love on the steps of South Philly High School in 1963 and that love is still in full bloom 60 years later.

(upbeat jazz music) - [Janet] I was born and raised in a small street in South Philly.

I was a baby of four girls and my dad actually was a guitar player and his group was called the Esquire Boys.

His name was Danny Cedrone.

My father's the lead guitar player in Rock Around the Clock.

That particular lead riff is one of the most famous riffs of all time.

(upbeat guitar music) My father died when I was only five years old.

Fast forward here, I'm in my teens and I go to South Philly High and that's where I met my boy.

- King Arthur got here in 1951 through Puerto Rico to Philadelphia and my mother and father's store was here.

They had the first bodega in Center City, South Philly.

Me, I loved the music.

At 12 years old, I started buying records, going in town with mom and I had a nice collection and I would do parties for my friends.

Just started doing record hops here and there.

One of my first was I brought in pine.

It was a Jewish wire at the time and we had record hops up on the roof.

The summer right before we went to high school, we decided to go for a ride looking for girls and who do I see in front of the Epiphany Church?

A bunch of girls and one of the girls happens to be the lady I married, the queen, Janet Cedrone.

Once we got into school, I met her again.

Me being the clown, I was coming down the wrong set of steps.

We talked and the guys who I was with were hitting on her and I told them to back off because this lady's got Tastykake pie in her pocket.

She's okay man, she's cool, you know what I mean?

And they all laughed and we laughed, she laughed and after that we fell in love and everything rolled from there.

- I met Carlos 1963 on the steps of South Philly High and that was it, man.

We started going out from then.

Carlos would walk me home from school.

I stood on the step and talked with him 'cause I didn't wanna get in trouble with my mom.

- [Carlos] We couldn't go inside.

Mom worked, but mom had spies on the street, so we had to sit on the step.

No matter what the temperature was, I couldn't go in the house, so that was back in the day.

- [Janet] He was my high school sweetheart and I went out with him for four years before we got engaged in 68 and in 69 is when we got married.

- [Carlos] We got into the flower business in the nineties and flower business, you always bringing someone a smile, especially around the holidays like Valentine's.

- [Janet] Valentine's Day's is beautiful.

It is all about love.

Me being in the business and me being with my husband as long as I have been, it is all about love and there's nothing like it.

- She supplies nothing but love for everybody and flowers do it.

Our marriage is 54 years, but me and the queen, we hang in there.

I love her to death and 54 years sounds like a long time.

I scratch my head and I say to myself, but it doesn't feel that long.

I guess when you're with somebody you really love or somebody you really care for, it doesn't feel that way.

We keep on rocking and rolling between the flowers and the music.

I'll give her another 54.

- We get along great.

I mean, we do everything together.

When I saw him, it was love at first sight and it still is.

- I'm Tim Eads with Tough to the World.

- You're not with Tough the World today.

- I'm not?

- No, we're just us.

- Oh.

- I'm Tiernan Alexander.

I've been married to this weirdo since 2007.

- I'm still Tim Eads.

- I was taking ceramics in Lancaster, Texas and he walked into my clay class one day and the first thought I had when I looked at him was he could be my boyfriend.

- We've always been really good about communicating with each other and I think that's, we're always super open with each other about how we're feeling, even through super difficult times.

- [Tiernan] I thought you were gonna go with our great trademark line, low expectations.

- Just keep your expectations painfully low- - Lower.

- And everything above that is amazing.

- Yeah.

- I'm generally a quieter person and Tiernan is endlessly entertaining.

I could just watch her and listen to her talk all day.

It's like, yeah.

- I love Tim because he's incredibly funny and incredibly kind and you're just getting cuter.

(laughing) - Joining me now are Ryann and Kevin Gallagher, one of the many couples who have met here and found love at McGillin's.

Thank you so much for being here with me.

- Thank you for having us.

- Tell us your story because you two knew each other as little kids.

- Yes, yes.

Kind of distantly but kind of not are my cousins and his, himself and his sister were friends growing up, so just due to that, I kind of would tag along and- - You would cross paths.

- Yes.

- But then you meet here at McGillin's.

Fast forward to 2015.

- Yes.

- Was this a love at first sight thing or kind of gimme- - Maybe.

- I think maybe a little bit, yeah.

We kept running into each other every now and then.

Felt like we did it four or five weekends in a row.

- Yes.

- And then fast forward to around February of 2016, I think is when I decided to, to make a move and, and buy her a Coors Light and here we are today.

- The rest is history.

- And I love that you kept bumping into each other.

- Yeah.

- Here at McGillin's.

- Yes.

Upstairs in this room, every time.

Always in passing.

He would be with mutual friends that, you know, I knew, so that was kind of why we would end up crossing paths, but the final exchange, we haven't left each other's side since.

- Yeah.

- Did you know about the history of McGillin's and its matchmaking powers?

- Not really.

I think, I think it started to come into mind a little bit after we started dating officially and we heard more and more stories and, and kind of heard a little bit more around the history and now we're, now we're very much a part of it, which is cool.

- [Ryann] Yes.

- [Shirley] And you're in the book?

- [Ryann] We are in the book, yes.

A few times.

We got to write in it when we were here for engagement pictures and then our engagement pictures made it in there too.

- [Shirley] Oh, I love that.

- [Ryann] Yes.

- [Shirley] And you had your engagement pictures taken here, right?

- [Ryann] We did, yes.

Some inside, some outside, yep.

Had to make it a part of a part of the big picture, the big story.

- Now that you're married, do you still come back here and you have a family and- - Yes.

- We certainly try to.

Not as much as, as, as we were.

We don't come here every weekend anymore but yeah, we've, we've brought our, our youngest, or excuse me, our oldest child here when she was about, I don't know, six, seven months old.

- Yep.

- And our little man hasn't, hasn't made it here yet, but hopefully we'll change that soon.

- I'm sure it will happen soon, yes.

- [Shirley] Well I love that.

So just the timeline, met in McGillin's 2015.

- Yes.

- Engaged 2018.

Married 2019.

- Yes.

- And here we are today.

- And here we are today.

- Oh my gosh.

- Yep.

- Ryann and Kevin Gallagher, thank you so much for being with us.

- Thank you for having us.

- Absolutely.

- This was so much fun.

- [Benecie] We used to work in the same hospital, so every weekend, he'd always ask me, "When we going to get married?"

- Hi, I'm Camelot Jeantel.

- Hi, I'm Benecie Jeantel and we've been married for 54 years, going on 55.

So the Bible said the family that pray together, stay together.

So I, I pray day and night because we always have to pray always.

If you don't, you get discouraged on the world.

It is, sometime it's hard.

It's not always good, happy, so we have to pray and, and love, love and prayer.

- [Camelot] She's a very kind person.

- [Benecie] He loves to clean.

He clean the house.

He do wash, laundry and he was always looking for me.

If I go out for just like 15 minutes and he still calling, "Where she, where, where are you?"

So we always will look for each other.

- [Camelot] I think we do love each other.

Ever since we met, I love her and I will love her for the rest of my life and I'm not going to let her go.

We'll love until we die.

- You have to put in the work to keep the love alive, so here are a few date night ideas.

(upbeat music) - [Anna] Cooking is very much an art.

When you eat, your eyes make a decision before it ever enters your mouth.

So if it looks pretty, you are definitely more engaged.

My family did have restaurants in Italy, (speaking Italian) in Italy, and I had to spend a lot of my summers there in those places while visiting our family, so food has always been an integral part of our whole life and then I was able to translate that into the cooking class experience.

Initially, it was classes open to the public and the more classes that we had, there was a lot of desire to host private cooking events.

Over in this station, we're gonna make tomato bruschetta.

One thing you have to promise is that you're never gonna say bruschetta again.

Alright, bruschetta.

There's a distinction between Italian cooking and Italian American cooking.

So South Philly is Philadelphia's Italian American hub.

They're gonna be making handmade ravioli, chicken parmigiano.

They're gonna make broccoli rabe, which is a great educational piece because a lot of people don't know what broccoli rabe is and then for dessert, they're gonna make tiramisu.

Each private class features an appetizer.

We almost always have a handmade pasta course because that's my thing.

A vegetable, a protein, salad, dessert.

We have people come in here and they go, "Oh, I, I don't cook, I, I don't cook."

And then they leave and they're like, "Look, I'm cooking."

So that, that makes us happy 'cause we feel like we really did our job.

The bartenders that we use have extensive wine backgrounds because people BYO and then they can get some knowledge also about the wines they're drinking.

Our goal, other than to teach you how to cook, is to be comfortable.

We select recipes that we know people will go home and do again.

Things that are delicious but easier to execute.

They may want to go and impress their family, their friends with.

It's so much more than cooking.

The table is a place where every culture gathers around and, you know, coming out of the pandemic, we have the opportunity to bring people back together and that makes for a really joyful experience for my wonderful staff who all share the same passion and for the guests here.

They leave and they are inspired, happy.

You see people engage with each other, especially in public classes where they're interacting with people that they may have not known someone of that culture.

They may have not known someone from that area.

They're making friends here in addition to learning to cook.

Not everyone here grew up in a household where we sat around the table and it was the primary gathering, arguing, discussion place.

People are looking for that, especially if they didn't grow up from it.

I think on a personal level, the value is that we feel that we're contributing to the greater good of humanity.

I am really blessed that I have a staff who really all believes that.

(upbeat jazz music) - [Ken] Welcome to the Blue Ballroom.

(upbeat jazz music) We got this idea that there's probably a lot of people at home that were tired of trying to dance to Zoom instruction and maybe wanted to do something special, do something different.

We knew that we could, you know, bring 'em in.

We have a bar, you could have a little drink, feel like a, feel like they actually went somewhere.

Enjoy our beautiful facility and work with a teacher for a, for a private dance lesson and have fun.

(upbeat jazz music) - [Shirley] Dance dates are about an hour, and you have the whole place to yourself with your very own private instructor.

Sounded like fun, so I decided to give it a whirl.

(upbeat jazz music) So Ken has so kindly provided a date for me.

Valentine Hodgman, say hello.

I think we're gonna need the champagne before we get started.

- Sure.

- Here we go.

Cheers.

- [Valentine] Cheers.

- [Shirley] Bottoms up.

I'm ready.

- It's helping?

- Helping, yeah.

Time to put my dancing shoes on.

I don't think I understand how this works.

(upbeat jazz music) - Step, turn, step.

- Oh geez.

- Turn, there you go.

- Okay.

- And rock, rock.

One, two, rock, rock, step, turn, step, turn and rock, rock.

- Oh, okay.

- That was it.

That was very good.

- That was, that was not it.

That was something.

- Yes, it was.

- That was not it.

(upbeat jazz music) - [Ken] Most people when they come in on a dance date, don't know exactly what dances they wanna learn, so we talk through that and try to make sure it's something that they're gonna enjoy and have fun with and the the easiest way to do that is to match 'em to the type of music they like, or if they were going to a club where they might be going.

- [Shirley] And clearly you don't need any dance experience whatsoever to have fun.

- [Dancer] Nice.

That was good.

- We can take a person who has had zero experience and turn walking into dancing and then from there, they start to walk in a certain rhythm holding onto their partner and they are, you know, dancing before they know it.

- [Shirley] Even if that person has two left feet.

- [Ken] I think the beautiful part about a couple doing dance lessons too, and we see this in the date night, is that it's not a competitive thing, it's something that you do in each other's arms and you get better together.

(upbeat jazz music) - Nice!

(cheering) This looks good!

Nice job.

- Hi, I'm Mike, co-owner of the Fishtown Pickle Project.

- And I'm Niki, I'm co-founder and dietician at Fishtown Pickle Project and we've been married for six years and together for nine.

We met about 10 years ago teaching healthy cooking classes for our local food bank.

- [Mike] For me, it was love at first sight.

So we were friends for a long time doing a lot of hanging out and it wasn't until later that we got together.

- Our debatable first date was at Johnny Brenda's in Fishtown.

We went to a show on Valentine's Day.

I tried to make it clear it wasn't a date, but maybe it was.

I always love Mike's humor.

That's one of the things that attracted me to him.

- [Mike] She cares a lot about everybody that is part of her life and she is a very giving person and always puts everything else first.

- Okay, so this is my favorite part where I get to drink and sample some bites from the menu.

Chris, what specialty cocktail do you have for me?

- Well, the, the first one we have today is our McGillin's Love Story, which is a tribute to all the customers and the guests that have met here, so that's- - So what's that made of?

- And that's vanilla vodka and amaretto Di Amor and then there's a little pineapple juice and some cranberry juice shaken and it's stirred with a nice little garnish.

- Should I go for?

- I don't know.

- Both.

- This one, okay.

Let's see.

- There you are.

Nice and fruity.

It's perfect for Valentine's.

- Oh my God.

This is too easy to drink.

Okay, what's next?

- Nothing's too easy to drink.

- This is scary easy to drink, it's so tasty.

- Well this one gets a little bit more alcohol infusion in it.

- [Shirley] Okay.

- Because this is tequila shaken with some strawberry puree and then it's served in this pink sugar rimmed martini glass.

- [Shirley] Yum.

- But then the kicker is we top it with champagne.

- Oh.

- So it's almost like a margarita without the lime juice.

- Interesting.

- Yeah.

- Okay, well let me give this one a try.

- There you are.

- Thank you.

- Enjoy.

- It's always so quiet.

- [Chris] I know.

- Wow, this is, oh, this is really good.

- [Chris] Yes, because, and then it's the balance, it's the sweetness of the champagne and the strength of the tequila.

- But it's not too sweet.

- No.

- It's not overpowering sweet.

- No, and it's very festive too.

- Oh yeah, the tequila's really good in this.

- The last one that we're doing is another boozy cocktail.

- Okay.

- And that's gin.

- Uh huh.

- Topped with Rose'.

It's kiss from a, Kiss from a Rose'.

- [Shirley] Oh, I love that.

I wouldn't think to put those two together.

- No but again, it's, it's light, it's refreshing, it's booze forward, which is nice, post dry January and it's great to set the mood for a nice Valentine's Day.

- Oh, actually this is good.

It is quite refreshing.

Just a little strong, a little strong.

- [Chris] Well, that's okay.

- Not against strong.

- [Chris] At McGillin's, we have a variety of cocktails for all palettes.

- Oh my gosh, this is so good.

- Yeah.

- And then I love the menu items here because, well, let's start here.

I love all the heart shapes.

- Absolutely.

Well this is our love is in the airfare and this is our perfect, perfect, sorry.

- Pairing.

- Perfect pairing, excuse me.

You know, it's, we've got heart shaped crab cake, heart shaped potato cake, even a heart shaped garlic bread for you.

- That's so cute.

- So just to extend the love here.

- Speaking of we, we have this love now where we can finish each other's sentences.

- I, I appreciate that very much, thank you.

- Let me just try these little potatoes.

I broke into the heart.

Okay, the next is the salad.

- [Chris] This is our heartbeat salad.

- I like that.

- [Chris] So that is the traditional beet salad with goat cheese, walnuts, grilled chicken, but you can see we've carved the, the beets into shapes of a heart.

- Yeah.

- And that's something that we've been doing for over 25 years here at McGillin's for Valentine's Day.

- That's cute, heart beet.

- Heartbeat salad.

- B-E-E-T. - Exactly.

- Finally, a heart-shaped burger.

- And then the McGillin's famous burger, but for Valentine's month, we do it in the shape of a heart.

So just a little nod to the lovely couples that we're so proud of.

- And this is a staple every Valentine's Day, right?

- Absolutely, yes.

- Okay well Chris, this is incredible.

You really have outdone yourself.

Hats off to the chef.

I'm not gonna dig in crazy on camera, but the drinks were delicious.

- Don't let me stop you.

- Thank you so much for accommodating us.

- Thank you so much, yeah.

- And I do wanna extend a huge thank you to all of the couples who invited us into their homes and shared their stories with us and thank you for watching us.

Have a good night, everyone.

Bye from McGillin's.

Chris, I'm gonna keep drinking some of these.

- Cheers.

- Define love.

Oh man, you just, you get hit right between the eyes.

You know, when I first saw king, I knew that was it.

- [Carlos] When you really love somebody and you'll go to the ends of the Earth for them.

- [Janet] He is a good, good soul.

He's just a good hearted person.

He's all about love.

He really, really is.

- [Carlos] From her smile, from her beautiful green eyes, for her personality.

She's, when I first met her, she was like con, you know, like a flower waiting to, to, to open up, but little by little, her inner self came out and it was just a beautiful thing to see.

I love her to death.

I'm gonna be here for another 54.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)