Bill Murray poured drinks at Bob & Barbara’s after a Phillies game

It’s no surprise that Bill Murray, famous Chicago Cubs fan, was in town on Monday to cheer for his team as they faced the Phillies. After the Cubs lost 6-2, it’s only natural that he’d want to head to a bar to get over his evening’s disappointment.

So the Cubs superfan, who in 2021 performed a very passionate rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during a Cubs vs. Cardinals game, headed to South Street’s Bob & Barbara’s Lounge, comanaged by his friend Katrina Duva.

What was meant to be a just another night out for the Ghostbusters star turned, in true Murray fashion, into an evening of joy and surprise for others.

Last April, Murray was at New York City’s Citi Field watching the Cubs beat Mets. After that, he took the subway into Manhattan where he chatted up with a train full of dejected Mets fans and undoubtedly lifted their spirits. On Monday, he chose to join Duva behind the bar for an impromptu and short bartending stint and add to the joy of Philadelphians still reeling from their team’s win.

Among them was Steven Burke, tour manager of the band Guster, who was celebrating the Phillies’ win in what Burke considers the “best bar in Philadelphia.”

He and some members of the band’s crew were dancing in a corner when they saw, in Burke’s words, “someone who looked like Bill Murray.” Once they had confirmation, they proceeded to buy him a drink. But Murray had other plans.

“He went over to the other side of the bar and poured us shots and opened cans of Pabst,” Burke said. “The bartender said he had done this many times before.”

As the night progressed, Murray remained as generous with shots of Jim Beam for people in the bar, before proceeding to join Burke and his friends on the dance floor.

“As amazing as it was to hang out with Bill Murray, the best thing that night was the fact that the Phillies had clinched the National League East title for the first time in 13 years,” Burke said.

Philly will be the first stop on the Somerville, Mass.-based band’s “We Also Have Eras” tour in January next year when they take stage at the Fillmore.

Murray, of course, is no stranger to Philly bars or bartending.

In 2016, when Murray’s son Homer opened the restaurant 21 Greenpoint in Brooklyn, Murray was the inaugural bartender who poured, according to a Bon Appétit report, “shot after shot for everyone,” not unlike Monday night.

He missed the 2015 Emmys (he won one for outstanding actor in a miniseries for Olive Kitteridge that night) to attend his son Luke’s wedding at the Bellevue Hotel. He was also spotted at the Rittenhouse Row dive bar Oscar’s Tavern that weekend. Luke Murray, who is an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team at University of Connecticut, is married to Philly native Kara Cassidy.

A year before that, the actor who plays the brand ambassador for Suntory whiskey in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, had dropped into Fishtown’s El Bar without any fanfare. And when Luke was coaching Towson University’s basketball team, the father-son duo wined and dined in Philly over a weekend, when the Bulls were in town for a playoff game. They ate at the now-shuttered Square Peg, where Murray tipped well and bought a waitress two pairs of camo pants from I. Goldberg, just because she asked.

It’s a pleasure to have you with us, Mr. Murray, despite the fact that Cubs beat Phillies 10-4 on Tuesday. Hope you keep visiting.

This article has been updated to include Steven Burke’s quote.