You can rent this mobile Philly sports pub that was handcrafted in Delco

Last fall, I had the pleasure of sharing a pint of Guinness with John Chambers and his family in the mobile Irish pub he built by hand and offers for rent. The dark wood and cozy interior transported me back to Ireland, which was pretty impressive since I was actually closer to Clifton Heights than the Cliffs of Moher, given the pub was parked in Chambers’ Broomall driveway.

As it turns out, a lot of people were looking for an easy escape to Ireland, too (or a quick escape from family drama at holiday gatherings) because after my story on the pub ran, the Chambers family said it exploded in popularity like an overcarbonated keg and was booked solid nearly every weekend for a year.

Wanting to build on their new Park A Pub business, Chambers, a native of Ireland who’s lived and worked as a carpenter in Delco for 37 years, quickly began building a second mobile bar, and his adult children — who are proud Delco natives — told him just what the theme should be: a Philadelphia sports pub.

In less than three months, Chambers, 60, crafted a sleek, modern sports pub on wheels with two 55-inch TVs, three taps, and a 10-foot bar. The walls are lined with Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, and Flyers memorabilia — including a signed Brian Dawkins jersey and a framed photo of Bryce Harper staring down Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia — and the mood lighting under the bar can be changed depending on which team is playing.

Chambers built the entire pub freehand, from January to March, without any drafts (at least not the schematic kind, anyway).

“It’s all in my head. That’s why I have no hair left. I keep scratching my head,” he said.

Coming in at 24 feet long, 8 feet, 6 inches wide, and 12 feet high at the top of its slanted roof, the new pub is larger than the first and can accommodate 15 to 20 people comfortably. It’s been popular during Eagles games and with repeat customers, said Chambers’ daughter, Caitlin, 33, who handles marketing and communications for the business.

“There are some people who don’t care what theme it is and they just want a bar in their driveway,” she said.

And who wouldn’t? For those interested in raising the bar, renting both pubs is now an option, too (and please invite me if you do).

“If it’s a bigger event and they want people to barhop in their own yard or their own driveway, we can do that,” Caitlin Chambers said.

Despite the success of the business, Park A Pub remains a family affair with Chambers’ wife, Maureen, 58, and son, Sean, 30, pitching in, too.

“We’re all still talking and we’re still borrowing money off of each other,” John Chambers said, laughing.

Himself a product of two people who met in an Irish pub, Chambers met his wife, a Folcroft native, when she stopped at the Welcome Inn pub in County Mayo, Ireland, while visiting her grandparents in the 1980s. They fell in love and in 1987, Chambers moved to Delco, and the two married the following year. Ale’s well that ends well, as they say.

Maureen Chambers works as an office manager at Trinity Health, Caitlin Chambers is a speech therapist, and both of the Chambers men are carpenters. The four were close before, but spending every weekend together running a family business they fell into because John Chambers wanted to bring a small corner of his homeland here, has drawn them even closer.

And that’s what they hope both of their mobile pubs do, too — bring people together. Unlike a typical bar, which is spread out, the intimacy of the mobile pubs inspires togetherness and conversation.

“That’s really what this whole thing was about,” Maureen Chambers said. “It is nice to bring families together and to hear the stories when we go back the next morning about how much fun they had. We become part of that whole thing because you become part of what you’re doing.”

It’s not just families the mobile pubs bring together. The Chambers family said they often notice how a lot of people will come out to walk their dogs when they deliver a pub to a neighbor, perhaps hoping for an invite, and a lot of neighbors rent them as a group and split the cost.

“I will say a lot of people do like the idea of not having to Uber or hire a babysitter,” Maureen Chambers said.

Rentals of both mobile pubs are for overnight. The Philadelphia sports pub is $1,300 on weekdays and $1,500 Friday to Sunday, and the Irish pub is $1,000 during the week and $1,200 Friday to Sunday.

Since the mobile Philly sports pub debuted in March, it’s been rented for game days, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, holiday parties, and community events. Unlike the Irish pub, it hasn’t been used for a celebration of life yet, but I’ve heard about the Eagles fight song being sung at enough funerals to know that it’s only a matter of time before it will be.

And before you ask your next question, the Chambers family will answer it, as they did for me.

“We don’t do tailgating,” Maureen Chambers said.

“There’s been a lot of requests,” her husband said. “A lot.”

Of course, there are the obvious reasons why — bar fights aren’t allowed and Philadelphia sports fans’ proclivity for climbing anything within eyesight is unmatched — but it’s really an issue of liability.

Once the Chambers family drops the pub off (they offer free delivery within 30 miles of Broomall and $10 a mile after that), they take about an hour to set everything up and then they leave it with the renters for the night.

Clients must provide their own beer, but the Chambers family brings drinkware and hooks up renters’ kegs before they leave. The sports pub has three taps, one of which can accommodate Guinness (a good Irishman is not going to make a bar that doesn’t) but it can also hook up to domestic kegs or even wine and cocktails via an empty canister keg that can be filled with the beverage of your choice.

While hiring a bartender is an option, it’s not necessary, and about 95% of clients choose to pour their own beer. As someone who slung pancakes as a waitress for years but never got to sling drinks, I think holding court behind the bar all night would be amazing and having the power to cut off anyone who’s a jerkface would be intoxicating, too.

“People do love pulling a drink in here,” John Chambers said.

“There is always somebody that says, ‘I sat behind the bar all night,’” Maureen Chambers said.

The pub is equipped with a heating-and-cooling system, which was working wonderfully when I visited on a chilly day last week. The two 55-inch smart TVs behind the bar, which sound massive for the space but actually work surprisingly well, are connected to the pub’s WiFi and come equipped with local TV, Fubo, YouTube, and other apps.

The family ordered much of the sports memorabilia and decor on the walls — I’m partial to the framed Inquirer front page commemorating when the Eagles won Super Bowl LII — and they bought some from the Delco Original Trading Co. in Lawrence Park Shopping Center.

The two pub benches are repurposed pews from the shuttered St. Laurentius Church in Fishtown, and the 10-foot bar was made from a single piece of red oak cut on-site in Lancaster by an Amish carpenter, John Chambers said.

While all four of Philly’s longtime pro sports teams are represented (sorry, Union fans), the decor can be updated to reflect a specific team at a renter’s request, Caitlin Chambers said. Additional items like outdoor cocktail tables, yard games, and decorations can be added for an extra fee.

Holidays have been particularly busy. In the forthcoming Thanksgiving week, the Chambers family has nine rentals in five days between the two pubs.

People are still asking John Chambers to make them a mobile pub of their own, but he hasn’t gotten “that far yet.” Creating another pub for the family business isn’t out of the question either, but a theme hasn’t been chosen.

“I know my dad would love to do another Irish pub,” Caitlin Chambers said.

Want to check out the mobile Philadelphia sports pub in person and grab a drink inside? It will be open to the public at the Home for the Holidays event at Swarthmore Town Center on Dec. 7.