Is Bennie’s Tavern from Mare of Easttown a real place?

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Mare of Easttown Season 1, Episode 4. 

During the latest episode of Mare of Easttown, one particular spot became extremely important to the show’s central storyline. In the final moments of Mare of Easttown Season 1, Episode 4, we finally found out what had happened to Dawn’s missing daughter, Katie Bailey, and the latest missing girl, Missy Sayers.

Katie has been held captive inside the dingy, dirty backroom of a seedy local pub called Bennie’s Tavern, and by the end of the last episode, Missy has joined Katie in the room. It looks like whoever is behind kidnapping these girls is potentially planning to traffick them or just hold them captive.

Does that mean Erin was supposed to end up in Bennie’s Tavern, too? Did something go wrong along the way? Because so far, the common link between all three girls is that they had SideDoor accounts for prostitution, although Jess claims Erin never actually used hers.

Is Bennie’s Tavern on Mare of Easttown a real place?

After showing the sign outside Bennie’s Tavern, many fans might be wondering if that’s a real place you could visit (although I’m not sure you’d want to!), and the answer is no. Real businesses tend to appreciate positive portrayals on television when used, so I can’t imagine that a tavern owner would want their place to be seen as a den of sex trafficking and assault on HBO.

That said, there probably are a lot of places similar to Bennie’s Tavern in Pennsylvania. We know the show is set there, and it was filmed on location in several places throughout the state for authenticity’s sake.

According to The Cinemaholic, a significant portion of filming was done in Chester County, with production being spotted in several parts of the area. Show creator Brad Ingelsby is actually from the county.

New episodes of Mare of Easttown air Sunday nights at 10:00 p.m. EST on HBO and are also available to stream on HBO Max.