WHAT DO YOU see when you think of Irish pubs abroad? An abundance of tricolours, dodgy Guinness, and a hefty spoonful of diddledy-aye, right?
The Dead Rabbit in New York, which was recently named the World’s Best Bar, takes all those stereotypes and throws them out the window.
Belfast natives Jack McGarry and Sean Muldoon set up the ‘cocktail pub’ in 2010, and have been racking up the accolades ever since.
Speaking to DailyEdge.ie, McGarry said they wanted to take “the best of every single pub in Ireland” and present it to New Yorkers:
The Dead Rabbit is an amalgamation of our favourite bars in Belfast - the Cocktail Bar in the Merchant Hotel and pubs like the Duke of York. [We wanted to bring] that unbelievable hospitality, the world class service, and the warmth of Irish pubs.
The whole point of The Dead Rabbit as an Irish pub, says McGarry, is to “challenge the status quo” of the more touristy bars over on Times Square.
“[In those bars] there’s a couple of people with an accent, normal beers, everything’s normal,” he said. “We’re trying to bring everything to an extraordinary level.”
With cocktails themed around the history of the Irish in New York, it’s apparent that the connection to the homeland goes deeper than the flag over the door.
McGarry and Muldoon are also doing their bit to show off Irish cuisine, regularly serving up sausage rolls, all day fry-ups and Sunday roasts to punters.
“We’re constantly thinking of new ways to introduce Americans to Irish culture,” he said.
As for the New York punters, McGarry says they’re harder to please than their Belfast counterparts.
They know what they’re coming here for – they’re cocktail nerds, so you have to know your stuff. Belfast is more forgiving.
Well, they’re doing a bang up job over there all the same.
The Irish: Officially the best at pubs. Come at us, world.
Originally published by Valerie Loftus on DailyEdge.ie
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