Eleven years after debuting in New York City’s Financial District, The Dead Rabbit has opened its second location, this time in Austin, Texas. The Irish pub known for properly poured pints, craft cocktails, and Irish food was named the World’s Best Bar in 2016 by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants and remains a fixture on “best of” lists. Now it’s ready to share its reverence for Irish culture with more patrons.
The Austin bar opened July 4 and is the first outpost in an expansion plan set to include more locations in the coming years, beginning with Washington, D.C., and Boston in 2025.
It’s situated on Downtown Austin’s iconic Sixth Street in the historic Hannig Row building that formerly housed another Irish bar, B.D. Reily’s. The 5,000-square-foot space has 50 bar and counter seats and 100 table seats and can accommodate additional standing room guests.
The space was designed by Belfast, Northern Ireland-based agency and branding partner Crown Creative, which also conceptualized the design for the New York location’s 2023 relaunch and its sister bar, The Irish Exit, in Midtown Manhattan’s Moynihan Train Hall.
The food menu features all-day Irish breakfasts, bangers and mash, Guinness-braised rib sliders, and fish and chips, and Sunday evenings bring a prime rib dinner. One item exclusive to the Austin location is a Texas Caviar bowl made with black-eyed peas, black beans, corn, jalapeño peppers, wild rice, and a choice of blackened salmon or chicken.
The bar serves a menu of Irish food, beer, and creative cocktails
Drinks include Irish and non-Irish beers, an extensive Irish whiskey list, the bar’s famous Irish coffee, and Austin originals like First & Formosa, which combines blanco tequila with smoked watermelon, corn, Curaçao, and lime.
The Dead Rabbit is joined by the adjacent Neighbourhood Café, a Crown Creative concept from Belfast that’s serving coffee, baked goods, toasts and sandwiches. It’s open daily from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the bar is open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.
The inspiration to grow The Dead Rabbit brand came as a response to what managing partner Jack McGarry calls “McFake” Irish pubs and a pigeonholed perception of Irish pubs as divey sports bars. The team, which also includes director of operations Laura Torres and beverage director Aidan Bowie, wanted to share its version of Irish pubs with a larger audience.
The Dead Rabbit’s famous Irish Coffee
“For us to feel confident about entering a new market, it’s essential that there is an appreciation for Irish culture, a strong presence of Irish and Irish American diasporic communities, and a dynamic city environment with a robust representation of our target customer bases,” McGarry said. “While factors like location competitiveness and store criteria are important, those two broader cultural elements are non-negotiable.”
Going into new markets, the goal isn’t to create facsimiles of the New York original. Each bar will serve some of The Dead Rabbit’s signature drinks and food, but local teams are heavily involved in shaping new stores and embracing the uniqueness of individual locations.
“We’ve actually faced some challenges with customers expecting an exact or near-exact replica of what we’ve done in New York,” McGarry said of the new Austin location. “However, replicating New York was never the goal. My goal, and our goal as a company, is to share our love of contemporary Ireland, challenge stereotypes, and create third-place spaces that reflect the communities they serve.”
The Dead Rabbit opens at 11 a.m. but serves Irish breakfast plates all day
McGarry recognizes that it’s a somewhat paradoxical approach. “We have a very clear vision, yet we’re flexible in how that vision is realized in each market we operate in, or will operate in,” he said.
The most important element is nailing the community-first concept.
“For me, the core tenets of great Irish pubs and bars include being third places that provide people with a comforting and unifying space, centered around respect for good craic [fun], authenticity, focused conversation and, of course, great drinks, grub and music,” McGarry said.
He concedes that what constitutes “great” is subjective, not just in Irish pubs but in all establishments. Regardless of the design or menu specifics, he believes a proper Irish pub should be an authentic gathering spot with heart and soul.
“Unfortunately, many Irish pubs and bars around the world today lack this authenticity and instead perpetuate or appropriate Ireland and Irishness in a saccharine manner, which is something we are passionately against,” he said. “Only proper pubs!”
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