Dead Rabbit owners part ways to pursue new bar ventures
One of the Belfast owners of New York ‘s famous Dead Rabbit bar plans to roll the brand to other cities, including New Orleans and Austin, Texas.
Jack McGarry and Sean Muldoon, who first met while working in The Merchant Hotel, set up the Irish Bar in Manhattan’s financial district in 2013.
Sean is now pursuing a fresh venture with his new bar Hazel and Apple, in South Carolina, while Jack will concentrate on expanding the Dead Rabbit brand.
While there has been no falling out between the pair, Jack said they realised they wanted different things from the business after the pandemic.
The dead Rabbit also inspired the Ardoyne duo to release their own whiskey and a series of cocktail recipe books and in 2015 and 2016 topped the list of the The World’s 50 Best Bars.
“We all realised we want different things. It’s nobody’s fault – it’s just a natural development,” Sean Muldoon said.
“It was a phenomenal ride – I’m delighted with what we achieved. It’s the end of one chapter and the beginning of another special chapter.”
Jack and Sean also told how they had lost money on a failed venture — a Cuban bar in Lower Manhattan called Blacktail which shut down in January 2020 after three years.
The Dead Rabbit Taking took its name from an 1850s Irish-American street gang and prides itself on being a cosy pub setting with live music, nostalgia and history all around.
Asked what the secret to its success was,, Sean said “It is the people that are the heart and soul of the place.
“We opened in an area where everyone thought we were suicidal. A cocktail bar in lower Manhattan? There’s enough of those. No, we were a pub with a cocktail bar… and from the time we’ve opened its been non-stop.”
