Dead Rabbit’s former owner embracing Charleston challenge

One of the former co-owners of New York ‘s famous Dead Rabbit bar has opened up about his ambitions for his new bar Hazel and Apple, in South Carolina.

Sean Muldoon, who set up the award-winning Dead Rabbit with fellow Ardoyne man Jack McGarry in Manhattan’s financial district in 2013, hopes to have his new two bar complex up an running by October.

Jack meanwhile plans to roll the Dead Rabbit brand to other cities, including New Orleans and Austin, Texas.

Sean, who first met  Jack while working in Belfast’s  Merchant Hotel, revealed the Charleston project is so far costing $6m.

He said: “I’m investing a substantial amount of my own money and will be a 40% owner, giving me the biggest share.”

“Charleston is the biggest city in South Carolina but probably the most free and easy, for want of a better term.

“It’s one of those spots that I genuinely thought I could live, work and spend the rest of my days there, if I wasn’t eventually planning on going back home.

“New York has a shelf-life for me. I’m not a New Yorker, and after Covid it got really intense and it was just time to get out.

“I wasn’t happy living there any more and I wanted to see and experience other parts of America and that was the reality for me.

“Charleston was one of those places that definitely was on my radar for a long time.”

Sean also revealed The Dead Rabbit had been fortunate to survive Covid and given he and his former business partner time to think about the future.

“We felt it was time for me and Jack to go our separate ways and for me to do something fresh.

“To do the same thing over and again, opening more Dead Rabbits, wasn’t challenging enough for me.”