NEW YORK IRISH PUB THE DEAD RABBIT IS FINALLY FOR REAL OPENING IN AUSTIN

Acclaimed New York Irish pub the Dead Rabbit is finally for real opening in Austin this summer. The 204 East Sixth Street bar will open in downtown Austin starting on July 1, with a fuller opening on Thursday, July 4.

Co-founder and owner Jack McGarry told Eater last year that the team’s goal behind Dead Rabbit is “spreading our love of the Irish pub and challenging the misconceptions around Irish culture,” meaning it’s not just college kids getting drunk off green beers on St. Patrick’s Day. For Dead Rabbit in Austin, that means a dark and warm bar with wood and copper details, Irish whiskeys, Irish coffee cocktails, and Guinness pints.

The Texas Dead Rabbit will also include some Austin-only cocktails. There’s the City of Light made with Still Austin bourbon, cognac, sweet vermouth, strawberries, and cherries; the First & Formosa with blanco tequila, smoked watermelon, corn, curacao, and lime; and the Peach Pit Fizz with scotch, Champagne, white peaches, sesame, lemon, and soda water.

For food, expect Irish and English pub dishes such as Scotch eggs and fish and chips. There will be weekly specials like oysters on Fridays and Sunday prime rib roast dinners. For Texas tinges, the menu will use local meats, cheese, and produce. One of the Texas-exclusive dishes is the Texas caviar bowl, made with black-eyed peas, beans, corn, jalapenos, rice, etc., with optional blackened salmon or chicken.

The Dead Rabbit will also include the Neighbourhood Cafe, an expansion of the Belfast-based restaurant, which will open later this month. It’ll serve casual dine-in and takeout coffee (developed by San Francisco-based roastery Andytown Coffee Roasters), pastries, and a daytime menu with items like breakfast baps (brioche, bacon, sausage, fried eggs with cheese, and tomato relish), Turkish eggs, porridges, and more.

Rounding out the Austin Dead Rabbit team are director of operations Laura Torres (who has been with the company for quite some time), beverage director Aidan Bowie (who joined the company in the position in 2022), director of Irish whiskey Mark McLaughlin, music director Liam Craig (who is actually based in Ireland), general manager Mark Yawn (who joined the company in January; he previously worked at Austin-based FBR Management, including general managing downtown whiskey bar Dumont’s Down Low), bar manager Brittany McMillan (who had been the general manager of cocktail bars Midnight Cowboy), and chef de cuisine Logan Luhr (most recently had been the executive chefs of downtown Austin restaurants Cedar Door and Irish bar Foxy’s Proper Pub).

Creative agency Crown Creative designed the space, which is found in the historic Hannig Row space. There are indoor bar, counter, and table seats, plus room for standing guests. The general Dead Rabbit space will host programming like Irish music playlists, Irish musical performances, comedy showcases, and more.

McGarry and co-founder Sean Muldoon — who are both from Belfast themselves — started the New York bar in 2013, garnering international awards. They started thinking about expanding and bringing their Irish bar ethos to other parts of the country. Muldoon left in 2022 to open his own Irish bar in Charleston. Then there were planned expansions for New Orleans (which is still in the works), Washington, D.C., this Austin one, and a newly announced Boston one for 2025. The original goal was to open in Texas in spring of 2023, but that had been delayed well into this summer.

The Austin Dead Rabbit took over what had been local Irish bar B.D. Riley’s first location, which opened in 2000 and closed in 2020. Its Mueller location remains open.

Dead Rabbit’s Austin taproom hours are from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and then from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday. When Neigbourhood Cafe opens, it’ll be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Reservations for the bar are available via Resy from the daytime into evenings.

Update, July 3: This article, originally published on June 21, has been updated to include further details about Dead Rabbit’s Austin bar.

2024-06-21T15:30:20Z dg43tfdfdgfd