Irish American tavern The Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog in New York claimed the top spot on Drinks International magazine’s World’s 50 Best Bars list for the second year in a row in October.
The Lower Manhattan establishment arrived in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, brought to New York by Jack McGarry (named 2013’s International Bartender of the Year by Tales of the Cocktail) and Sean Muldoon, the former manager of The Merchant Hotel, Belfast. The pair met as children in the Northern Irish capital, and the Dead Rabbit taproom ceiling pays homage to this with over 800 hanging photographs of daily life in their home city.
“The Dead Rabbit is more than the sum of its liquid parts, fusing as it does colorful historical references to the city’s 19th century Water Street roughneck pub set and Lower Broadway’s genteel cocktail imbibers in an atmosphere of Irish-American hospitality,” said the competition’s organizers when explaining why the bar continues to rank first.
“The Dead Rabbit feels like a bar that gives you a hug,” bar manager Jillian Vose, who accepted the award, told CNN. “The music’s right, the lighting’s right, the staff are friendly. You’re not waiting forever for a drink… All of those things come together to make a special bar.” ♦
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