Located in New York’s Financial District, The Dead Rabbit aims to be a modern expression of Irish drink, food and hospitality. It finds its home in a five-storey 19th-century townhouse, three storeys of which guests can visit, with the fourth, the Occasional Room, reserved for private hire.

Guests enter beneath a doorway reading “Welcome Home”, and the Taproom on the ground floor is a real embodiment of that traditional Irish hospitality. A 35-foot bar dominates the space, backed by a collection of 190 Irish whiskeys. Whilst green leather barstools have been put out for modern drinkers’ comfort, this Taproom floor is representative of the standing-rooms prevalent in the 19th-century Irish and immigrant pubs of New York. Overhead, the ceiling is covered in hundreds of images from North Belfast magazine Horizon, reinforcing the room’s Irishness alongside a constant stream of pouring Guinness, while a small grocery retail section at the back recalls the groceries and groggeries of Ireland and the US in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Upstairs, The Parlor was originally a secret bar that is now very well known and loved for its seasonal, inventive cocktails. Like downstairs, every element ties back to Ireland, though here the artwork celebrates contemporary Irish figures from the arts and sports rather than the past. It’s a warm and inviting room with plush velvet stools and rich woods, connected to the Taproom below by black American walnut woodwork running throughout the venue.

Alongside the Irish coffee and Guinness the bar is known for, The Dead Rabbit runs a signature drinks list spanning no- and low-alcohol cocktails, light highballs, and stirred drinks served both up and on the rocks. The Parlor’s menu is a collaborative effort between the beverage team and creative partner Crown Creative in Ireland, built around unique Irish producers alongside house ingredients often native to Ireland themselves. A lot of prep work goes into the cocktails served in The Parlor, with a full-time manager who spends their time experimenting with flavour and technique, and though drinks are served without theatrics, thoughtful touches — lemon leaves misted with makrut lime, dried rose petals, cornflowers, hand-cut ice — bring a quiet precision to each serve.

Many ingredients are grown in the production manager’s own garden, with others foraged from the woods of his native New Jersey, meaning the team work within often short processing windows. Because the building is historic and timber-framed, open flame or smoking can’t take place on site, so any smoking of ingredients happens at a separate lab, with delicate ingredients processed as close to source as possible and carefully preserved to last the length of each menu.

Staff development runs deep here. Beyond standard beverage training, the team can enrol in the five-day Irish Whiskey Genius programme; those who pass earn an all-expenses-paid trip to Ireland and a rise in hourly rate, one of several development paths on offer, including paid training for staff aiming to become bartenders without yet having the skill set.

Given its popularity, both floors are often busy, though service remains warm and welcoming throughout. Rounding out the Irish-hospitality ethos is a rotation of playlists from contemporary Irish musicians — part of the team’s wider ambition to make The Dead Rabbit a New York outpost for Irish artists, with its doors open to those in town performing, writing, recording, or simply passing through.