The Dead Rabbit may be based in New York but it is Northern Irish from concept to design, to decor.
Behind the vision of Sean Muldoon and Jack McGarry to create the best bar in the world, is a little known Northern Irish design and advertising studio called Drinksology.
The partnership, which has continued with a Cuban themed bar in New York, is so intimate that Drinksology co-founder Richard Ryan admits that he probably speaks to Ardoyne-born Muldoon more than his wife Sophie.
“We designed everything in the Dead Rabbit right down to their drinks coasters, spirits list to the tiles on the walls. The menus we created have twice won ‘World’s Best Cocktail Menu’ at the ’Spirited Awards’ in New Orleans.”
Drinksology is responsible for Dead Rabbit’s merchandising. According to Ryan, Dead Rabbit sells more in menus, T-Shirts, coasters and pendants, than many bars do in annual turnover.
Drinksology, based on Donegall Pass, employs 30 people and this year is looking at “potentially quadrupling” turnover, according to Ryan.
It is a business of two halves. The drinks distribution side is run by co-founder Steven Pattison and sells about 3,000 premium sprits including some of its own brands such as Jawbox gin and Tempted Irish cider.
The design side of the company is headed by Richard Ryan. The pair founded the company in 2009 and began with a pitch of an app to LMVH, the world’s largest luxury conglomerate.
Drinksology first collaborated with Muldoon and McGarry at The Merchant Hotel, which won the Best Cocktail Bar of the Year 2010.
The latest launch, Blacktail, a Cuban cocktail bar, is located at Pier A in Battery Park close to where the boats depart for the Statue of Liberty and where flights used to take off for Havana during prohibition.
Ryan said: “With Blacktail we were quite literally given the space. We were afforded a huge amount of trust and creative license, a trust that we have worked hard to earn since first collaborating on the Merchant Hotel Cocktail Bar.
Working closely with Muldoon and McGarry, Drinksology came up with the name, the concept and the narrative behind the bar. The branding, the art work, all the interior design and the 88 page menu was all down to them.
The statues were made here in Belfast and the 32 chandeliers were also made in Ireland.
“As a partnership within the enclave of bars, that we have produced the results we have is just fantastic. Technically as a team we have produced the world’s best bar three times [The Merchant cocktail bar 2010 and the Dead Rabbit in 2015 and 2016] and most of that has come from Belfast.”
The goal is for Blacktail to attain the same heights or even excel that of Dead Rabbit.
“We're going to have another year or two of hard work. When you open your first establishment you have everyone behind you… whenever it comes to your second album it can be harder to engage with people as they are looking for flaws. We have a tougher task knowing what we have to do and knowing what we have done before but I don't think it is insurmountable.”
The menus in the bars are works of art in their own right, charting the stories behind both names.
The first three Dead Rabbit menus were leather bound, with the second edition telling the story of the Dead Rabbit founder Jon Morrissey’s escapades in 1850s New York, with drinks created around each chapter. The most recent menus come as gritty graphic novels that see gang leader Morrissey transported to 1970’s New York.
The Blacktail menu is an 88 page hard back bound book with a linen cover picturing 1920s New York and Havana. It harks back to the prohibition era when the rich and famous used to fly to warm carefree Cuba. The name Blacktail was the nickname for an Aeromarine plane that flew the partiers.
Muldoon has high praise for Drinksology: “Whether it’s storytelling, menu design, coaster production or bar design, Drinksology and our team deliver time and again. Together we create rich and intelligent brands, not just pretty bars” .
It is fair to say that business is booming for Drinksology. Ryan is also working with The Ivy and Corrigans in London, New York restaurateur Danny Meyer and Green River restaurant in Chicago. The studio is also embarking on a European wide incentive with Coca Cola and the design of two new distilleries, one Irish one German.
“I don't believe in natural talent,” says Ryan. Isn't it strange that all the most naturally talented people are also the hardest working? All the great things we have done are through hard work. There have been very difficult times. We didn’t start off with a huge pot of money. In fact we started off with £500”.
Ryan describes it as having the vanity of turnover, which the premium drinks distribution side provides and the sanity of product, which the design arm gives.
“On the distribution side is sky is the limit. Brexit will obviously have some sort of impact but we are not sure what it is yet. With regards to design we just want to be producing beautiful work.”
