Award-Winning Irish Bar the Dead Rabbit Is Officially Coming to Boston

The Dead Rabbit, a renowned Irish pub that got its start in New York City, is expanding to Boston. A representative for the team confirmed with Eater that the acclaimed bar is planning to open a location in Boston in 2025, after completing expansions in Austin, Texas (which just debuted this month) and Washington, D.C. later this year.

The team did not disclose a location for the forthcoming Boston bar, although they confirmed that a lease had been signed in the city and they’d be able to share more details “in the very near future.” (Eater will update this story as more information becomes available.)

This is not the first time that the Dead Rabbit has eyed a move to Boston; the team has been hinting for years that Boston was a prime place for a secondary location of the cocktail bar given its deep Irish roots. Co-founder Jack McGarry, who is from Belfast, told Eater Austin in 2023 that bringing the Dead Rabbit to new cities was about “spreading our love of the Irish pub” while also “challenging the misconceptions around Irish culture.” (In other words, it’s not all about shamrocks and Saint Patrick’s Day.)

The cocktail bar’s owners announced sweeping national expansion plans a couple of years ago, but the actual rollout has been much more slowgoing than anticipated. A New Orleans location of the Dead Rabbit, which had been in the works since 2019, is no longer happening. An Austin location of the Dead Rabbit just opened on July 1, after originally targeting a spring 2023 debut. A Washington, D.C., outpost is still forthcoming. Co-founder Sean Muldoon and former beverage director Jillian Vose left the group to open a Charleston, South Carolina, restaurant and bar called Hazel and Apple that was slated to debut in 2022 but a number of “unforeseen roadblocks” pushed the opening back to late 2024 or early 2025.

The Dead Rabbit first made its name in New York City with its now-decade-old Financial District bar that put a spotlight on contemporary Irish drinking culture. The pub eventually climbed to the very top of the World’s 50 Best Bars in 2016. They’ve also won many other awards over the years, including eight Tales of the Cocktail Spirited awards. McGarry and his team have also expanded their footprint in Manhattan with the Irish Exit, a bar at the fancy new Moynihan Train Hall.