In Hong Kong, people work hard and play hard. Perhaps nowhere is this hard-charging attitude more on display than the nightly gathering of the city’s off-the-clock gang of businessmen and women, blowing off steam over ice-cold beers and honest cocktails at Blue Bar in Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong. This May 24 to 26 into this milieu comes an Irish revolution, brought by the No. 1 ranked bar in the world, The Dead Rabbit.

Named after a notorious Irish-American street gang from the 1850s, The Dead Rabbit is the conception of two spectacular Belfast mixologists: Sean Muldoon and Jack McGarry.

Already well respected for their award-winning Belfast bar The Merchant, these two ambitious gents set their sights on the biggest international cocktail stage of them all: New York City. The result of this dream, a three-story pub and cocktail bar in downtown Manhattan, is not your grandfather’s Irish pub.

Muldoon and McGarry’s philosophy for The Dead Rabbit is grounded in respect for cocktail tradition — one will always find a good sling and julep, whiskeys and whiskies on their menu. But for two people whose ambition is nothing short of world domination, to truly build on the past, what they called for, was revolution.

In their vision, the theatrics of presentation take a back seat to creativity and refined skills. No pretension, no airs, just expertly crafted cocktails, delicious food and genuine Irish hospitality.

Jillian Vose, bar manager and beverage director of Dead Rabbit, will make a special appearance at Blue Bar for three days in May.

Vose was named Ri-sing Star Bartender by Starchefs.com in 2013 and was instrumental in creating, together with McGarry, The Dead Rabbit’s third drink menu, which won “World’s Best Cocktail Menu” in 2015, the same year The Dead Rabbit was first crowned “World’s Best Bar” by Tales of the Cocktail. In 2016, this gang of cocktail revolutionaries achieved the ultimate success as The Dead Rabbit ranked #1 by the World’s 50 Best Bars.

Continuing “Blue Remix,” a series of pop-ups featuring some of the world’s most innovative cocktail bars, from May 24 to 26, Blue Bar will feature a special menu featuring four of The Dead Rabbit’s most inspired cocktails, to be paired with classic Irish comfort food.

The cocktails are:

Big Wheel — navy strength American gin, dry vermouth, Manzanilla sherry, pear, cinnamon, makrut lime.

Fun Lovin’ Criminal — tequila blanco, rose vermouth, apple brandy, grapefruit, hops.

True Blue — Irish whiskey, apple brandy, Guinness, PX sherry, white miso, ginger, lemon, Peychaud’s bitters.

Dead Rabbit — top secret.

Honest cocktails meet delicious food as Four Seasons executive chef Andrea Accordi interprets some of The Dead Rabbit’s most loved dishes from scotch eggs and truffles fries, short rib sliders and a stick-to-the-ribs Irish stew.

(SD News)

(Edited by Stephanie Yang)