Studying spirits and classic cocktail recipes to land a bartending job at a prestigious venue requires dedication. Still, the mechanics of mixology can be taught and learned. Passion, however, is an innate, firecracker connection with something that becomes impossible to live without, and drives a need to explore, elevate, and make it your own. That all-encompassing wave of enthusiasm and creativity is where, every once in a while in the global bar biz, something extraordinary happens. The Dead Rabbit Grocery & Grog (in New York’s once gritty Five Points neighborhood), its bartenders and its fascinating menus-cum-historical reference books are shining examples of passion put into action.The Background:Let’s start a few years back… Jack McGarry and Sean Muldoon were already lauded in the booze biz for their work at The Merchant Bar in Belfast, Ireland. That bar won international acclaim with four Spirited Awards at Tales of the Cocktail (the world’s largest mixology-focused liquor conference). Merchant took home Worlds Best Hotel Bar (2009), Worlds Best Cocktail Menu (2009), Worlds Best Drink Selection (2009) and Worlds Best Cocktail Bar (2010). Nothing to sneeze at… and makes one wonder, “why leave a good thing?”Muldoon recently answered that very question for me: “One of our regular customers at The Merchant - a Galway native - was the global head of research and development for the New York Stock Exchange. He’d seen what we were doing at the hotel, seen the accolades we were receiving, seen the key international industry figures we were bringing to the hotel through The Connoisseurs Club that we ran, and he offered to invest in us saying if we were able to achieve in New York what we achieved in Belfast, we would get so much more opportunity. He felt we had gone as far as we could go in Belfast and said we needed to branch out. He was a financial guy and had no knowledge of bars (except that he liked to drink in them). He also reckoned New York was where the fight is. He said if you really want to be the best, you need to be the best in New York first and added that New York was filled with like-minded people all striving to be the best. He, naively, thought we would be open in 6 months, and it took 2.5 years. Those 2.5 years were without doubt the hardest period of time in my life.” The Bar:So, let’s jump to the present. The level of passion I mentioned earlier can be experienced, today, at the Dead Rabbit. Named after the riotous gang who inhabited the area in the mid-1800s, Muldoon and McGarry opened their now legendary, down-home drinking hole 2 years ago, and it has very quickly evolved into a shining example to aspiring “bar stars” everywhere. Since February 2013, Dead Rabbit has already been awarded FIVE coveted Spirited Awards:

Worlds Best Cocktail Menu (2013)
Worlds Best New Cocktail Bar (2013)
International Bartender of the Year (Jack McGarry) 2013
Worlds Best Drink Selection (2014)
Best American Cocktail Bar (2014)

So, this is all very impressive, indeed, but here is what I consider important keys to their success… humility, and continued striving to be better. When I first visited Dead Rabbit, shortly after their opening, it was on an evening when Gary Regan was finger-stirring Negronis behind the bar. That piece of theater, in itself, is a draw to cocktail nerds, to say the least, but it was also the first time I had a chance to chat with Sean and Jack about their new baby. Sure, I had interviewed them for my annual Spirited Awards red carpet videos at Tales of the Cocktail, over the years. But, touring the bar, listening to their nervousness and excitement as they described the concept, their plans for the rooms in the upper levels of the building and, frankly, their down-to-earth niceness left me a true fan. The place feels like a neighborhood local – cozy and unpretentious. It has soul, made even more personal with Henry’s Corner, a tribute to a beloved member of the international bar community, who left this world the year they opened. But the drinks and knowledgeable staff are what make it clear this is no ordinary corner joint. Always upping their game, there is no resting upon acquired laurels. The Menus:The books, themselves, are mini-tomes of history-meets-cocktail culture that immediately set time-and-place before sipping a single drink. Volume 1, in the series of three menus, launched upon opening in February 2013 included stories and references to the politics and events that took place in Lower Manhattan from 1848 - 1884. Volume 2 came out in February 2014, and included a look at a 9-year period in the life of John Morrissey, one time leader of the Dead Rabbit gang, from 1848-1857.On February 12, of this year, the bar turned 2 years old, and its third menu was released (pictured in this post), and will be available until February 11, 2016. The book is one part drinks list by the Dead Rabbit bar team, one part historical overview of New York watering holes by respected liquor writer / historian David Wondrich and author Christine Sismondo, and one part biography of Lewis Morris Pease, all diligently stirred together and garnished with a lingering whisper of a neighborhood still haunted by its dark history.“In order to complete the series," Muldoon details, "we looked at a one year period of life in the Five Points, where the Irish lived. I was inspired by Charles Dickens book American Notes where he went slumming in the Five Points as an observer and wrote about his findings. I thought it would be great to tell the story of the Irish immigrant from an outsider’s perspective. I started researching the social reformers of the time and the one that glared right back at me was Lewis Morris Pease. He actually lived in the Five Points and I thought his story was fascinating. I sent a 200-page dossier to our designers in Belfast telling them I wanted to create an imagined diary of Pease over one year, that would be broken down into 4 seasons. It took four months for them to figure out how we would approach the menu. They tried to put me off saying the story just didn't work, but I couldn't be persuaded. I knew it was in there somewhere - I was sorely attracted to the story of a missionary walking the streets preaching God to the Irish immigrants. The end result took over 700 hours of design time, not counting the essays by Christine and Dave (which would probably make it over 1000 hours). The menu cost $75,000 for 2000 copies.”So, onto the drinks on the menu… The book is divided into 4 seasons starting with Winter. There are 16 drinks in each of the four seasons, half are shaken drinks, half are stirred. This roughly translates to 8 of the drinks in each section using juices, egg, or other ingredients which require shaking, and 8 of the drinks being all spirits, liqueurs, fortified wines and other aromatic ingredients and, therefore, stirred. As one might expect, there is a lot of Irish whiskey across the menu, but copious helpings of the other spirits such as genever, apple jack, rum, gin, pisco, cognac, and so forth. There are bitters of all sorts, including the Orinoco Bitters created especially for Dead Rabbit by celebrated bitters-smith Dr. Adam Elmegirab in Scotland.If you would like to order any of the Dead Rabbit Grocery & Grog menus, bitters, t-shirts, and other fun cocktailian tidbits, visit their website.If you’d like to read more about Dead Rabbit, and its menu, this piece by Naren Young for Eater.com gives some nice insights, as well.Of course, if you find yourself in New York City, well, you know what to do…