The Dead Rabbit’s Jack McGarry on opening San Patricios
Jack McGarry, co-founder of The Dead Rabbit, has opened San Patricios in Jersey City – a bar that blends Irish heritage with Mexican spirit.
You might think that Ireland and Mexico have little in common – they certainly don’t share a climate. But as The Dead Rabbit’s Jack McGarry explains, there are common threads between the two cultures: “There’s a shared love of community, of drinking, celebration, hospitality, sports, arts, music. Obviously, they’re very different in their outward manifestations of that, but there’s a huge bond in terms of what both cultures love.”
This intersection was the inspiration for McGarry’s new bar, San Patricios, which opened last week (19 September) in Jersey City. Alongside McGarry, the team includes director of operations Laura Torres, beverage director Aidan Bowie, and director of strategy Gráinne O’Neill.
For anyone familiar with The Dead Rabbit, McGarry’s fascination with Irish history will come as no surprise. His first bar drew from the Irish-American gang who protected immigrant communities in 19th-century New York. With San Patricios, the story comes from another overlooked chapter: the Batallón de San Patricio, or Saint Patrick’s Battalion.
The San Patricios were a group of Irish immigrants who came to the US in the same boats as the Dead Rabbits. Many were given the chance to fight for the Union Army – with some of them ultimately defecting to fight alongside Mexico during the Mexican–American War. “
“It’s a fascinating story – how gallantly they fought, how courageous they were, and also how brutally they were treated,” he says. “But I love the story, particularly given the times that we’re living in, in terms of this administration’s disdain for immigrants.”
The concept
San Patricios is designed to fuse “the comfort of an Irish pub and the soul of a Mexican cantina”. Inside, guests will find nods to the battalion, including a full-size reproduction of a San Patricios memorial from Mexico. Other revolutionaries appear in mosaics, from Petra Herrera – who disguised herself as a man to fight in the Mexican Revolution – to Henry Besant, whose London bar Green & Red first introduced McGarry to agave culture.
“When we opened The Dead Rabbit, a cocktail luminary in New York told me it was a very male story – and she was correct,” McGarry explains. “Everything I’ve done since aims to balance everything – be that in the music, the art, the products on the back bar – to make sure it’s not predominantly male.” San Patricios, therefore, honours Mexico’s soldaderas and Ireland’s Cumann na mBan alongside their male counterparts.
McGarry obviously has the Irish history and culture covered, but he was aware that opening a Mexican-themed bar left him open to accusations of cultural appropriation. “I’ve read extensively on the San Patricios, the Mexican Revolution, and Mexican art, and consulted with Mexicans,” he explains. “Once I create a theme – both the concept and the vibe of the space – I will fulfil it.” But when it comes to the food, drinks and broader programming, McGarry has enlisted a pro team with Mexican heritage. “There’s a heavy emphasis on Mexican and Irish in the bar to make sure that it is authentically told both from the Irish and the Mexican side.”
Key to that authenticity is the team. Bar manager Diego Rivera, who worked with McGarry at Blacktail, leads the front of house. In the kitchen, Dead Rabbit head chef Joel Franco has taken over as executive chef, joined by sous chef Daisy Nando. “You’d go downstairs at The Dead Rabbit and the family meals they were cooking were incredible,” says McGarry. “I wanted to find a way to serve that.”
The menu blends Mexican street food with Irish twists: elotes, guacamole, and a Scotch egg riff sit alongside sopa de pollo reminiscent of Irish stew and corned beef tacos.
Accessible prices
Drinks follow the same ethos, priced at US$15-US$18 – lower than The Dead Rabbit’s US$20+ cocktails. “I want this to be somewhere you can go to more than once a week,” he says. “I’m fed up with where our industry is going with all of these acids and things. There’s a lot of stupid bollocks that I’m just not a big fan of anymore. I just want good, honest drinks served at an accessible price point.”
The drinks menu will be divided into five sections: Margaritas, Agua Frescas, Cubas (Mexican-style Highballs), Cítricos (Sours), Con Cafecito (coffee drinks), and Intensos (spirit-forward). The Dead Rabbit has become world-famous for its Irish Coffee, and San Patricios will be serving its own version, while other highlights include Batangas, an Oaxacan Old Fashioned, and a “rum-ish Martini riff”, which is based on a classic cocktail called the Chaparra. McGarry will also be tipping his hat to Be Oaxaca santa again through a serve named after his bar, Green & Red.
The Irish and Mexican influences are clear, but there’s another culture at play in San Patricios. The venue is McGarry’s first in New Jersey, following The Dead Rabbit outposts in New York and Austin and a soon-to-be-opened site in Washington DC. The move is ostensibly a personal one – McGarry’s wife and mother of his children is from New Jersey – but there are other motivators too.
He explains: “New Jersey has a phenomenal food scene, given the quality of product, but the bar scene is not to the level of Manhattan. It’s probably never going to be, given the concentration of people in New York. It’s also very difficult for people to have bars in New Jersey because the liquor licences are prohibitive.
“I’ve always wanted to do something because I feel like people who live in New Jersey desire the same quality of experience and product that you get in Manhattan. And a lot of them would stay in Jersey City if you give them that.”
The opportunity to finally do something in Jersey “presented itself” to McGarry earlier in 2025, after years of sitting on the San Patricios concept. The owner of the previous venue on the site decided to move back to Ireland, and a friend thought McGarry would be the obvious choice for a new operator. “As soon as I walked in, I said: ‘This is the space for San Patricios’,” he explains. “The left side of the room feels a bit like the Taproom in The Dead Rabbit – it’s got that intimacy. Then the right side feels very cavernous – it had that space where you could envisage a bustling cantina atmosphere.”
And while the idea had been on the back burner for a while, McGarry feels now is the perfect time for the San Patricios story to be told. “The Dead Rabbit story is very political – the gang formed against American nativism,” he explains. “San Patricios is the same – and I think that is a prescient message, given what’s going on right now.”
Related news
UK distillery openings hit new highs in 2019
