Tales of the Cocktail | Alcoholism and Our Industry: Bar Vets Speak Out

At age 26, Jack McGarry seemed to have it all.

Photo credit: Vasileios Economou via iStock

Barely into his 20s, the Belfast native turned New Yorker had opened what would become of the world’s most successful bars, The Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog. Since its inception in 2013, the bar had garnered countless industry accolades, including the World’s Best Cocktail Bar at Tales of the Cocktail and two consecutive wins as the Best Bar in North America in the World’s 50 Best Bars competition. McGarry himself had been named Tales of the Cocktail’s International Bartender of the Year in 2013, the youngest ever recipient of the honor. He and his business partner, Sean Muldoon, had just released their first cocktail book, The Dead Rabbit Drinks Manual, a collection of popular recipes from the bar’s early days.