Maybe it’s the luck of the Irish. On September 25, Sternewirth Tavern & Club Room in San Antonio’s Hotel Emma will host a takeover by Dead Rabbit, the New York City and Austin pub once named the world’s best by international industry list The World’s 50 Best Bars.
Named after an Irish street gang active in the mid-1800s, Dead Rabbit opened in 2013 in Manhattan’s Financial District. Since then, it has become a nexus for global cocktail fans, modernizing the often kitschy Irish bar category with contemporary cocktails and a hip vibe that avoids campy stereotypes like shamrocks and leprechauns.
It followed up on its success in summer 2024 with the opening of a second outpost on Austin’s famed Sixth Street. The bar was such an overnight smash that it debuted the Grá Mór Café a year later.
“In terms of what we’re trying to show Austin, it’s a new version of Ireland. It’s Ireland very much of today,” Dead Rabbit co-founder and owner Jack McGarry told Austin CultureMap at the time. “It’s to show that Irish culture, Irish drinks, Irish food are among the very best in the world.”
The Sternewirth pop-up will feature rum maker Bacardi’s portfolio of spirits in four cocktails. Guests can expect a frozen Irish coffee, the apricot and whiskey-spiked Usquæbach, the rum-based Pear Necessities, and Flying Boat, a tropical curiosity made with tequila, gin, coconut, and lime leaf.
The pop-up, held between 5-10 pm, will be one night only. Both hotel guests are welcome to attend, and neither a cover nor reservations are required. Dead Rabbit had no plans to open a San Antonio location.
This fall, Hotel Emma is updating the ante on its culinary programming. Among the can’t-miss events on the calendar is a September 26 dinner with Otto’s Ice House founder Levi Goode, a September 28 wild game feast with Hotel Emma Executive Chef Geronimo Lopez, and an October 20 visit from Thomas Bille of Spring’s Michelin-recognized Belly of the Beast. A full list of events can be found online.