Welcome to the Irish Pub-aissance

“I’m actually Irish, born and raised,” says Jen Murphy, owner-operator of the new Manhattan bar Banshee. “I learned a long time ago you actually have to specify that.”

Murphy, a veteran of the East Village bar scene, moved to the U.S. in 2014. It didn’t take long to notice that Irish American pride ran deep enough for people to comfortably declare themselves Irish, even many generations removed—but also that the manifestations of Irish culture in the States weren’t always aligned with her experience back home. Take the pub: Growing up in a small town in Ireland, she says, it was a place to bring the kids, to celebrate first communions and attend wakes, often with a grocer, gas station, or even funeral home attached. The ubiquitous American “Irish bars,” on the other hand, have “become their own beast… that kind of Disney-Irish Times Square thing.” 

With Banshee, she wanted to show New Yorkers something different. “We’re so good at adapting, immigrating and then just giving the people whatever they want,” Murphy says. “But I have more ‘notions,’ I think, as some Irish people would say.” 

Murphy’s is one of a clutch of new Irish-led bars and restaurants that have started playing with the pub form in recent years—whether that means embracing cocktails, bringing on ambitious chefs, incorporating unexpected influences or just making a point to subvert expectations. At Banshee, that looks like a surprising signature pairing of Guinness and oysters—an old-school combination in Irish seaside towns, with echoes of New York’s Martini-and-oysters culture—and a space decorated with work by artist friends from the East Village scene. At The Harp, opened a few months ago in Washington, D.C., you can enjoy a traditional music session over pan-fried monkfish with chanterelles and an “Irish Boulevardier.” At McGonagle’s, a year-old pub in Boston, the kitchen is helmed by chef Aidan Mc Gee, who once worked under Heston Blumenthal.    

It’s perhaps a ripe moment for an Irish pub-aissance, with Irish stars increasingly spangling U.S. bookshelves, movie theaters, and playlists—just look at the 2024 New York magazine package exploring “how the Irish came to rule pop culture.” Another cultural ambassador that everyone’s swooning over: Guinness. Thanks to shrewd marketing (and TikTokers challenging us all to “split the G”), on-trade sales are booming, and you’ll find the stout on draft and in cocktails at all kinds of trendy spots. Irish drinking culture is about much more than just Guinness, of course—but amid this groundswell of interest and appreciation, U.S. audiences just might be ready to broaden their idea of what an Irish bar can be.