During the holidays in December, the team behind Prohibition, Jim McCourt and James Walsh, opened Sippin’ Santa, a Christmas-themed pop-up bar with holiday tiki drinks in the old King Street Public House location at 549 King St. Since then, the Irish-born duo have been brewing another concept at the Public House location. Their new public house, Bonny’s Hideaway will be centered around Anne Bonny, the iconic female pirate whose swashbuckling life carried her from Ireland to the Caribbean and, perhaps, Charleston.
“For a while, Jim and I have always talked about doing an authentic Irish-themed bar,” Walsh said. “But we were waiting for the right time.”
Here’s a rundown of the legend of the infamous swashbuckling damsel: Bonny was said to have been born around 1698. As a young lass, she married a Brit named James Bonny, but bailed on her marriage and joined the pirate life after falling in love with Calico Jack Rackham in Nassau. It was rare for women to be found aboard pirate ships, as it was considered bad luck. However, Rackham also welcomed aboard another pirate named Mary Read. Together, Bonny, Rackham and Read plundered the Caribbean until being captured in 1720. Bonny and Read’s executions were averted due to their pregnancies. Read died of fever several months later in prison, but Bonny did not, and her fate is unclear.
One account says Bonny fled back to Charleston, where her father owned a plantation, and died 60 years later in 1782. Ghost City Tours in Charleston suggests she may have some connection to the Pink House on Chalmers Street. A YouTube content creator, The Debunk Files, however, asserts Bonny never came to Charleston and died in Jamaica. Regardless of the murky truth, Walsh and McCourt called Bonny an incredibly compelling figure.
“Part of our idea was to celebrate the fact that this is a figure of female empowerment,” Walsh said. “What she did and put up with as a woman in that time.”
Walsh and McCourt said they also chose the theme to change the American perspective of what an Irish pub actually is: “Sippin’ on whiskey with corned beef and cabbage,” isn’t even authentic Irish according to Walsh; It’s American-Irish.
Focusing the concept on Bonny’s life was a no-brainer, as it gave the Prohibition team room to explore flavors of three different cultures: Ireland, the Caribbean and Charleston.
McCourt stirred up an extensive 25-drink cocktail menu. “I tried to take Anne Bonny’s journey from Ireland to Charleston, to the Caribbean,” McCourt said. “So there’s a lot of tropical drinks and Irish ingredients.”
The cocktail menu will be split into two sections, said McCourt. “One side is her wild ride in the Caribbean, so it’s a little more exciting and adventurous, like a pirate. Then the other half of the menu is going to be kind of at home here in Charleston — sort of a traditional relaxed.”
Among the more adventurous libations is the Dublin Bay Fog Cutter, made with Gunpowder gin, dark rum, lime, orange juice and almond. Another is McCourt’s signature Irish coffee, a twist on an Irish coffee made with Irish whiskey, rum, coffee, demerara sugar and butter-salted popcorn powder.
Food-wise, the kitchen, helmed by Prohibition chef Greg Garrison, is taking the same approach as the cocktail menu — spanning the Atlantic with Irish, Caribbean and Charleston flavors.
“What’s being executed next door at Prohibition is more of a nod to the Southern cuisines,” Walsh said. “For Bonny’s Hideaway, we’re trying to just dial in with the Irish influences, without making it too obvious, because everybody knows shepherd’s pie and bangers and mash. We’re trying to do something much more adventurous and then also pepper in a little bit of Gullah Geechee and ingredients that would have been from that time period as well.”
Like its food and cocktail menus, the interior of Bonny’s Hideaway is riddled with maritime influences, with snugs and dividers, quotes painted on the walls, decor from the 18th century and even “Bonny’s Bed,” an area with drapery and chairs, much like a spot she might have slept. The Hideaway will also hold little pockets of couches, pillows and loveseats to sit back and “hide away.” In back, the cozy Rum Room holds a rum-barrel lined wall, giving the sense you’re in the hold of a ship.
“One thing I would emphasize is that this is not a pirate bar,” Walsh said. “It’s not an Irish pub, either. It’s the nuances of taking that story and translating it into a subtle story of Bonny’s journey and her adventure, so that translates with the connection between Ireland, Charleston and Caribbean.”
Bonny’s Hideaway is located on 549 King St. and open 4-close, Wed.-Sun.
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