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Dallas’ second Old Monk pub is open in Oak Cliff — and another bar is on the way

It’s great news for fans of fish and chips, Guinness beer and good vibes.

On West Davis Street in Dallas’ Oak Cliff, two bars are opening from the same owner.

The first bar is The Old Monk, a venerable pub that started on Henderson Avenue in Dallas. It opened in Oak Cliff on Nov. 12, 2024, marking the Monk’s first expansion in its quarter-century existence.

The second bar is Kilmac’s, a small watering hole with a huge backyard that will be next door to The Old Monk in Oak Cliff. It’s expected to open in 2025.

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Both bars come from Feargal McKinney, an Irishman who moved from Dublin to Dallas decades ago. All of his bars bring a little bit of his hometown to Texas.

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More about The Old Monk in Oak Cliff

It’s almost eerie how much this new Old Monk feels like the original. McKinney and operating partner Katie Arterburn have painstakingly picked booths, brick and a bar that look nearly identical to the beloved Henderson Avenue spot.

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“You’d think it would be easy to match the Monk, but it’s not,” McKinney said.

Some of the design details came from the erstwhile Idle Rich Pub, a bar McKinney once owned in Uptown Dallas. Other elements, like the stained glass, the monastery pendant lights and the old front doors, came from antique stores and salvage yards near and far — any place that would give that dark, homey feel specific to The Monk.

The wall color — turmeric, it’s called — is the same as before.

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Opening a new bar after 26 years might seem like the right time to whittle down the menu, but McKinney and Arterburn couldn’t do it. The menu will stay the same as on Henderson Avenue. Exactly.

“If we take anything off, people cry,” McKinney said.

The fish and chips, mussels and cheese board are some of the Monk’s bestsellers. Ask a regular and they might name a different favorite. Some think the Old Monk serves the best housemade veggie burger in Dallas, for instance. The fried chicken strips are another top seller, McKinney said.

He assures The Dallas Morning News that the original Old Monk isn’t going anywhere.

“Everything I’m doing is built to last,” McKinney said.

What’s more, the fringes of the Bishop Arts District remind him of Henderson Avenue 20-plus years ago, he said.

More about Kilmac’s in Oak Cliff

The bar next door to The Old Monk, Kilmac’s, pays homage to its past life as a neighbor’s man cave. The late Ron Patterson was known in Oak Cliff for throwing open the garage doors near his home on West Davis Street and inviting friends in for a drink. His pingpong table is still rolled against one wall.

Ron Patterson had a "man cave" that looked out at W. Davis Street in Oak Cliff. Patterson...
Ron Patterson had a "man cave" that looked out at W. Davis Street in Oak Cliff. Patterson lived in this part of Dallas from the 1990s until he died in 2021. His man cave will eventually become a bar called Kilmac's. (David Spence)

McKinney bought Patterson’s man cave and the home behind it. It’s possible the renovated house will get another use someday — maybe as a third bar.

The converted garage, now called Kilmac’s, will be “really dark,” with a square bar on one side, as McKinney explains it. The bigger part of Kilmac’s will be outside, in a grassy backyard that flanks Davis.

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Perhaps Kilmac’s will feel like Oak Cliff’s version of Katy Trail Ice House, where people will hang out on casual tables in the middle of the city. Even though the indoor bar and the backyard patio aren’t close to being finished, McKinney said he can already picture people enjoying the space.

“I can feel the energy,” he said.

Kilmac’s is a project in collaboration with Charles Reis, an operating partner who, like Arterburn, has worked at McKinney’s other bars for years.

McKinney tends to group his pubs: On Henderson Avenue, for instance, the longtime Old Monk now has two sibling bars on the same block, The Skellig and Spider Murphy’s. Perhaps it isn’t a surprise that the Davis Street expansion has spawned two bars, with a third possible.

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The Old Monk in Oak Cliff is at 810 W. Davis St., Dallas. It opened Nov. 12, 2024. Opening hours are 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and noon on Saturdays and Sundays. Closed Mondays.

A neighboring bar called Kilmac’s is expected to open at 814 W. Davis St., Dallas, in 2025.

Story published Sept. 25, 2024 and updated Nov. 18, 2024 after Old Monk Oak Cliff opened.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on X (formerly Twitter) at @sblaskovich.