Downtown Atlanta is getting a little more Dublin in its diet this week. The Irish Exit, a New York-based pub from the team behind acclaimed bar Dead Rabbit, is set to open this Friday in the plaza at Centennial Yards. Billed as a transit-style bar built for speed and sports, it will offer quick-service drinks, Irish-inspired bar bites, and both indoor and outdoor seating, adding more energy to the growing cluster of venues around the downtown stadiums during a packed summer calendar.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the new spot will sit in the plaza at Centennial Yards with its front door facing State Farm Arena and will debut with a “Split the G, Drink for Free” challenge during its opening stretch. The paper also reports that Pierce White, a Wexford native now based in Atlanta, will oversee the bar as managing director.
As detailed in a lease announcement from Business Wire, the Irish Exit has signed on for about 4,735 square feet in the Centennial Yards Entertainment District and will feature a flexible indoor-outdoor layout. The release describes this as the concept’s first outpost outside New York and casts the opening as part of a broader push to convert the long-stalled Gulch area into a year-round entertainment destination.
Menu, Mural And The “Split The G” Test
Menu items will lean playful and pubby, with a hot dog topped with Ballymaloe Irish relish, a ham-and-cheese toastie, and a late-night “spice bag” among the planned offerings, while the drink list will include pints of Guinness and the Dead Rabbit’s Irish Coffee, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The outlet also notes that the interior will show off a 45-foot mural by Irish illustrator David McMillan and a mechanical split-flap board that will click through live scores tied to nearby stadium events, a nod to the bar’s transit vibe.
What It Signals For Downtown Atlanta
The Irish Exit’s debut is part of a coordinated effort to stock Centennial Yards’ Entertainment District with bars, restaurants, venues, and hotels ahead of a loaded events season. As outlined by CIM Group and listed on FIFA, Atlanta is set to host FIFA World Cup matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium this month, a timeline that has helped spur a faster rollout of new openings around the plaza.
On its website, the Irish Exit lists its address as 85 Centennial Olympic Park Drive NW, Suite D400, and invites prospective guests to sign up for opening updates. Operators say the concept is meant to cater to both game-day and concert crowds and the everyday foot traffic that planners hope will start flowing steadily through the revamped plaza.
