The team doubles down with a second branch focusing on fried chicken and pizzas matched with bourbon and tequila cocktails this October
Since its opening in May 2019, Shady Acres helped enliven Peel Street together with opening of Pirata Group’s The Pizza Project and new rum-bar The Daily Tot. This October, founders Ryan Nightingale and Mike Watt, opened Honky Tonks Tavern, a stone’s throw away from the Peel Street address. The new restaurant features a strong beverage programme with sumptuous bar grub to match.
Nightingale and Watt have invited new partners to open their latest venture, with Matt Richardson, formerly of Black Sheep Restaurants’ Ho Lee Fook; Edgar Santillan of Terrible Baby; and PDT-alumnus Adam Schmidt joining the opening team of Honky Tonks Tavern.
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For every good venue there is a great name to start, and Nightingale shared with us the origins of the new restaurant’s identity. “Honky Tonks is a type of bar in the Southern part of the United States—the noisy, rowdy type that serves cheap, filling but essentially unhealthy food. The word ‘Honky’ also bears resemblance to Hongkie, somewhat of a nickname associated with Hong Kongers.” At the end of the day, the key to a good name, according to Nightingale, is not really the meaning. “We are a cheeky bunch in the restaurant business, and we believe a catchy name trumps a name with good meaning. Honky Tonks Tavern certainly sounds a bit silly, but people will remember us not just because of that, and this the most important part.”
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