This excerpt was originally published in Pre Shift, our newsletter for the hospitality industry. Subscribe for more first-person accounts, advice, and interviews.
Now Open is a yearlong series celebrating some of 2026’s most exciting new restaurants. Throughout the year, we’ll check in with teams in Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C. to hear what it’s really like behind the scenes of a buzzy opening. Then, we’ll host exclusive meals at these restaurants as part of Dinner Party, presented by Capital One. Read along for challenges, candid reflections, and advice from the proprietors behind some of the country’s hottest new openings.
In New York, the line between “bar” and “restaurant” is hard to parse. Both delineations are nebulous at best; more and more self-described wine bars offer $80 entrees and counter service, while there are also restaurants that hawk small plates exclusively. If you squint, they all blur together. That said, Dean’s, the latest venture from chef Jess Shadbolt and beverage director Annie Shi (the pair of whom opened King together in 2016 and Jupiter in 2022), stands on a compelling middle ground. It’s a British pub. And while such places can operate as rowdy drinking halls, the quintessential pub is both a place for 12 Guinesses on a Tuesday night (mind you, Dean’s has a prize for the first guest to drink 500 pints), and sit-down fish and chips among friends. Open since late March, it’s a brighter, New York-ified version of the public house.
Notably, 75 percent of the restaurant’s seating is reserved for walk-ins—meaning there’s no need to visit the dark web in pursuit of an all-but-impossible reservation. Moreover, the bar, which is first come, first served, allows for standing room, so you can grab a drink while you await your bar seat. In turn, Dean’s is a welcome case for the fact that rowdier bar-esque zeal can live amicably in the same room as proper dinner guests. And with that in mind, before you hurry over to add your name to the queue, here’s a look at how Shi and Shadbolt pulled it all off.
Pre Shift: What was the space like when you took it over?
Annie Shi: It was a complete disaster—it required so much renovation. Honestly, I’d thought this space was cursed. So many things had opened and closed here within a matter of months, and for a while, it was a shop that mostly just sold, like, Diet Coke and whole milk. It had been derelict for a long time when we took over, and we did a lot of major demo. It really felt like we started from scratch, but now that it’s done, it feels like a completely new space. I’m still sort of amazed that it all came together in the end.
How did you decide to open a pub in the first place?
AS: When we decided to take the space, we thought it might just be an extension of King or Café King—among several other things. At some point, I’d noticed that more and more British items were making brief appearances on the King menu because Jess, who is British, kept finding herself compelled to make them. Eventually, I was like, “Jess, I feel like there’s something you need to get out of your system. What’s smoked cod doing on the menu at King?” I was hoping that our new spot could include some of Jess’s British cooking.
Eventually, I asked her what she missed most about England, and she said the pub. Then, it dawned on both of us. Once we started talking about it, we were both like, This feels so right. This is exactly what we want to be making at this point in our lives — something fun, delicious, casual. Neither of us can remember to make a reservation to save our lives, so we wanted it to be walk-in-friendly and easy.
On top of that, Jess just became a mom. She has a 9-week-old son. And there’s just something about bringing new life into the world that makes you feel really nostalgic for your own childhood and your childhood cuisines.
Jess Shadbolt: What drew us to opening a pub was the sense of freedom it offers. Traditional restaurants can sometimes prescribe a very specific way of dining, but a pub brings more flexibility. It can be a quick pint after work, a long, celebratory dinner with friends, a casual afternoon glass of wine, or even a romantic evening. People increasingly want that sense of optionality—somewhere that can meet different moods and moments without feeling rigid.
I actually think New York is incredibly well-suited to pub culture because it already values places with a strong sense of community. Think of your local coffee shop at the end of the block! A great pub is a blank canvas— it’s shaped by the people who walk through the door and for the moments they share within it, and New York is designed to allow that kind of exchange.
How has the opening felt to you? How did the process differ from opening King, or Jupiter?
JS: Every opening has its own rhythm, but this one has felt particularly shaped by the idea of atmosphere and accessibility. With our other venues, the focus may have leaned more heavily toward a defined dining experience. Here, we’ve been thinking just as much about how the space feels at 4 p.m. as it does at 9 p.m. About how it moves seamlessly from afternoon drinks to dinner service to a late-night stop-in. Opening a pub also asks different questions: How do you create ease without sacrificing care? And how do you make it feel lived-in from day one? It’s been a different kind of challenge, but an incredibly rewarding one. As the Brit, I was keen to really represent English cooking, and as the New Yorker, Annie is thinking about what will translate. As ever, it’s always such a pleasure to explore, research, and bring to life something so personal, but in partnership—two heads and pairs of hands are definitely better than one.
With regard to the question of “restaurant vs. bar,” how would you describe Dean’s?
AS: When we decided we were opening a pub, we were scared everyone would just say, “No, this is a restaurant.” But we wanted to make sure that it was casual and fun and vibey, and that people were popping in for a drink and a snack and also doing the full meal thing. And the good news is, thus far, they are.
Because we don’t even take a wait list for the bar, people just stand around drinking until seats free up. It’s really fun to watch people do that thing where they make friends with their neighbors, and everyone’s keeping tabs on the next open seat, and everyone is chatting amongst themselves. It all feels like classic bar behaviour that wouldn’t be possible at King. I’m all for vertical drinking.
How did you go about building the wine list?
AS: When you think of the British approach to wine, there’s always a bottle at the table, but not every wine moment requires that you talk in-depth about a producer or the terroir. Sometimes it’s okay to drink something that’s $75 and crisp and white and delicious, so we were trying to bring that value to the list.
I wanted to pay homage to the classic British palate for wine. If you ask any British person over a certain age what they like to drink, they’ll name big houses: Champagne and Bordeaux. So I went looking for some lesser-known, low-intervention Bordeaux producers, and there’s a fun little half bottle of Pol Roger on there for your super classic British drinker. I’ve got some great Burgundy on the list, but I was avoiding the big villages to keep price points on the lower side. If you want to drink blue-chip Burgundy, you can go next door to King, but the purpose of Dean’s is to provide value that’s also delicious.
Tell me about the English portion of the list! Are people opting for English wines?
AS: Right now, I think we have the largest selection of English wines in New York—though it’s not a tough bar to clear. We have a good amount of English sparkling, and we’ll keep expanding our English still list as we get into summer. We’re working with an importer to bring in some English wines just for us, which is so fun because we have exclusivity of sale. Right now, I think people are really interested in trying these bottles. At Lei, when we first opened, all we sold was Chinese wine, and now here at Dean’s, we’re selling a ton of English wine, so I hope that momentum continues—even knowing that English wine isn’t always easy to sell. But I love when a niche region finds its home, so it’s making me really happy.
What’s the crowd been like thus far?
AS: Honestly, it’s been really crazy the number of British accents I’ve been hearing in the room since we opened. The British ex-pats are definitely finding us. And we’re really looking forward to having a local crowd.
This was hands-down the most difficult construction project I’ve ever worked on, but it was motivating to see so many locals pop their heads in enthusiastically over the six or seven months we were working, and it seems like everyone’s so glad it’s no longer this sketchy underutilized space on the street. We’ve had a bunch of neighbors come in already, but we’re hoping we’ll get a good group of regulars who come by for a beer on their way home. I’d already met some local neighbors over at King, but I feel like I’ve met so many new ones at Dean’s because the environment is so much more casual.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.
