These Are the 13 Best Non-Alcoholic Bars in the US

Hip, sip, hooray!

Teetotaling is making a dramatic comeback. Data shows Gen Z drinks 20 percent less than millennials, who drink less than the generations before them. In America, those who imbibe are doing so in smaller amounts and less frequently—and there's been a meteoric rise of dry bars, zer-proof pop-ups, and non-alcoholic bottle shops. In fact, the ever-widening range of no- and low-alcohol products which raked in $11 billion in 2022.

“It’s a conscious shift in the way we think about gathering. Society wants to return to deep, meaningful social interactions as opposed to empty digital connections,” said Chris Marshall, who opened America’s first alcohol-free watering hole in Austin in 2017, told TripSavvy. “Just as plant-based restaurants are valuable in meeting the preferences of those seeking [that lifestyle], alcohol-free bars are crucial for celebrating and enriching an alcohol-free lifestyle. Dedicated zero-proof spaces go beyond simply offering alcohol alternatives; they create a community of inclusivity and support.”

The scene is so strong using the term "mocktails" is arguably dismissive to some. “Calling what we do ‘mocktails’ sends the message that we are mocking the ‘real thing’ and negates the experience we’re creating,” Raegan Plewe, owner of Curiosity in Salt Lake City, Utah, told TripSavvy. “Our drinks are just as real, complex, and creative as alcoholic craft cocktails would be. Sometimes even more so!”

An increasing number of cities across the country have non-alcoholic bars worth visiting. “Almost every city can be turned into an NA destination,” Derek Brown, the former owner of the acclaimed Columbia Room in Washington, D.C., and author of Mindful Mixology: A Comprehensive Guide to No- and Low-Alcohol Cocktails, told TripSavvy. “The trend is here to stay. Expect more and more NA popups, bars, and bottle shops.”

To toast this lifestyle on your next getaway, consider one of these 13 best non-alcoholic bars in the U.S.

Sans Bar

The U.S.’ original non-alcoholic bar traded its gentlemanly black-and-copper den for a swanky Southern feel when it relocated to mere steps from the state capitol this year. The welcome glow-up includes soft lighting, creamy brick walls, some greenery, and a stately tiled bar in a deep emerald hue. Pull up a gilded tall chair to order classic Southern and Western libations (think sazerac, margarita, and dark and stormy) while enjoying drag shows, comedy sets, trivia nights, and more. Grapefruit, pecan, or sweet potato syrups are just one secret to their spiritless sauce.

Ocean Beach Café

A career bartender took a year off booze, started reviewing zero-proof products on YouTube as @joshthenonalcoholic, and serendipitously walked into a for-sale deli in the Outer Richmond, which he turned into the country’s third full-time dry bar in January 2021. The laidback café with its light bites, succulents, and surf chic is great for day-drinking concoctions that rely more on functional elixirs than alcohol analogues like the Destroyer of Bad Vibes. Mixology classes are held in the dark-wooded speakeasy.

Dry Spokes

While stationed in Korea with the Air Force, Mi-Ya Mata started tinkering with non-alcoholic mixology. Once home, she and her wife Leah Wright turned the hobby into a mobile bar cart business and then a wildly colorful boho brick and mortar in a 1920s building sitting above a suspected bootleggers’ tunnel. Decorated with nods to Mata’s military and Indigenous background, there’s a patio for sunny-day sipping of Agave Rosas and a stage that hosts poetry slams, storytelling sessions, live acts, and movie nights.

Hekate Café & Elixir Lounge

Within the navy confines of this woman-owned, tin-ceilinged East Village storefront named after the Queen Witch/a Greek goddess and embellished with antique mirrors and a Swarovski-studded Milky Way mural, bartenders, including one who doubles as a tarot card reader, cast a dry spell with teas and elixirs like The Healer and The Flower Shop. Not charmed by any posted potables? They’re happy to conjure custom mocktail magic while you enjoy comedy open mics, candle-making workshops, and art exhibits.

Verbena Free Spirited

After the pandemic made Molly Cheraso realize life was too short to stay in corporate banking, she embarked on a year of focus groups and pop-ups before taking over a former teahouse. Her Hingetown hang, the baby of the list having only been around since July, is a bright botanically themed café by day and dry bar serving tapas including trendy tinned fish by night. Between the Barbie cocktail, fresh flowers, and monthly book club, there’s a fab undercurrent of feminine energy.

Dream House Lounge

The idea to build a wellness-centered spiritual sanctuary in the middle of The Big Easy came to Dr. David J. Wallace in a dream and the former educator dared to turn that vision into a luxe reality that mixes metallic modernism, bohemia, afro-futurism, soothing tones, sumptuous textures, oxygen therapy, conscious cocktails like Lavender Dreams and mushroom margaritas with four types of functional fungi, and expert-led conversations. It will soon add holistic programming like chakra balancing and sound baths.

Inmoxicated

The owner set out to recreate a typical Midwestern dive bar, complete with disco ball, pool table, jukebox, darts, and an arcade cabinet, at this almost two-year-old bottle shop and drinking den downtown. And because no Badger State bar, non-alcoholic or otherwise, would be championed by locals if old-fashioneds didn’t make an appearance, Inmoxicated created a NA version of the unofficial state cocktail using hand-muddled bar sugar, orange, and cherries, and a smoker to give it the aged-barrel finish.

Curiosity

With a groovy ‘60s color palette heavy on green and pink, the small-but-mighty spot opened in 2022 and features handmade tiles, vintage lighting, a vinyl collection, and a packed events calendar (queer poetry nights, mending workshops, tarot nights, etc.). Drinks, including the new tamarind cinnamon foam-capped Desert Solitaire, often include natural mood-boosting herbs, change with the seasons, and tend toward bitter, earthy, and smoky profiles.

The BANDBOX

Aspiring Gatsbys in search of roaring good times look no further than this dimly lit 1920s art deco-themed speakeasy dressed in velvet curtains, chandeliers, and era knickknacks like typewriters and fedoras. There’s live jazz twice a month. The gang can nosh on free popcorn, play table games, or hop into the photobooth while they wait for the best-selling CBD beverages and passion fruit margs.

Wilderton Tasting Room

A block from the picturesque confluence of the Columbia and Hood Rivers, Wilderton opened the first dedicated non-alcoholic distillery in the U.S. in 2023. Like many of its plastered peers, this Oregon establishment offers tours that finish in a tasting room. The wood-and-metal minimalism and sustainable construction are giving the Pacific Northwest a panache. A massive floor-to-ceiling hand-painted mural illustrates the botanicals that flavor the brand’s three expressions. Start with a free guided sampling and move into craft mocktails like summery spritzes.

Binge Bar

Inspired by reading about Sans Bar, Vergie “Gigi” Arandid attended bartending licensing school, worked at an area bar, and conducted dry (literally!) runs in order to open this H Street Corridor bar and Filipino bistro last February. Since then, Arandid has hosted everything from burlesque shows and speed dating to fitness classes and paint-and-sips, plying patrons with lumpia, near beer, and mocktails (using garnishes and compotes she makes) in the basement-level lounge with a moss wall. As bathrooms were a place of refuge when tempted during her early recovery, she ensured Binge Bar's restrooms are well-lit with ottomans and fresh flowers.

Unimpaired Dry Bar

Students make up the bulk of the crowd at this lively, expansive college town tavern dreamt up by a 20-year bartending veteran. They come for zero-proof takes on the classics—mules, martinis, mojitos—served from a big center bar and stay for pizza and photo ops with statement walls, angel wings, and custom LED signs. A mobile unit lets them take the sans-spirit show on location.

The Volstead

Taking up two stories of a regal purple (the color of recovery) building in Manayunk, this vegan restaurant and bar combo with a moody jazz club atmosphere and bottle shelves sexily lit from below is run by Unity, a company that specializes in sober-friendly hospitality concepts. Menus change every three months though crowd pleasers like the chocolatey old fashioned or the citrus-splashed Roxborough Ricky stick around. Outdoor seating is a plus.

Read the original article on TripSavvy.