Close your ears, Ernest Hemingway: The fastest growing segment of the cocktail market is the one with drinks that … don’t actually have any alcohol.
It’s not just a Dry January thing either. Bars and restaurants across the Bay Area are increasingly showing off their finest mocktails and clever virgin creations in the hopes of solving a riddle: Non-alcoholic beverage sales may have risen 32 times faster than the rest of the alcohol market in 2023, but N/A drinks — especially the canned variety — still come with a stigma.
They taste terrible.
“A lot of the products aren’t that good,” says Francis Kulaga, beverage director at San Francisco’s upscale Anomaly.
Kulaga was putting it nicely.
“Most of them suck,” says Gabe Chavez, general manager at San Francisco’s Last Rites tiki bar.
“Not to throw shade,” says Beau du Bois, VP of bar and spirits for Puesto, which has Mexican restaurants in Santa Clara and Concord, “but sometimes I taste them, and I’m like, ‘Has the person who made it tasted this?’”
Some bars and restaurants, like Anomaly, scoured the market to find a few favorite premade N/A products, but an increasing number of Bay Area cocktail bars are creating their own, right down to the non-alcoholic spirits.
“I would rather make a quality product than pay for something that’s inferior,” says Chavez.
At Last Rites, Chavez reverse-engineered the tasting notes to create three housemade non-alcoholic spirits: an N/A Clarin that echoes the flavor of Haitian rum), an N/A cask spirit that mimics whiskey and an N/A “No-Maro,” a play on an Italian Amaro.
“I took the classic Vermouth ingredients, barks and woods, paired that with citrus, and it has a couple teas as a base,” Chavez says.
At Puesto, du Bois makes his own N/A tequila using roasted corn, robust teas, tamarind and other ingredients, then serves it in a classic margarita or cantarito.
But even after all the work — and often higher costs — required to create a robust N/A cocktail, beverage directors say they feel awkward charging what they would for a regular cocktail. So much so, that many price their mocktails a few dollars less than a standard cocktail, despite the actual costs involved.
“We struggle with that constantly,” says Wendy Bravo, co-owner of San Jose’s Fox Tale Fermentation Project. “I’m working super hard to make these fermented syrups that take anywhere between a week to sometimes months, if I’m making cool shrubs from scraps or making the bitters. We’re sourcing all this fruit. It’s a lot of work.”
But Bravo thinks it’s worth it. Competition is leading to innovation. The N/A drinks are tasting good enough to stand on their own. The trends are clearly pointing in the N/A direction. And more importantly, Bravo says, friends who don’t drink want to visit her at the bar and sip something delicious.
“People are excited about not drinking alcohol — and drinking things with actual benefits, like herbs and botanicals with calming qualities, things that are good for your immune system,” she says. “People love it. It’s not just a bunch of sugar.”
If you’re looking for the best N/A cocktails this January, you’ll find them at bars from Santa Clara to Concord, San Jose and beyond. Here’s just a sampling.
Anomaly, San Francisco
Chef Mike Lanham has a creative and seasonal tasting menu that earned the restaurant a spot in the Michelin restaurant guide. The alcohol pairing was a hit, too.
“But I kept seeing customers coming in and drinking water. They weren’t super engaged with the beverage program, so we decided to build out the N/A program,” says Kulaga, the beverage director. “We’ve seen a huge uptick. And because half our beverage sales are with food pairings, we thought, ‘Why don’t we expand that and offer N/A pairings?’ It’s been super successful, and it’s very inclusive.”
Kulaga’s favorite products: Free, a New Zealand company that makes a non-alcoholic Cuba Libre (rum and Coke), Leitz, a German brand that makes sparkling wines, and Proxies, a Canadian brand which makes bubbly rosé. And the most popular N/A items at Anomaly are the spritzes made by Portland’s For Bitter or Worse.
“Herbaceous and bitter flavors are the most successful at mimicking the alcohol taste,” Kulaga said.
Details: Open from 6 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at 600 Sutter St. in San Francisco; anomalysf.com.
Bar Iris, San Francisco
Stationed next door to Nisei, a Michelin-starred Japanese-American restaurant also owned by David Yoshimura, Bar Iris opened in 2021 as a Japanese culture-driven cocktail bar with a curated list of eclectic spirits.
Bar manager Timofei Osipenko has tried to give the same attention and detail to his N/A menu, not by replicating the alcoholic ingredients, but by “recreating the drinking experience,” Osipenko says. “We do the research about the culture, ingredients and techniques, so you don’t have to.”
Bar Iris makes its own N/A versions of signature cocktails such as the Toyohashi ($17), which features N/A gin and red shiso.
The results have been so popular with non-drinkers and drinkers alike, Bar Iris has had multiple full-bar buyouts recently in which the client requested an exclusively N/A menu.
Details: Opens at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and 3 p.m. Friday-Saturday at 2310 Polk St. in San Francisco; bar-iris.com.
Fox Tale Fermentation Project, San Jose
Ever since the brewery opened in 2022, the N/A cocktails and kombucha program have been a large part of its business. Using housemade vinegars, miso, fermented syrups and lacto-fermented produce, Fox Tale has produced an N/A menu that aims to be more than just fancy lemonade (although they have that, too).
Co-owner Wendy Bravo says their most popular N/A cocktail is a margarita with a twist. It uses nopales syrup and damiana.
“It’s so close. We give people something (that) tastes like a proper margarita,” Bravo says. “Then the menu gets a little weirder, and we have some crazy things, too.”
If you’re feeling adventurous, try the Thisbe’s Veil ($10), featuring fermented mulberry shrub, meadowsweet, lavender, rose hips, orange peel, fennel, pink peppercorns, sage, heather, mulberry leaf and pomegranate.
“People who get them love them,” Bravo says.
Details: Opens at noon, Wednesday through Sunday, at 30 E. Santa Clara St. in San Jose; foxtalefermentationproject.com.
Last Rites, San Francisco
From the same tiki bar that features the Caldera’s Curse ($60), a flaming bowl of rum and brandy meant to serve four, comes an ever-expanding menu of low-ABV and non-alcoholic drinks.
Chavez uses his housemade spirits for six N/A cocktails, including the popular Mocking Bird ($14), a play on a Jungle Bird that includes the “No-Maro” cask N/A spirit, salted molasses, lime, pineapple and cane syrup.
Last Rites also makes two drinks with complex juices and housemade syrups that give customers the option to add N/A or alcoholic spirits, including the Golden Idol ($14), a play on a pina colada that includes turmeric milk, coconut, orange, pineapple, lemon and nutmeg.
“You see a lot of non-alcoholic red bitter amaros, vermouths dense with flavor, because those are definitely the easier ones to re-create,” Chavez says.
Details: Open from 5 to 11 p.m. Sunday-Wednesday, until 1 a.m. Thursday and from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday-Saturday at 718 14th St. in San Francisco; lastritesbar.com.
Little Bird Bar, Oakland
Some of the most intriguing non-alcoholic cocktails are served at Little Bird Bar, which opened in November in Oakland’s former Radio Bar space.
A bird-themed bar whose food menu showcases custom pickles made by Golden State Pickle Works, Little Bird pours three N/A cocktails, including a Berrly Legal ($8) made with strawberry brine, lemon, simple syrup and seltzer. The Caesar Caesar ($8) features Clamato, yellow pepper brine, lemon and Worcestershire. And the Green Roots ($8) mixes green bean-rutabaga brine with fish sauce.
Details: Open from 4 p.m.-2 a.m. daily at 435 13th St., Oakland; littlebirdbar.com.
Luna Mexican Kitchen, Campbell and San Jose
From a restaurant that prides itself on keeping out additives and preservatives comes a “mindful mocktail” menu to keep the healthy vibes going.
The from-scratch kitchen serves drinks like the Bella Flor ($13), for example, featuring Seedlip Spice 94, fresh lime juice, agave nectar and hibiscus, and the Spicy Pina ($13), made with Seedlip Grove 42, fresh lime and fresh pineapple juice. A Chicas Fresas ($12) combines strawberry, mint, lime juice and ginger beer. And the Coco En La Playa ($12) features coconut and horchata.
Details: Open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, and until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday at 1875 S. Bascom Ave., Campbell, and 1495 The Alameda, San Jose; lunamexicankitchen.com.
Paper Plane, San Jose
Swapping their housemade Picon for Melati Classic, a non-alcoholic spirit made with goji berries, cacao and spices, Paper Plane serves a fruity, creamy Jupiter Jazz cocktail ($12) that’s full of depth.
Their zero-proof Coco L’orange ($12) features a rum alternative from Chicago’s Ritual, which was the first U.S.-based non-alcoholic spirits company when it opened in 2019. Mixing orange, lemon and coconut cream with the spicy N/A rum yields a fresh riff on a tiki classic.
Details: Open 5 p.m. to midnight Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday and until 2 a.m. Thursday-Saturday at 72 S. First St. in San Jose; paperplanesj.com.
Parche, Oakland
This Colombian restaurant imports fruit from South America to create juices, syrups and infusions for the non-alcoholic sips that now account for nearly 10% of the restaurant’s total beverage sales.
Beverage director Eric Syed says he was inspired by a juice stand he saw in Bogota, where adults seemed to be consuming as many fruity beverages as the crowd of kids in school uniforms.
In Columbia, people drink luladas made from soda water and lulo, a fruit that looks like a tomato but tastes like mild citrus. Syed says. Luladas ($9) have been a popular order at Parche, but when customers kept asking to have it with a beer, Syed began making a Lulada Shandy ($12) — lulo juice, lime and Estrella Galicia’s N/A beer.
Syed recommends pairing the lulada with patacones ($15), crispy plantains served with tropical salsa.
Details: Open from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday at 2295 Broadway in Oakland; parcheoak.com.
Puesto, Concord and Santa Clara
It’s all about the housemade N/A tequila at Puesto, the chic taco restaurant that grew to fame in San Diego before spreading Los Angeles and then Santa Clara and Concord in 2018.
Puesto serves its popular tacos alongside a variety of drinks, including non-alcoholic Paloma, Mojito and Pina Colada cocktails ($14 each). Now with its new N/A tequila, the restaurant is adding a margarita and cantarito to the menu.
Creating an N/A tequila was “one of the strangest things I’ve ever done and one of the most challenging,” says du Bois. “There was a time when I didn’t give N/A drinks as much focus as I do now. The demand is so high year-round. Whatever gets you in the door to sit down and have a beverage, that’s the goal.”
Details: Open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and until 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday at 2035 Diamond Blvd. in Concord, and from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily at 2752 Augustine Drive in Santa Clara; eatpuesto.com.
Timber and Salt, Redwood City
Bar manager David Sizemore was getting tired of inventing impromptu mocktails several times a night. So when he took over the bar in 2022, he insisted on creating a proper N/A menu to go with the sophisticated, full-service food menu.
“There’s a lot of craft behind this list,” he says.
For a colorful cocktail (N/A cocktails are $10) that tastes like a classic Cosmopolitan, try the Red Alert, made with cranberry, thyme syrup, grapefruit juice, lime juice, basil water and saline solution. For something more refreshing, Sizemore recommends the Easy, made with peach and honey puree, rosemary water, lemon, and soda water.
And while Sizemore generally steers clear of bottled N/A spirits, he has found an N/A gin he likes to use, UK-based Lyre’s, which he uses in the Dreams of You cocktail with juniper orgeat, lemon juice and tonic.
Details: Open from 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and until 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday at 881 Middlefield Road in Redwood City; timberandsalt.com.
The N/A trend
It’s not your imagination. Nonalcoholic drinks — beer, wine, spirits and cocktails — are surging in popularity. Sales of nonalcoholic beer, wine and spirits rose by 32 percent from 2022 to 2023, while sales of their boozy compatriots rose just 1 percent.
From Heineken to Lagunitas, breweries are getting on board the N/A train. Last summer, Whole Foods announced that the upscale market’s most popular beer wasn’t any of the usual suspects; it was Athletic, a non-alcoholic beer known for its Upside Dawn Golden Ale (yellow can) and Run Wild IPA (blue can).
Started by two guys in Connecticut six years ago, Athletic wanted to target “healthy” drinkers, those who might like the taste of beer but want to stay in shape. Non-alcoholic beer, defined as any beer with less than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume (ABV), is by nature much less caloric. By pouring resources into creating an N/A beer that matches the innovation and flavor of modern craft brewery companies, Athletic has become the face of the N/A movement, going from 800 barrels created in 2018 to 170,000 in 2022.
The wine industry has gotten on board, too, with unfermented wines that are non-alcoholic and traditional wines that have had the alcohol removed. Napa’s Trinchero Estates, for example, makes an alcohol-removed cabernet, a chardonnay and a red blend under its Luminara label.
And with fewer and fewer young people choosing alcohol — drinkers under 35 consumed 10% less alcohol from 2022 to 2023, per Gallup — sipping an N/A beverage has become the trendy thing to do.
