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What started out as a popup experiment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in October 2018 has morphed into a massive monthly booze-free party and a popular crowdfunding campaign that has already raised $25,000 to build a more permanent location.
In its current form, Listen Bar holds monthly happy hours downstairs at VON Bar in New York City’s East Village, serving mocktails expertly crafted by top mixologists in the city, including Jack McGarry of The Dead Rabbit. Each mocktail costs $10, featuring alcohol-free ingredients like the popular CoCo Matcha — a slushie drink made with coconut milk, Kelvin Slush colada, and matcha served in a Listen Bar coconut.
When Listen Bar opens its own brick and mortar location — which will likely be in Brooklyn — the focus won’t just be on the mocktails, but will also be a music-centric business, and will feature live performances from local musicians.
“Instead of the classic ‘What are you drinking?,’ music is the ice-breaker,” founder Lorelei Bandrovschi said. “You can always ask, ‘What kind of music do you make?’ Or ‘What’s this song that’s playing?’”
At Sans Bar, sober and sober-curious customers can experience all of the entertainment a busy “regular” bar offers — music, carefully crafted drinks, karaoke, game nights, and even the occasional drag show — without indulging in alcohol.
Opened in 2017 by licensed alcohol and drug addiction counselor Chris Marshall, Sans Bar charges a $15 cover fee for all patrons. Under that price, customers can have unlimited bar snacks and mocktails, like their signature “sansgria:” a boozeless, hibiscus sangria drink.
With a 2,000-square-foot indoor area and 4,000-square-foot outdoor area, the team has plenty of space for an outdoor stage and food trucks.
“We're at the tail end of the opioid crisis and we're seeing a shift in the ‘mommy needs wine’ culture,” Marshall said. “The convergence of these social shifts has people looking for something beyond the traditional means of creating healthy social connections.”
Sans Bar also has a franchise location in Kansas City that does monthly popups.
As Brooklyn’s first permanent alcohol-free bar, Getaway Bar opened in April as an alternative for people who want to enjoy themselves without imbibing. The entirely booze-free menu of 10 mocktails (not even kombucha is allowed on the menu!) shared bites, som cordials (zero proof, vinegar-based cordials) and bottled sodas and tonic water is meant to “provide a social space that isn’t centered around alcohol,” bar owners Sam Thonis and Regina Dellea said.
The small 600-square-foot space offers a quiet cocktail bar experience for those who want to “go out and socialize or even read a book alone while sipping a drink, but don’t want to consume alcohol either.”
The mocktails are $13 each and include expertly crafted options like the popular Ginger Spice: spicy ginger syrup, grapefruit juice, extra bitter tonic, and muddled blackberries garnished with a cucumber.
For people in sober living or alcohol rehabilitation programs, it can be difficult to find a place to socialize in the evenings without being tempted by illicit substances. That’s where The Other Side, a nonprofit sober bar in partnership with New Directions Addiction Recovery Services, comes in handy.
“There’s only so many times you can go to the movies or go bowling before it gets old,” New Directions Addiction Recovery Services president Chris Reed said.
The Other Side evolved organically from a 3,000-square-foot empty warehouse space where people would come to hang out after 12-step meetings to a full-fledged sober bar, which officially opened in 2013, featuring a pool table, speakers for music playlists, root beer on tap, and a fridge full of energy drinks for an average check of $3. While the bar is geared toward people in recovery, Reed said that around 20% of patrons every night are just “regular” people who want a low-key space to socialize.
Although the first location has a pretty simple menu, Reed said that they just secured a $400,000 grant to open a wellness café, complete with cold brew and nitro brewed coffee during the day and a possible farm-to-table restaurant at night, with plans to open the second location sometime over the next six months.
Combining the energy of a booze-free bar with the health benefits of a wellness and natural medicine spot, Ambrosia Elixirs offers alcohol-free, herbaceous homeopathic drinks. The menu of apothecary-inspired drinks with flowery descriptions that promise to “balance emotions and yin energy” like the Aphrodita, made with blue lotus, lavender and passion flower are sold alongside small vegan plates for an average check of $18.
Each drink takes 12-15 hours to concoct and promises to improve spiritual and physical well-being.
Owner Valeria DelaPava opened Ambrosia Elixirs in spring 2018 and currently has two locations: one in Bushwick, Brooklyn with an indoor space and large outdoor garden with seating, and a second location that just opened in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A third location is set to open in Manhattan in mid-May and will be called Ambrosia at Energi.
