The nonalcoholic beverage category is rapidly expanding as restaurants rethink how they serve a broader range of guests. Beverage experts note that the movement’s sights are set on creating a safe space at their restaurants to include everyone during their dining experience. Whether a customer is an expecting mother, celebrating a sobriety journey milestone, or just wanting to cut back on alcohol, zero-proof drinks are becoming an accessible option that tastes just as good when eating out.
“We didn’t want [sober] guests stuck with just water while everybody else gets the fun ideas, the fun drinks, all the creativity that comes from the bar. So we wanted to make sure that we built and formalized a zero-proof program that was all about including everybody at the table and also bringing the same experience that you get from our bar,” says Jason Murphy, director of marketing at Bad Daddy’s.
Exploring different beverage possibilities and combinations is at the forefront of the zero-proof trend. Beverage directors are straying away from garnishing mocktails with colorful straws or a cheesy umbrella. They want to create mature mocktails in both taste and delivery.
“I think that what we’re seeing is that the nonalcoholic drinker is, in a way, straying away from that dominant mocktail and settling into a space that’s … elegant,” explains Conrad C. Helms IV, beverage director at Lazy Betty. “Making a house tonic by itself really can speak volumes where a colorful fruit punch umbrella mocktail would come across as a little chintzy.”
Helms IV appreciates the zero-proof space because it helps guests feel seen. “I think it’s really cool to have equal representation in this space, because it’s such a neglected market,” says Helms IV.
He recalls guests even getting emotional over feeling included by Lazy Betty’s nonalcoholic menu options. “[A guest] said, ‘I’ve been sober for 30 years, and nobody has ever done something like this.’” says Helms IV. “You could tell it moved him, and that interaction right there is exactly why we do what we do. I think that as long as we continue to have these conversations and we’re able to provide for people that otherwise would be neglected based on their restrictions you’ll see that the industry explodes that way.”
Sarah Charles, food & beverage director at The Flat Iron Hotel in Asheville, North Carolina—part of the Indigo Road Hospitality Group—mentions how the pandemic spurred a focus on health and wellness that included nonalcoholic spirits. Her approach to creating elegant and unique zero-proof drinks is ingredient-driven, using techniques like carbonation to enhance flavors.
“My personal goal for this space is to be able to push that narrative so much further, being able to offer full nonalcoholic pairings with the components that we have available in the space,” says Charles. “Being able to utilize specific techniques to highlight specific ingredients is what we’re chasing here in this space at this time.”
Charles mentions that it’s important for her to stay ahead of the trends in the nonalcoholic beverage space while also staying true to her and her restaurants’ identities. She keeps up with new zero-proof innovations by staying in touch with beverage programs at other restaurants that continue to push the limits.
Stephanie Bricken, founder of Seraphim Social Beverage, created a wine alternative for the sober curious after going on her own personal wellness journey. After testing many many batches of Serpahim on her friends, she submitted her recipe to the Rutgers Food Innovation Center back in 2020, and since then, Seraphim has excelled in the nonalcoholic beverage space.
Seraphim is brewed like a tea with organic sour cherries, wild blueberries, and red grapes. Then, reishi mushrooms, apple cider vinegar, and herbal extracts are added in the Cassia blend for immune system support and then oat extracts for nervous system support in the Cacao blend.
“Every ingredient is from the earth, and every ingredient is good for your body. It’s a super intentional beverage,” says Bricken. “The other really fascinating, unique thing about it is it also makes a mocktail. I don’t think there’s any other wine alternatives out there that do that.”
A challenge for Bricken has been customers questioning the price of her product, and not the ingredients. However, she has seen more and more people not questioning the price because of the general population educating themselves on the quality of food and how important it is.
“Alcohol has been what we do socially, right? That’s been the sexy thing, so nobody questions the price, right? And all of a sudden, a lot of people say, ‘Well, there’s no alcohol,’ but there’s all these other good ingredients that are helping your body and very high quality. It’s just a matter of time before people start to recalibrate their thinking,” says Bricken.
Kevin Curley, the vice president of culinary and concept development at The Greene Turtle, acknowledges that the zero-proof category is not going away, so as that trend grows, the sports bar chain’s menu will continue to grow with it.
“We’ve just had fun trying to create some unique cocktails,” says Curley. “We have a cucumber fresca, which is nice and refreshing, and then a blackberry refresher with real blackberry lemonade and fresh mint. They both definitely give you that cocktail feel without there being any alcohol in it.”
Finding the perfect nonalcoholic beverages and zero-proof spirits to put on drink menus is similar to sorting through alcoholic beverages, says Murphy. Start off by throwing costs to the side and focus on flavors, he advises.
“We do the same work with any beverage. We’re taste testing with our teams. We’re seeing how it pairs with food. We’re making sure the supplier can support us through distribution networks and then hit the right price points. We need to make sure the economics of it makes sense. But if it doesn’t taste great or work operationally, it doesn’t make the cut, and that’s the same as any drink,” says Murphy.
The zero-proof space isn’t going away anytime soon, and restaurants are only seeing a higher demand for more sophisticated, delicious mocktail and zero-proof beverage options—from exciting new flavor combinations to discovering new, groundbreaking products.
“We want there to be a purpose and an intentionality behind everything that we do. I think that mocktails showcase that,” says Helms IV.
