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When you enter Getaway, an elegant bar located in the main avenue of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, you can find yourself in many friendly cocktail spots in New York. The walls are green and blue, the space is comfortable enough for you to join a nearby conversation, and the menu features a $ 13 (£ 10) cocktail list with ingredients like tobacco syrup, lingonberry and mashed jalapeno, with a friendly note. owners that laptops are not allowed.
But there is a crucial difference between Getaway and the other Brooklyn bars: Getaway is completely alcohol free.
A non-alcoholic bar looks like an oxymoron, an aquarium without fish or a bakery that does not serve bread. But in cities like New York and London, where bars are often used as the second living room for apartment occupants with limited space, a non-alcoholic nightlife may appeal to those who, for whatever reason, would rather not to drink.
Sam Thonis, who co-owns the bar with Regina Dellea, had the idea of making a trip three years ago, when his brother, who was not drinking, was trying to find a place to go out together at night. "There were not many nightlife options in New York that did not revolve around alcohol or try to impose that on you one way or another," says Thonis. "The more I spoke with people, some sober and others not, the more I felt that people wanted that kind of space."
In response, Thonis and Dellea have made their bar a 0% alcohol space, which means that even non-alcoholic beers that contain only traces of alcohol are not allowed on the menu. In the United States, the term "non-alcoholic" may apply to alcoholic beverages at 0.5% alcohol by volume or less, which means that many non-alcoholic beers are not really alcohol free.
"It's 0% as far as possible, so if you're sober and it's a problem for you, or if you do not even want a smell of alcohol around you, you'll be safe," says Thonis. But it still looks like a bar: it only opens in the evening, the lights are dim and no one seems to be working on his screenplay.
It's 0% as far as possible, so if you're sober and it's a problem for you, or if you do not even want the smell of alcohol around you, you'll be safe
Getaway, which opened in April, is part of a growing global wave of night clubs for people who avoid alcohol, but still want to go out and socialize in spaces traditionally dominated by alcohol consumption. . Vena's Fizz House in Portland, Maine, and The Other Side, in Crystal Lake, suburban Illinois. In London, the Redemption Bar without alcohol now has three establishments, as well as a menu of vegan dishes, without sugar and without wheat. In January, the Virgin Mary, a non-alcoholic pub, opened in Dublin.
Temperance zones
Soft bars are not a new concept. In the late 19th century, a number of soft bars, known as temperance bars, were established in the United Kingdom as a result of the temperance movement, which advocated abstinence. The Fitzpatrick's Temperance Bar, founded in 1890 in Rawtenstall, north of Manchester, still serves root beer and dandelion and burdock glasses.
But what differs from the wave of today's non-alcohol bars is that they are not necessarily rooted in the idea of total abstinence. At Getaway, for example, the public is not just a non-drinker, but anyone who wants a fun bar environment without the threat of a hangover the next day. "Nothing in our space indicates that you should be sober or that you should not go around the corner of another bar and make a tequila shot after spending time here," said Thonis. "This is not exclusively for the non-drinker."
In this way, Getaway evokes a movement in which urban millennials reconsider the place of alcohol in their lives. Lorelei Bandrovschi, 32, falls into this category. Last year, she began organizing alcohol-free pop-up events under the name of Listen Bar for people who wanted to break free from the game without alcohol playing a role. Previously, she worked as a consultant for brands such as YouTube and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, but her work at Listen Bar is a full-time job.
It's really liberating to create space for you and your life where a rowdy party atmosphere does not mean a hangover and fuzzy memories.
"Bars are a place to relax and we were made to believe that alcohol should be part of it," says Bandrovschi. "It's really liberating to create a space for you and your life where a boisterous party atmosphere does not mean a hangover and fuzzy memories." The word "rowdy" is a key element of what Bandrovschi wants to do. these events. "There were moments at our first Williamsburg pop-ups where people dance on tables and karaoke," she says. "Being good to oneself does not just mean being zen and submissive."
Bandrovschi is not sober herself, but after taking a month of drinking, she found a lack of options for people wishing to go out with their friends without having to order a soda while everyone is getting ready. carefully prepared cocktails. "I think the culture of bars, from the menu to the staff to the staff, tends to make non-consumption a hobby for foreigners," she says.
I think that the culture of bars, from the menu to the staff to the customers, tends to make alcohol a kind of pastime for foreigners.
"I refer to my personal philosophy as an optional drink. In order for us to have an optional alcohol consumption culture as opposed to the current default consumer culture, we must celebrate the choice of not drinking. It must have as much space as drink, cool and fun spaces, as well as attractive spaces. I wanted to create something that was missing from the culture and I really wanted to change culture. "
Sobering?
This "optional drinking" attitude may not yet be the default rule, but there is evidence that young people are not drinking as much as they used to. In 2016, among adults over the age of 16 interviewed by the British Office of National Statistics, barely 56.9% had a drink the week before, the lowest percentage ever since the office started asking questions. In February, the International Wine and Spirits Record reported that 52% of adult Americans surveyed were trying or had already tried to reduce their alcohol consumption.
A series of articles on recent trends indicates that Millennials are thinking about when and how they drink. Beer sales are down in the United States and, while this may mean that more health-conscious consumers are simply turning to higher-octane spirits, the alcoholic beverage industry has reacted to the crisis by offering more options for low or no alcohol consumption, such as that of Heineken. 0.0 non-alcoholic beer launched in 2017 or gin and tonic to Gordon's very canned alcohol.
Non-alcoholic beverages are about to become a big business even in non-alcoholic spaces. Increasingly, upscale restaurants are offering a non-alcoholic menu for their tasting menus, as well as a traditional wine or cocktail. And mixologists and beverage managers take advantage of trends to create interesting drinks without the traditional ballast.
Chelsea Carrier, Director of Beverages at oya, Covina and The Roof Top in New York, worked with her team to create a non-alcoholic deal for food served in the Japanese oya restaurant. "A lot of guests were asking for NA options and not just wanting to drink water," says Carrier. At present, she estimates that non-alcoholic beverages make up about 20% of the drinks ordered at the restaurant and that the kindness of non-alcoholic cocktails gives the impression that customers who do not drink alcohol are included. "You can sit next to someone who drinks a bottle of two thousand dollar wine, a non-alcoholic cocktail and that you own just as much," she says.
Drink the dry bar
Under existing conditions, a bar in Greenwich Village, New York, known for its highly inventive cocktails, such as a version of Old Fashioned that includes bourbon and waffle maple syrup, non-alcoholic cocktails occupy a place preponderant in the menu. Beverage Manager Bobby Murphy is one of the most expensive products they produce, both in terms of ingredients and manpower.
A glass, the Stingless, requires Melipona honey, made by tiny Mexican bees that can cost $ 100 per kilogram. Another non-alcoholic drink is built around the clarified Comice pear juice, an ingredient that required the team of existing conditions to buy and juice 980 pounds of seasonal pears – each drink contains about six pears. "Serve a soda is not enough anymore," says Murphy. "When we make soft drinks, we want them to be something you can not get anywhere else." He estimates that 20 to 30% of the total drinks sold under Existing Conditions are non-alcoholic.
Most sober bars are new and it remains to be seen if they will continue to proliferate and thrive. In Auckland in 2015, a non-alcohol bar closed after just five weeks. But there is no doubt that interest in non-alcoholic beverages for adults is increasing in the beverage industry and this is not likely to stop soon.
In the case of Getaway, co-owners Sam Thonis and Regina Dellea see this option as an option in a city full of specific places of interest. Business has been stable over the last month. "Every day, I'm afraid no one will come, and 20 minutes later the city comes alive," says Dellea. Their customers include curious locals, pregnant women and sober studious people, but Dellea and Thonis hope that the bar's appeal is great. "He can to be for everyone, but you do not have to, "says Thonis. "There are a million options. If people do not like us, that's fine. They are allowed. For people who want to be here, we are here.
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