Skipping the sauce isn’t just a January thing anymore.
Sometimes it’s less about what something has and everything about what it doesn’t. Step right up to the dry bar. No matter your reason for abstaining from alcohol — and not that you need one — these adult-beverage alternatives are each satisfying in their own right.
Mocktails
St. Agrestis Phony Negroni
A Sbagliato with prosecco in it was so 2022. Greenpoint, Brooklyn-based St. Agrestis is a serious aperitif distillery, so it’s no surprise their trademark Phony Negroni® is a compelling substitute for the real deal. Made with their non-alcoholic Amaro Falso (it’s also sold separately), this refreshing bottled elixir has the body and bitterness you love with the reassurance you won’t need a designated driver to scoot the Vespa home.
Ghia Ginger
Botanical beverager (say that the French way) Ghia arrived early on the alt-spirit scene — canned Ghia Spritzes are a bodega staple these days — becoming a readily available option for tee-cocktail-totalers eager for flavors beyond bitters and soda. A more recent addition to their lineup is the Lime & Salt Spritz, packing extracts (among other all-natural ingredients) of yuzu, fig, white grape, and elderflower along with rosemary and eucalyptus. It’s a liquid summer breeze that’ll make you feel fine — and also the morning after.
Beer
Industrial Arts Safety Glasses IPA
You can slowly Wrench on inebriation or pour out your Safety Glasses. Based in Rockland County and Beacon, NY, in the Hudson Valley, Industrial Arts is a serious brewery known for producing some of the best hop juice on the East Coast. Fittingly, they’ve also managed to pull off one of the greatest feats of the postindustrial age: A 0% ABV hazy IPA that tastes objectively better than what many breweries are calling the real thing. It’s sold by the six pack — with just 83 calories a can, you can keep yours too.
Zero Gravity Rescue Club Pilsner
It won’t give you a buzz, but Zero Gravity’s tasty N/A Pils is worth buzzing about. This crispy golden boi is as real as non-alcoholic beer gets, brewed with German malts and hops in Burlington, Vermont. Bright and clean with a malt-forward nose, it’s balanced and crushable and pours out with a rightfully frothy head. Best of all, you don’t have to count how many you crush.
Wine
Sovi Reserve Chenin Blanc
If you’ve ever browsed the racks of your local natural wine shop like it’s a contemporary art gallery, seeking out the most meticulously art-directed labels that hook your eye, this one’s for you. Sovi is an exclusively non-alcoholic winery, harvesting their grapes from the Clarksburg AVA in California’s Sacramento River Delta. Not only is this steel-fermented, 100% Chenin Blanc textured and complex; it comes in a downright gorgeous package, from wax-sealed top to bottom.
Wölffer Estate Spring in a Bottle
Staying dry on the beach this summer? You needn’t say “no way, rosé!” Riffing on the Sagaponack stalwart’s signature Summer in a Bottle rosé blend, this dealcoholized sparkler couples Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Saint Laurent, and Dornfelder grapes from Germany’s Rheinhessen region, yielding the flavors you’d expect from the preeminent producer of Hamptons juice. It’s bright and crisp, and with its cork and muselet closure, it’s every bit as theatrical to pop open as its unleaded counterpart.