Through the Drinking Glass: The Portland Mercuryâs Bar Issue
Including 13 Portland Spots That Offer More Than Just Hooch
Cuckoo for Cocktails
Geeking Out on the Wild, Obsessed, and Otherwise Nerdy World of Mixing Drinks
The Last Straw
Why Local Bar Owners Are Getting Rid of Single-Use Plastic Straws
Dry Drinks Worth Diving Into
Non-Alcoholic Beverages You Don't Have to Be a Teetotaler to Enjoy
Stopping by the Bar on a Snowy Evening
Bar Crawling East of 82nd During a Snowpacalypse
Youâd think that not drinking would lead to fewer personal indignitiesâyouâre far less likely to face-plant in your driveway in front of a Lyft driver, for a hypothetical and not-real-at-all exampleâuntil youâre faced with the actual injustice of not drinking.
People who are sober, pregnant, or are just light drinkers rarely get decent options for cocktails that donât involve juices from concentrate, overly sweet syrups, or soda water blasted from a gun.
One âmocktailâ I had recently at Punch Bowl Social involved raisins floating like rabbit turds in a super-sugary soda blend for $6. Iâm still upset.
Mercifully, as âdry January,â Whole30, and other alcohol-eschewing health trends continue to gain popularity, the tide is changing. Several local bars and restaurants are turning their attention to fine-tuned, craft, âdryâ cocktails that are every bit as complex as their high-proof cousins.
Since the start of the year, Departure has dedicated an entire section of its menu to non-alcoholic drinks with flavor profiles that include herbal, spicy, and tangy.
âThis is a category that just gets so overlooked,â says Sam Azarow, Departureâs beverage director and senior restaurant manager. âWe wanted to focus on really building great dry beverages that donât relate to the cocktails, but can tell a story and stand on their own.â
Right now Azarow has five drinks, each $7, on Departureâs menu, and has plans to expand even further this summer. I took a friend who doesnât drink along for a tasting, and as she sipped the beautiful, milky-white Mizuchi from a martini glassâwith its flavors of Tom Kha, lime, and coconut milkâshe got a little emotional.
My personal favorites were the Yu the Great, a dessert-like blend of Thai basil, matcha, lime, and foamy coconut milk, and their sneaker hit, Yami, which blends pink peppercorn, lemon, peach bitters, and orange blossom water for a super refreshing sip. The latter seemed a bit dull until paired with chef Gregory Gourdetâs Asian-influenced menu, where its floral flavors really popped.
Azarow notes that while Departureâwhich overlooks the downtown skyline from the top story of the Nines Hotelâis part of the weekend party circuit, many guests (and Gourdet himself, who moved to Portland from New York to pursue a sober lifestyle) donât drink.
âWeâve had a really good response,â she says. âFor a city thatâs so hyper-focused on coffee and tea, it seems odd that there hasnât been as much focus on this.â
Meanwhile, at Shipwreck, the red-hot pop-up run by former Expatriate bartender Eric Nelson, the focus is on wildly creative cocktailsâbut donât be shy to ask for a virgin drink. Nelson, who gave up alcohol in May 2014, says for his smaller operations, a dedicated dry menu just wouldnât work.
âItâs more fun to build for personal tastes,â Nelson says. âIt also comes down to pricing. If youâre spending money and time to make this dope âmilk-washed carrot-juice Collinsâ and nobody orders it, it donât make sense, you know?â
Willow, the small, chefâs-counter prix fixe restaurant in a former house on Southeast 11th, may be the only one to offer a dedicated non-alcoholic pairing with its six-course dinners. For $22, abstainers can drink watermelon and herb sparklers and coffee egg creams alongside Willowâs seasonal fare.
And for home (non) drinkers, options have come a long way from a can of OâDouls. I recently got my mitts on the groundbreaking non-alcoholic distilled elixirs from British-based company Seedlip. Their motto is âWhat to Drink When Youâre Not Drinking,â and their two different spirits are showing up in cocktails in New York, LA, and San Francisco.
Theyâre sugar-, calorie-, and sweetener-free, and you can order them online for an impressive $40 a pop, and choose from a spiced or botanical variant. Since dry January, Iâve been abstaining from alcohol at home during the week: a few ounces of the floral pea and hay distillation in Seedlipâs garden spirit, mixed with Fever Tree elderflower tonic water, made for a tasty placebo.
Azarow, notes that low-proof drinks based on vermouth and other fortified spirits have been gaining popularity over the last few years as well, and booze-free drinks âgoes kind of hand in hand.â And while thereâs a growing market, she says thereâs still plenty of room for this trend to expand: âI donât think completely dry has hit the market as of yet.â