SOCIALIZE WITHOUT STOLI –
July 27, 2024 – Marshall is a member of a small class of sober bar owners who want to upend the idea that bars are exclusively places where alcohol is served. He and other sober bar impresarios believe bars should be community hubs where you can have fun without imbibing anything alcoholic.
And as the non-alcoholic beverage market steadily grows, so have sober bars. A sober bar usually looks and feels like any other. It might be upscale and minimalist or divey and lived-in. There may be handles lined up behind the bar but these bottles are zero-proof. Sober bars serve beers and wines that are non-alcoholic (though they can sometimes contain up to 0.5% ABV, or alcohol by volume, the Food and Drug Administration’s threshold for a beverage to still be considered non-alcoholic). And then there are the cocktails with all the trimmings but none of the liquor.
Many sober bars also serve coffee or drinks made with CBD or kava, a psychoactive root that, when consumed, can produce some mild sedative effects.
