Alcohol-free bars and stores in Indianapolis area latest to join sober cocktail movement

A bar scene without alcohol?

Such spaces are becoming a thing in the Indianapolis area.

We've got bars with craft cocktails made without alcohol. A bottle shop is selling noting but non-alcoholic spirits, beer and wine recently opened.

And now a major piece of the sober curious movement moves in with the opening of a spirits-free lounge early in 2023.

Memento Zero Proof, at the First Internet Bank of Indiana building, 8701 E. 116th St. in Fishers, will serve craft cocktails, beer, wine, espresso drinks and cold brew — with nary a drop of alcohol in the place.

The idea for the 1,500-square-foot coffee bar and cocktail bar came from the involvement of co-owners Shwa Hall and Max Gavin in another business.

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Hall, 24, and Gavin, 23, friends since they were students at Fishers Junior High, had co-founded a Fountain Square recording studio and had found they had few places to visit to unwind after work.

“We would spend all day working on laptops and business plans and marketing plans and then the coffee shops would close,” Hall said.

Hall, who has worked as a barista at several shops, had it in mind to open a coffee shop that also served mocktails. Research into non-alcoholic drinks and their growing popularity convinced him to consider a different mix of offerings.

“It switched gears to healthy alternatives and an alternative for people who are in recovery and abstain for any reasons,” he said.

In 2021, he shared his idea with Gavin, who had lost a relative to alcoholism and had decided to stop drinking. Gavin wanted in.

“The coffee shop is great, but we have a lot of coffee shops already,” Gavin said. “We really just wanted to create a space for people to go, even if you're not sober all the time. We wanted to provide a space for those people to go and have fun and hang out with their friends without feeling the pressure of it all.”

Booze-free cocktails

Memento is likely to have 10 craft cocktails, four to six beer options and just as many wines. Fort Wayne-based 2Toms Brewing is among the non-alcoholic beers to be on tap.

Hall and Gavin are creating cocktail recipes. Traditional bar drinks (Manhattan, amaretto sour) will be available but off the menu.

A bar bites menu also is in the works.

Both coffee and non-alcoholic cocktails and drinks will be offered throughout the day, but the lounge will take on a more clubby vibe in the evenings, with entertainment including open mike nights, karaoke and board games.

The project will cost about $220,000, with a Kickstarter campaign having just launched to help fund it.

Hall and Gavin left the studio early this year to concentrate on Memento.

Gavin is a manager at a vape shop; and Hall works as a barista in a Noble Coffee & Tea Co., which roasts chocolate wedding cake and strawberry shortcake coffee for Memento and has allowed the Memento to sell coffee-inspired clothing from the shop.

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Drinking less

Health consciousness is a major factor in more moderate alcohol consumption, according to The Food Institute; and the demand for non-alcoholic beverages grew 60% from July 2020 to 2021.

While both Gen Z and millennials are more deliberate drinkers — 40% four are mindful about how much they’re drinking and 30% are actively limiting their intake — 84% of Gen Z shoppers are buying alcohol compared to 90% of millennials, according to consumer research firm Numerator. The younger generation considers drinking to be more about socializing than millennials.

“Our generation seems to be more conscious,” Hall said, "about what we are putting into our bodies."

That has more places are aiming to meet the call for alcohol-free experiences.

Hotel Indy’s The Cannonball Lounge, 141 Washington St., opened in downtown Indianapolis in 2021 with a commitment to serving sophisticated spirit-free cocktails to the point where the bar’s signature cocktail was alcohol-free.

Groups have been requesting zero-proof bar services in recent months, said Tina Crawford, the hotel’s sales and marketing director.

“It’s an elevated experience from just mocktails,” she said.

Bars need to go that route, as health and wellness is top of mind for younger generations, said Michael Sabitoni, associate professor and chair of the Food & Beverage Management Department at Johnson & Wales University, which is hosting a forum on the trend next month.

“I’ve been teaching for 31 years, and these students are not so much into alcohol,” he said.

The preference, he said, is a selection of spirits-free martins, mezcal mules and sangrias, rather than big sugary drinks.

“They don't want mocktails. They don’t want these sugar bombs,” he said. “Operators need to explore this because you’re going to get the same price point as you would for alcoholic drinks. The consumer is paying the money for the benefit of their health and wellness.”

The prices for booze-free drinks are about the same and sometimes slightly higher than traditional spirits and cocktails because the zero-proof spirits are often made with costly botanicals.

Growth in the non-alcoholic spirits space outpaced the non-alcoholic beer, wine and malt beverage segment, according to NielsenIQ. Drinks such as Ritual zero-proof spirits and the non-alcoholic beer Athletic are popular.

More spaces

Non-alcoholic beverages are the type of products stocked at Loren AF Beverages, a bottle shop opened by sisters Kristin Patrick and Andrea Marley.

The sisters adopted an alcohol-free lifestyle in 2021, and opened Loren’s AF at 5790 E. Main St., Carmel, in August 2022.

Loren AF is among several non-alcoholic bottle shops to open across the country in the past few years, including The Open Road in Pittsburgh in 2020 and Boisson’s seven shops in New York and California since 2021.

Patrick and Marley figured the reasons potential customers would come to their shop extended beyond pregnancy and recovering alcoholism, but they were surprised about the number of folks driving long distances to shop there.

“We knew we were going to have a lot of pregnant people, with Hamilton County being so family-oriented,” Patrick said. “Since we’ve heard a bunch more reasons people tell you why they’ve chosen this lifestyle and the positive benefits and our customers are have been so kind and the feedback has been amazing.”

“Something we hadn’t anticipated was people with prediabetes,” she said. “A lot of people are coming in and going for low-sugar, low-carb.”

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While beer is leading the alcohol-free beverage movement nationally, Loren AF sees a lot of interest in wines, Patrick said. Many of those it carries come in at 90-120 calories per bottle. Most of the beers ring in at 50-100 calories per serving, with some as little as 25 calories.

A large amount of the Loren AF customers are retirees looking to make lifestyle changes; and those customers, too, want drinks with less sugar, Patrick said.

Indianapolis-area Hoosiers should expect more opportunities to visit spaces for social interaction without alcohol; along with collaborations with those businesses providing the experiences.

Memento and Loren AF are working with Mochi Joy Donuts in Noblesville on a cocktail brunch with drinks the likes of a Poison Apple Cider made with zero-proof whiskey, vanilla, apple cider and ginger beer; a blood orange mimosa; and a salted butterscotch espresso martini.

The moves aren't meant to condemn alcohol consumption said Memento's Hall, who after periods of drinking two to three beers a day, is now an occasional drinker.

“We're not saying it’s evil to drink,” Hall said. “We’re trying to create a pressure-free environment for anyone who doesn't want to drink for any reason.”

Contact IndyStar reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cheryl.jackson@indystar.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on Twitter: @cherylvjackson.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapols nightlife: Alcohol-free bars, stores join sober movement