Shaken and stirred, hold the booze

Nonalcoholic cocktails hold their own in various drinks menus across region

Spiritless. Sober curious. Dry dabbler. The labels to describe booze-free drinking hardly sound like the life of the party, but interest in no- and low-alcohol drinks shows no sign of slowing. People are owning their personal journeys with alcohol whether cutting down, cutting out or balancing their interest in booze and the booze-free. Often, the hardest part of heading out for drinks with friends is finding restaurants and bars where you’re not an afterthought offered fruit juice or seltzer. Thankfully, zero-proof cocktails have caught the attention of bartenders, and industry newcomers are distilling zero-proof spirits, with brands like Seedlip, Lyre’s and Ritual delivering a close approximation of the mouthfeel and flavor of base spirits.

As a cocktail writer, I was challenged to recommend a dozen restaurants that regularly feature alcohol-free cocktails of sufficient complexity to warrant the name — and find them I did. While I still miss the upscale, adventurous cocktail program at now-shuttered Plumb Oyster bar, there are still others out there — like Whiskey Pickle (Troy), Savoy on Lark (Albany) and The Merc (Saratoga Springs) — with bar programs so comprehensive their mixologists are skilled at concocting a nonalcoholic “bartender’s choice” on the fly, should you ask.

Here, I focused on places where zero-proof cocktails — along with their boozier kin — are placed front and center in print on the menu, not only as an alternative to alcohol, but capably standing on their own. Presenting the Capital Region Booze-free Cocktail Crawl: High in spirit, low in alcohol.