Mocktails catch up to their booze-filled counterparts on restaurant menus

Globe and Mail

4 hours ago

Six guests enjoy a languid dinner in a charming circa-1600s building in Quebec City. Here, at the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Tanière³, small plates of venison tartare with smoked potato chips are served with a cocktail called Bog and Labrador. Most of the guests get the drink made with Canadian Club, homemade Labrador tea liqueur, L'Arme Secrète vermouth and a hint of blueberry.
But one guest receives the same drink, instead made from non-alcoholic HP Juniper whisky and NOA red vermouth, Labrador tea syrup and blueberry. It's one of the most generous acts of hospitality I've ever seen.
Up until a few years ago, non-drinkers were made to feel other than, especially at high-end restaurants where the wine cards were often snatched from the table with a sniff. Yet here, all guests were seamlessly included.
With the low- and non-alcoholic sector now a US$13-billion global industry (with Canadians among its top consumers), restaurants around the world are embracing booze-free diners, proving that fine dining needn't be limited to fine wines.
Flexing creativity with their non-alcoholic beverages, the alcohol-free, one-Michelin-starred restaurant Idam in Doha serves a persimmon, melon and espresso mocktail smoked with star anise, to go with a vanilla ice cream and pecan dessert. At the three-Michelin-starred Geranium in Copenhagen, there's a drink made from green apples, fennel and sweet woodruff from the garden.
At Hisa Franko in Kobarid, Slovenia, chef Ana Ros's three-Michelin-starred restaurant makes Pine Booch: Fermented with natural sugars from the local Pituralka pear, the drink boasts a unique balsamic flavour that comes from pine needles harvested from the forests behind the restaurant.
And Andrea Carlson's one-Michelin-starred Burdock & Co in Vancouver just announced their latest tasting menu with non-alcoholic pairings, including a fig and rhubarb koji (a type of mould on rice used in fermentation) cocktail served with a Hokkaido scallop crudo with fresh begonia flowers.
'Restaurants that don't have a comprehensive non-alcohol program are now leaving money on the table,' says Kurtis Kolt, a Vancouver-based wine consultant. 'You can't put the genie back in the bottle.'
Kolt is the founder of Free Spirit project, which hosts booze-free pop-ups and events such as non-alcoholic wine, beer and cocktail tastings featuring dozens of vendors. He says the question he is asked most often at his events is, 'Why doesn't Gen Z drink?'
No alcohol, no problem: Four zero-proof cocktail recipes to try at home
There are plenty of reasons why a growing number of people of all generations are drinking less or not at all. Industry research shows that millennials and Gen Z consumers are looking for even more alcohol-free alternatives, driven by factors such as diet, legal cannabis consumption, cost and awareness around alcohol's impact on overall health. 'Plus, they grew up in a time when taking care of yourself is more a part of the zeitgeist,' says Kolt.
While seemingly simple, making a restaurant-worthy mocktail isn't easy.
'Our mocktails are like liquid food,' says chef Moeen Abuzaid of Toronto's Arbequina, who along with his wife and co-owner, Asma Syed, decided not to serve alcohol at the Roncesvalles neighbourhood restaurant, to align with their Muslim values. Instead, they thoughtfully create drinks to pair with their elevated Arabic cuisine (think: freshly baked za'atar buns with house labneh, and Muhammara steak tartare).
For their Lychee Pink cocktail, for example, making the base alone is a three-day process. They peel fresh lychees then infuse them with a strawberry consommé they've made by cooking down fresh berries and straining them. They then vacuum seal the juice with the lychees, along with organic agave syrup and toasted pink peppercorns, letting the mixture steep. Finally they filter it before shaking it up with white cranberry juice. Abuzaid says the cocktail goes particularly well with the likewise bold flavours of their Angus short ribs, which are cooked down with cinnamon, coriander, chili, date molasses and tamarind. 'When your mocktails change, the flavours of your food changes,' says chef Abuzaid.
Other mocktails on the menu range from the Peach Blossom (white peach, sumac, orange blossom) to the Red Ruby (grapefruit, thyme, rose, hibiscus). There are also sodas such as Salaam Cola and de-alcoholized wines. For me, tucking into plates of the chef's savoury manti and chicken shish while drinking a simple pomegranate lime mocktail tasted just right, the spritzy freshness of the drink allowing the aromatics to shine.
'One of our challenges is getting guests comfortable with the idea of having mocktails to start the meal then moving on to de-alcoholized wine,' says Abuzaid. 'You can have a group that has no idea what wine even tastes like, and we're exposing them to a whole new world.' Others don't need convincing. 'Just yesterday we had a guest who drinks regular wine but was so excited to try the de-alcoholized wine that he drank an entire bottle of our Chilean chardonnay.'
Arbequina's cocktails run from $13 to $16, though at most restaurants non-alcoholic cocktails often cost the same as standard cocktails (around $20). That's because many of the fresh bases and zero-alcohol 'liquors' are often as expensive as those found in traditional cocktails. For instance, at the LCBO a 700 ml bottle of Seedlip Grove Non-Alcoholic Spirit costs $45.
'We've definitely seen a steady and noticeable increase in demand for non-alcoholic cocktails over the past three years,' says Joey Simons, CEO of the Montreal-based restaurant group estiatorio Milos, which has 13 restaurants around the globe from Athens to Singapore. 'While there has always been a need to cater to different preferences – due to personal taste, pregnancy or health concerns – we started to see a more pronounced uptick around 2021 after the pandemic.' He says non-alcoholic options are no longer a niche request: 'It's now a key part of our beverage program.'
Simons says a good restaurant should offer the full spectrum of preferences without compromising on quality or experience. 'We've made a conscious investment in our non-alcoholic program, both in terms of ingredients and empowering our bartenders to be creative.' They use the same obsessively sourced ingredients found on all Milos menus, such as honey from Kythira, Greece, and fresh citrus blossoms.
'We'd estimate that about 10 to 15 per cent of guests will opt for a non-alcoholic option at some point during their dining experience,' he says. 'Some remain entirely non-alcoholic throughout their visit, while others may start with a zero-proof cocktail before transitioning to wine or spirits with dinner. The proof of concept is absolutely there.'