It Shouldn’t Be so Hard to Find a Good NA Drink These Days

Having a drink in hand makes any restaurant meal better. It’s convivial. It complements the food. It makes eating feel like an occasion.

Unless, of course, you no longer drink and your only nonalcoholic option is a soda afterthought.

Today, this shouldn’t be a common experience. Once a hushed topic, the movement to drink less has dramatically gained ground in recent years, especially among millennials and Gen Z—57% and 65% of whom, respectively, say they are drinking less. That’s a whopping 44% increase just since 2023. And the reasons aren’t simply trends—they cite mental health, wellness, and lifestyle as top reasons, removing much of the stigma around avoiding alcohol.

It’s not surprising, then, that with such a substantial growing movement, a plethora of new options have cropped up for those who love their drinks, but don’t want the side effects. These non-alcoholic spirits, beers, cocktails, wines, and more have exploded the market, with sales surging 26% over the past year to top $800 million in the US.

Yet, I still frequently go into restaurants and get met with blank stares when I ask for a non-alcoholic drink.

As a person who started imbibing less after I had my first kid, I found the options in restaurants pretty bleak when I began scaling back in 2015. Often, if I wanted to join in with a beverage at restaurants with friends, the choices were in the kid-realm between seltzer and juice. I missed the quality of a cocktail or wine to pair with my meal.

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An Upsurge of Quality NA Products

In recent years, though, the growing array of available products has become dizzyingly excellent—liquor dupes you can’t taste much difference in; NA beers that have the same crisp foam as their alcoholic counterparts; canned aperitifs that taste like a summer evening with a spritz. While some of these options have existed with small brands for years, they’ve really taken off on a larger scale since Covid.

Jason LaValla of Casamara Club, which makes NA cocktails and botanical sodas, points out that, “before Covid, there was this misconception that NA drinks were only for people who had a problem. Coming out of Covid there’s now this recognition that pretty much everyone is trying to drink a little less, and having good options around makes that so much easier.”

As someone experiencing it first hand, it is easier. Yet while I know I can show up to a dinner party with an option for myself, the gap remains in the restaurant world. Every time I go out to eat I feel like I’m rolling the dice on whether I’ll be able to order a beverage.

Why Aren’t Restaurants Jumping Aboard?

It shouldn’t be such a crapshoot. In a scenario where alcohol often makes up a huge percentage of a restaurant’s profit margin, as Jopus Grevelink of José Andrés Group puts it, “if you don’t have exciting NA avenues for non-drinkers to explore, you are leaving money on the table.” So, why do so many restaurants do it?

The easiest excuse would be the time and effort. Kwini Reed of Poppy & Seed in Anaheim, California, points out that to do it right you want to make it, “elevated, not like an adult drinking a juice box…and that takes the same amount of labor.”

And it’s not just the labor in-house, it’s also the costs outside. “Dealcoholized spirits and wines are intricate to make,” says Courtney Lorentz of La Mercerie in New York. “And therefore [they’re] as expensive as alcohol.”

But the consumers are willing to pay for it. For people like me who just want to feel included (and often end up splitting a bill with friends anyway), I’m happy to pay the same amount as my drinking friends to also have the experience of having a glass of something delicious that’s as beautifully crafted as my meal.

A Big Bonus for the Bottom Line

When restaurants have good options, the proof of concept is immediate. Dylan Capello of Nami Nori says that, “creative NA options like this have not only boosted sales, but they’ve brought new energy to the table. Guests feel cared for when their beverage feels as special as everything else in front of them.”

Izabelle Lewis of Kanopi in White Plains concurs, sharing that, “now NA pairings are almost as popular as wine pairings, so much so that a large section of our wine cellar is completely dedicated to these non-alcoholic wines.”

Similarly, Stevan Miller of Chicago’s Esmé details that, “NA pairings now make up 16% of our total beverage sales.” So, it’s more than just a kindness—it’s an important part of earnings.

Increased Innovation

Sales are up in part because the options keep getting better and better; there’s an incredible amount of innovation happening in the NA space. Some of that innovation is coming from alcoholic brands that are expanding their offerings. Threes Brewing, for instance, now offers a hop-infused seltzer using some of the ingredients they’re already using in their beers. As their head brewer Josh Penney puts it, “We realized people who don’t drink alcohol were missing out on what these interesting ingredients bring to the table. [We make] a hop water that showcases those flavors without the alcohol.”

For the brands that started purely to make non-alcoholic drinks, they see the growth in their market as having a similar natural evolution to what happened in alcoholic beverage circles in previous decades.

LaValla of Casamara points out that these new companies are similar to when craft production started entering spaces typically only known for larger brands. “We’re using higher quality ingredients, we’re producing in smaller batches, and we’re aiming to make something that’s going to feel like a special occasion,” he says.

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As a result of this increase in detail, consumers have taken notice and bought more. Louie Catizone, of St Agrestis, one of the earliest NA cocktail brands, has seen huge increases in their restaurant sales.

“Our average bottles sold per restaurant is up and the number of restaurants serving the Phony Negroni (or other non-alcoholic products from us) has increased 41% year-to-date.” It’s truly an “if you build it, they will come” scenario for restaurants who get on board, he says.

So, to any restaurants still keeping their heads in the sand, I want to say this: It’s 2025. There is absolutely no excuse for those of us who want to drink less being forced to choose between alcohol or another sad soda water with a lime on the side. Let us give you our money, and bring hospitality to everyone. We’ll make it worth your while.