SPIRIT (FREE) FORWARD
Sober Curious Trend Gets ‘Sexy’ for Summer As Brands and Restaurants Work to Unify Drinking Cultures
'Non-alcoholic options are thoughtfully procured rather than an afterthought for guests opting out of alcohol,' one restaurant says
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.
There’s an image of Miami as a place of excess, where more is more and the drinks flow as freely as the parties that pump on till the late hours of the night. But one of the city’s most popular restaurants is leading the charge for a “sober curious summer,” with the launch of a new menu that embraces alcohol-free options that are just as good — if not better — than the spirit-forward offerings.
Sexy Fish, the globally-renowned Japanese restaurant and celeb hotspot is one of the first places in the world to offer a unified cocktail menu for drinkers and non-drinkers alike. Appropriately dubbed “UNITY,” the new menu offers 12 drinks based on 12 core flavor profiles, each available as alcoholic and non-alcoholic iterations.
Highlights include the “Pineapple,” which features pineapple peel-infused mezcal, basil, lime and coriander in the alcoholic version, and roasted pineapple soda, green pepper, banana and chipotle in the 0% ABV version.
The “Sugar Snap Pea,” meantime, features dry gin, snap peas, manzanilla sherry, absinthe, apple and lemonade in the cocktail, while its mocktail counterpart uses Seedlip Garden 108, in addition to sugar snap peas, pear, jasmine, and verjus.
And guests will want to try Sexy Fish’s “Cacao” cocktail, which is their take on an espresso martini, made from vodka infused with cacao butter, dark chocolate, Sauternes, Lillet and lemon. A “low” ABV version is made from Haku Vodka, Everleaf Marine, cacao, dark chocolate, vanilla, merlot and bitters. It’s a way for responsibly-minded guests to still get a buzz on without completely letting go of their inhibitions.
With 24 drinks to choose from in total, there’s no shortage of options, whether you’re sober-curious or just taking it easy for the night. The restaurant says the UNITY menu also removes the stigma of not drinking, especially in a debaucherous city like Miami. As Sexy Fish says in a release, “UNITY delivers a personalized, inclusive and mindful drinking experience for all.”
Sexy Fish isn’t the only restaurant hopping on the sober curious trend of course. At L.A.’s two Michelin-starred restaurant Providence, the chef’s meticulously-curated tasting menu can now be ordered with a “free-spirited” pairing of non-alcoholic cocktails. Drinks include the “Fine Herbs Soda,” a carbonated water infused with herbs from the restaurant’s rooftop garden, as a sort of sparkling wine alternative. Providence’s “Clarified Coconut Milk Punch,” meantime, starts with clarified coconut milk, mixed with passionfruit, vanilla syrup and mace. And the “Rhubarb Consommé” (pictured below) takes house-made rhubarb juice and steeps in cracked black pepper and tarragon for a drink that’s at once fresh and full-bodied.
Providence says it isn’t just sober guests who order the non-alcohol pairings, but also savvy epicurean diners who want to see what magic the bartenders can whip up alongside the work of the restaurant’s acclaimed chefs. “The meticulously crafted non-alcoholic options are thoughtfully procured rather than an afterthought for guests opting out of alcohol,” the restaurant says.
At the equestrian-themed bar and restaurant The Pony Room, located inside the Rancho Valencia in Rancho Santa Fe, California, decor draws inspiration from classic American iconography — think horse hooves on the ends of bar stools and lofted, exposed wooden beams — but the bar menu nods to current drinking trends, with an extensive list of 0% beers (including the Walker Hayes-approved Athletic Brewing), zero-proof wines, and spirit-free cocktails. While guests can easily take in the views of the surrounding canyons and mountains with a whiskey or tequila in hand, they can also just as easily enjoy non-alc cocktails like the “Number One,” made with Seedlip Agave, rhubarb and lime. Further proof of the sober curious trend: The Pony Room’s bar menu opens with a page of alcohol-free drinks.
Over in Sedona, the renowned Mii amo resort has long been a destination for detox and relaxation, with a beverage program that mirrors the Relais & Châteaux property’s focus on health and wellness. On a recent visit, guests were able to take advantage of an all-day juice bar with daily wellness tonics, while meals were offered with an extensive zero-proof cocktail menu (we liked the “On the Wagon,” a non-alcoholic take on a classic mule, made with Seedlip Grove, pineapple, ginger beer and lime). While wine and beer were readily available at the resort, almost everyone we saw there was choosing the alcohol alternatives. “It honestly tastes better than some regular cocktails,” my companion remarked. “And I feel better too.”
Along with the aforementioned Walker Hayes, other celebs are getting into the “sober curious” trend too, like Bella Hadid, with Kin Euphorics, and Katy Perry, who has her own line of non-alcoholic aperitifs called “De Soi,” which recently introduced a bittersweet orange “Spritz Italiano” for summer. Since launching just over two years ago, the brand is now available online and at retailers like Whole Foods, Amazon, Target, Walmart, and Hollywood-fave Erewhon.
According to Perry’s business partner and De Soi co-founder Morgan McLachlan, the idea to launch a non-alcoholic drink was driven by a desire to reach out to people who wanted an alcohol alternative without cutting out alcohol entirely. Similar to Perry and herself, McLachlan says 89% of De Soi’s customer base are “people who are simply looking to drink less by consuming alcohol alternatives” (indeed, as one of the world’s few female master distillers, McLachlan is also the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of spirits brand AMASS, which offers a range of high ABV gins and vodkas).
The way the two have approached the brand, McLachlan explains, is similar to how they approach a new flavor offering: “Everyone’s palates are different,” she says, “but that doesn’t mean that everyone else feels the same way, so there can be some interpolation.”
As for the “sober curious” trend, McLachlan says both her and Perry embrace the term, as a “cute [and] succinct way to describe someone exploring drinking less alcohol, without all the rationalizations or dogma that goes with conversations about alcohol use.”
Case in point: While De Soi has McLachlan quite busy these days, she has gone back into product development mode with her alcohol brand, Amass Spirits, “working on a wild new gin expression.”
For Brad Whiting and Seth O’Malley, co-founders of the botanical spirits brand Wilderton, the two don’t even use the word “mocktail” when describing what you can do with their drinks — they prefer the term “zero-proof.” The Hood River-based company in Oregon just opened the country’s first non-alcoholic distillery and tasting room in 2023, and want to show the public that there’s nothing “mock” about these spirits. “It’s not non-alc for the sake of being non-alc,” Whiting told Rolling Stone, during our tour of the distillery. “It’s its own thing that brings amazing flavors.”
Inspired by Seedlip’s influence on the non-alc space (and O’Malley’s own life-long interest in tea-blending), Wilderton has now produced three spirits that take notes from herbs, flowers, and botanicals — all while still utilizing the traditional distillation techniques of a spirits company. While their goal isn’t to make a 1:1 replica of popular spirits, they’ve embodied the idea that no matter why someone is skipping the alcohol, there’s still an art to cocktail mixing (and enjoying with friends) that everyone should be able to partake in. To get over the initial “curious” hurdle of “sober curiosity,” they’ve smartly emphasized easy mixer recipes you can use their spirits for on the bottle (such as the citrus and coriander-forward “Lustre & Tonic”, or the smoky lapsang souchong and spiced “Earthen & Ginger Ale”).
Now they’re working with Nora Furst, award-winning bartender and co-founder of West Bev Consulting, who’s created complementary NA pairing menus for special events, as well as advised other industry professionals on how to utilize Wilderton for their bar and restaurant menus (such as using the Campari-esque Bittersweet Aperitivo for a “NEW-groni”). While some might still gawk at a similarly priced non-alc drink sitting next its boozy brethren on a menu, it’s a big step forward not only towards the normalization of socially ordering the alcohol-free option, but also towards legitimizing zero-proof spirits as part of the art of cocktail making.
Perhaps the best way to approach the sober curious trend is by putting the focus on how you feel, rather than what you’re drinking (or not drinking). The founders of Hiyo call their canned drink a “better-than-alcohol alternative,” replacing the buzz you get from alcohol with a “float” created from the addition of adaptogens, natural nootropics, and functional botanicals.
According to Hiyo co-founder Evan Quinn, about 90% of the brand’s customers say they also drink alcohol, but reach for Hiyo as “a healthier way to unwind.” While his business partner George Youmans is sober, Quinn still drinks, though he admits he’s cut down in recent months to seek out “a healthy balance.”
For Quinn and Youmans, the term “sober curious” is a catchy buzzword, but may perpetuate a stigma that health or sobriety is a trend, rather than something to commit to.
“The word ‘curious’ implies an unsure perspective,” Quinn explains, “and the majority of the brand voice and positioning we use is meant to inspire people to resolutely make the decision to prioritize their health, and make more space for alternatives like Hiyo in their nightly unwinds.”
“We believe ‘sober curious’ is one of those terms that has a lot of awareness, but doesn’t necessarily elicit the strongest connotation to our category,” he continues. “We don’t want people to be curious or unsure if they should chase the best version of themselves — we want them to feel empowered, enthusiastic, and supported to dive headfirst towards a happier, healthier lifestyle.”