How to navigate Dry January in Austin
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
If you're giving Dry January a shot in 2024, a growing number of restaurants and bars are offering high-quality nonalcoholic alternatives to make that New Year's resolution easier to achieve.
State of play: Nationally, views on alcohol and drugs are shifting, especially among millennials and Gen Z.
- More than half of young adults in the U.S. see even moderate drinking — one or two drinks a day — as unhealthy, new Gallup polling found.
Four places making "sober-curious" easier in 2023:
Bottle shop: Dear Dry Drinkery is a mobile nonalcoholic bottle shop across from Bufalina on East Cesar Chavez Street. The business, which opened in September, offers nonalcoholic spirits, botanicals, aperitifs, wine and beer, along with mixology classes and gifts.
Bar: Sans Bar calls itself the "first sober bar in Texas," offering hand-crafted mocktails, live music and events. You'll still get all the fun and connection that a bar brings without the temptation of alcohol.
Zero-proof spirit: Austin-based Slow Luck, a locally made nonalcoholic spirit, has gained traction in recent years. Try it at restaurants across Austin, including Joann's Fine Foods, South Congress Hotel, Midnight Cowboy and The Little Darlin'.
Craft beer: Rick's Near Beer opened a retail store in East Austin in February, offering locally brewed beers with less than 0.5% alcohol by volume — which legally count as nonalcoholic. Founder Josh Hare, best known for founding Hops & Grain, created the standalone brand when he noticed the "sober curious" movement gaining traction, he told Brewer Magazine last year.
The bottom line: Austin's rethinking its alcohol consumption.
Dig deeper: Mocktail options at Austin restaurants