Where to Find Nonalcoholic Drinks in Seattle
…And we don’t mean soda. Check out our list of five Seattle-area spots offering craft booze-free beverages.
Posted by: Amanda Zurita on Feb 28, 2012 at 03:10PM
10 Comments
There are times when one craves a handcrafted beverage masterpiece, but would prefer to avoid all things alcoholic. Such occasions might include pregnancy, bouts of religiousness, designated driver duty, or having already consumed a few too many. While there are many bars and restaurants in Seattle that will offer to fashion you a mocktail upon request, we’ve rounded up a list of places that have preemptively included fresh and creative booze-free beverages alongside their more spirited menu offerings.
La Carta de Oaxaca
Prefer to pass on one of La Carta’s 30-something tequila selections? No problem. The crowd-drawing Mexican restaurant has you covered with rotating agua frescas (literally, fresh waters) that include housemade horchata, hibiscus, and tamarind flavors. The horchata is the restaurant’s most popular, and our favorite as well. The staff begin preparing the creamy drink the night before it hits your table—rice is soaked in water overnight then blended with cinnamon and vanilla in the morning before just the right amount of sugar, walnuts, and cantaloupe are added. The result is a light but satisfying nutty drink with the perfect balance of melon and cinnamon flavors.
Lola
There are at least two craft mocktails on the menu at every Tom Douglas restaurant, but our favorite is the ginger mint spritzer at Douglas’s modern Mediterranean eatery. Made with fresh lemon and mint muddled into their house-made ginger syrup and soda, the refreshing concoction is topped with candied ginger and is so popular it’s available year-round.
Willows Inn
Lummi Island’s farm-to-table restaurant destination and bed-and-breakfast has an inspired substitute for food and wine pairings: food and juice pairings. Each of the five juices is fresh-pressed and expertly chosen to couple with your plate. Start with cucumber, described as very light and dry, like a sauvignon blanc, and make your way through apple, carrot, and huckleberry juices before finishing the evening with the ice wine–like elderflower juice.
Oddfellows
One of the few Seattle spots to offer kombucha on tap, Capitol Hill’s day-to-night destination gets its kegs from farmer’s market staple CommuniTea. Though the fermented brew is legally categorized as an alcoholic beverage, its alcohol content is minimal at best. The green tea–based drink is available in two sizes at Oddfellows and is served straight up and icy cold.
Tamarind Tree
Offering three different non-alcoholic mojitos in addition to two other mocktails and an extensive list of fresh juices, this International District Vietnamese favorite (and its sister restaurant Long Provincial) is a booze avoider’s paradise. Our pick: the Asian Crushed with fresh Asian pears, lime juice, simple syrup, and soda is a fizzy and juicy mixture that’s just the right amount of sweet. Even better? It comes with a spoon for scooping out tasty pieces of pear.
Tags: Nonalcoholic Drinks
Thanks SeattleMet! I am a nondrinker and I really appreciate a creative alternative to order when my buddies are getting cocktails. Thanks for these suggestions and for recognizing the places that put yummy concoctions like these on their menus.
Awesome! Great feature. Sutra in Wallingford does AMAZING non-alcoholic pairings with their five course, vegetarian meals. Absolutely loved the experience! Can’t wait to try these other places as well.
I would add Sun Liquor to the list! They fresh squeeze all of their juices and the virgin Mai Tai is amazing!
These suggestions sound great! I love the idea of non-alcoholic food pairings and a booze-free option at the already delicious Sun Liquor sounds amazing. Can’t wait to try them. Thanks, everyone.
Cactus (locations in Kirkland, SLU, and elsewhere) also has some convincingly tasty mocktails.
Dry Soda (a Seattle company!) is also a great non-alcoholic beverage that pairs well with food. It is served in many restaurants and bars.
http://drysoda.com/find-dry-soda.php
Zoe has had some good mocktails on their drink list for years and IIRC they are still on the list at the new location
We also have a full page of non alcoholic drinks at Rob Roy. You’ll find them listed under “Temperance Drinks”. Each one is carefully crafted by our bartenders as if it were a boozy drink. We enjoy making them and they are dang tasty! Eh, sometimes you don’t want booze but you still want to be social. No problem!
Hey Anu—thanks for the info on Rob Roy. Somehow I don’t think I knew that…but it doesn’t surprise me at all.
RN74 has a good selection of crafted non-alcoholic drinks, along with some good lunch specials, which makes for a good noon-time break, if you haven’t managed to get a 3-martini-lunch-compatible job.