How sober-friendly are Houston's bars? Dry January puts the city's nonalcoholic scene to the test.

During a World Series game between the Astros and the Atlanta Braves last year, I shuffled to the rooftop bar at Buffalo Bayou Brewing and asked for a nonalcoholic drink. When I handed my credit card to the bartender to pay for my pink lemonade, he waved it off dismissively.

“We don’t charge for nonalcoholic drinks,” he replied, terse. “It’s a bar, we don’t care.”

I applaud the brewery’s decision to not charge for booze-free drinks and was certainly happy to be drinking for free that night (the Astros lost, badly). But the bartender’s exasperated attitude stuck with me. This was “a bar,” and my nonalcoholic drink order existed outside the confines of that definition.

I'm not a teetotaler, but I plan regular dry spells throughout the year. Yes, I do Dry January — in fact I’m doing it right now. For almost a decade, my work life has revolved around alcohol, having spent my entire career in food and drink journalism, with a stint in the restaurant industry to boot. It’s become a ritual to introduce moderation into my life where I can.

I stop drinking alcohol for a month, or even just a week if that’s all I can manage, to give my body (and liver) a rest, to feel healthier, have a clearer mind and sleep better. But if I’m being honest, I also do it to prove I still can.

My encounter at the brewery was a simple annoyance. But I kept thinking how someone in recovery — whose sobriety is perhaps more permanent and fragile than mine — would have felt in that moment. An annoyance could quickly become a trigger.

“One of the biggest challenges is actually just going against our societal norms,” said Susie Loredo, addiction recovery social worker at Legacy Community Health. “There is really an expectation to drink in kind of every social setting these days.”

Whether it’s at parties, on dates, at networking events or happy hour with co-workers, Loredo says societal expectations are the biggest trigger for people in alcohol addiction recovery. Being in any place where others are making different choices than you — for example, not drinking at a bar where everyone else is — can be uncomfortable, she adds.

I typically don’t go out much during my booze-free periods, to make it easier. But when I decided to do Sober October after a summer of drinking too much, it came at a time when I was socializing a lot. This was before any of us had heard the word “omicron” and there was a lull in coronavirus cases after the delta variant surge.

“This will be a great test,” I thought. “Are my usual haunts accommodating to people who don’t drink alcohol? How sober-friendly is Houston’s bar scene?”

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Of all the times I’ve gone dry, this was by far the hardest. I begrudgingly knocked back cans of Busch NA at Wakefield Crowbar after the Chronicle’s Monday softball games, the tiny pieces of ice floating inside suggesting the can had been in the back of the bar’s cooler for a while. I quickly became bored of the Heineken 0.0 at Griff’s during Thursday trivia games. Even my beloved West Alabama Ice House, where I spend much of my time, was only serving Big Swig key lime — the worst flavor. (They have since added a couple nonalcoholic beers.)

My experience wasn’t all bad. While Houston bars have a ways to go, national trends are reshaping how local operators are approaching their nonalcoholic drink programs.

Loredo says the “sober curious” and “mindful drinking” movements are encouraging more people to examine their drinking patterns and move away from an “all or nothing” mentality. According to consumer research firm Nielsen, 47 percent of U.S. consumers attempted to reduce their alcohol consumption in 2019, including 66 percent of millennials. That same year, 21 percent — more than a fifth — of Americans participated in Dry January (or at least attempted to).

Sobriety, whether temporary or permanent, is bigger than a trend. The share of the population abstaining from alcohol at any one time is significant, whether someone is in recovery or pregnant, sober for medical or religious reasons, or because they simply don’t feel like it. This presents a unique opportunity for bars, restaurants and retailers to cater to them.

To find nonalcoholic drinks that were a step above soft drinks and seltzer, I generally had to frequent Houston’s more upscale bars. I met a friend one night at Julep for what she called “a fake drink.” The Washington Avenue bar, like its owner Alba Huerta, has an excellent reputation for spot-on, creative cocktails. While there were no zero-proof options on the menu, the bartender didn’t bat an eye when I asked for something nonalcoholic. She asked what flavors I liked; I offered up the words spicy, smoky, citrus and herbal.

I received a concoction of orange, lemon, pineapple and habanero. The glass was adorned with orange and pineapple wedges and a generous bunch of mint. It was delightfully sour and spicy, and made me feel like I was having a proper cocktail worthy of a night out.

I had a similar experience at Hando, the sushi hand roll restaurant in the Heights. I simply pointed to two cocktails I would order if I were drinking alcohol, and the server brought me a very pleasant ginger beer, lemon and strawberry drink with a blood orange slice and dehydrated strawberries as garnishes. I also learned there is a very tasty strawberry-basil drink at Under the Volcano, the Chronicle’s go-to bar for departing colleagues. I was, however, asked if I was a minor.

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By far, my best experience was at Night Shift, a new bar in the East End. When I visited, booze-free cocktails had a dedicated category, and another section of the menu came with a note saying any of those drinks could be made nonalcoholic.

“Having that spelled out on the menu, that those options are available, is a very welcoming and also destigmatizing way to run your bar,” said Loredo.

When owners Justin Ware and Patrick Abalos conceived of Night Shift, they considered their core values. One of them was inclusion, which in their view encompasses people who aren’t drinking alcohol.

Ware says they wanted to put as much effort into their nonalcoholic drinks as the rest of their program, so customers forgoing booze can have the same experience. People can easily go to a corner store for a Sprite or Topo Chico, he adds.

Many Night Shift staffers are industry veterans and all have good friends who are sober but are still bartenders, Ware says. People abstaining from alcohol altogether is increasingly common, helping drink professionals normalize it, even at a bar. This concept is incorporated into the team’s training.

Houston became even more sober-friendly in October with the arrival of Sipple, a nonalcoholic bottle shop in Rice Village. Owners Helenita and Danny Frounfelkner painstakingly source about 150 products, including booze-free wine, beer, spirits and other craft beverages. So often, people who aren’t drinking are relegated to what Danny calls the “kids’ menu” of juice and soda, but Sipple sells adult beverages that happen to not have alcohol in them.

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Danny Frounfelkner said they knew Houston was ready for a store like Sipple, the first of its kind in the city, but the response in the last few months far exceeded their expectations. He estimates between 50 and 75 percent who come in are return customers, and dozens shop here on a weekly basis.

The reasons for their visits are varied: they’re sober, they’ve never drank, they’re drinking less, they’re religious — Danny says he meets a lot of Muslims.

“We do not ask people if they drink alcohol or not, because it’s none of our business,” he said. He lets shoppers drive that conversation if they want to: Some are very open and volunteer their story, while others don’t share, and that’s fine, he says.

Frounfelkner thinks 2022 will be the nonalcoholic space’s biggest year. We’ll start to see even more brands come onto the market, and he wouldn’t be surprised if more booze-free bottle shops open in Houston.

Ware is hopeful Houston will continue to become more sober-friendly, but it will take more bars like Night Shift and other industry leaders to normalize not drinking alcohol while also enjoying the city’s nightlife, he says. This means having both good nonalcoholic drink options and supportive bartenders.