My Dad has cirrhosis and he can’t drink anymore so he mostly drinks tea now but sometimes when he go to a social event he’ll have a mocktail. I can see the utility of them. Great for pregnant women and people with health issues.

Seems like the problem besides being a possible fad is just how many mocktails will people drink at a single visit when the aim isn’t to get drunk. This will certainly impact sales & tipping for the servers.

There’s one in my city I’ve been wanting to try, though it definitely has a reputation of being a really hipstery type of place.

Personally, my ideal bar would be a regular bar with a sizable non-alcoholic selection. (At least 3 different NA beers, a virgin margarita, a virgin strawberry daiquiri, a Shirley Temple, a virgin Screwdriver aka Orange juice + club soda, and some sparkling grape juices.)

Focusing exclusively on people that don’t drink might not bring in enough customers unless you decide to make it an all-ages music venue or something like that.

Covid isolation created a bunch of alcoholics and subsequently a bunch of recovering addicts. This gave rise to a desire for alcohol-free replacements.

My wife is 1 year sober, herself. She often struggles at restaurants because she wants something “refreshing” to drink. Most of the time, this leaves her with lemonade or soda. Neither of which is very exciting.

The demand is there and these bars are popping up to meet that demand. Long term, I think these business fail. We’ll see more and more mocktails sold at grocery stores and people will be able to find something they want without having to go to a bar and pay more for the same thing they can find at a grocery store. The ones that succeed will be in small pockets where the number of people who are sober AND want a place to congregate and meet people is very high.