A bar scene without alcohol?
Such spaces are becoming a thing in the Indianapolis area.
We’ve got bars with craft cocktails made without alcohol. A bottle shop is selling noting but non-alcoholic spirits, beer and wine recently opened.
And now a major piece of the sober curious movement moves in with the opening of a spirits-free lounge early in 2023.
Memento Zero Proof, at the First Internet Bank of Indiana building, 8701 E. 116th St. in Fishers, will serve craft cocktails, beer, wine, espresso drinks and cold brew — with nary a drop of alcohol in the place.
The idea for the 1,500-square-foot coffee bar and cocktail bar came from the involvement of co-owners Shwa Hall and Max Gavin in another business.
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Hall, 24, and Gavin, 23, friends since they were students at Fishers Junior High, had co-founded a Fountain Square recording studio and had found they had few places to visit to unwind after work.
“We would spend all day working on laptops and business plans and marketing plans and then the coffee shops would close,” Hall said.
Hall, who has worked as a barista at several shops, had it in mind to open a coffee shop that also served mocktails. Research into non-alcoholic drinks and their growing popularity convinced him to consider a different mix of offerings.
“It switched gears to healthy alternatives and an alternative for people who are in recovery and abstain for any reasons,” he said.
In 2021, he shared his idea with Gavin, who had lost a relative to alcoholism and had decided to stop drinking. Gavin wanted in.
“The coffee shop is great, but we have a lot of coffee shops already,” Gavin said. “We really just wanted to create a space for people to go, even if you’re not sober all the time. We wanted to provide a space for those people to go and have fun and hang out with their friends without feeling the pressure of it all.”
Booze-free cocktails
Memento is likely to have 10 craft cocktails, four to six beer options and just as many wines. Fort Wayne-based 2Toms Brewing is among the non-alcoholic beers to be on tap.
Hall and Gavin are creating cocktail recipes. Traditional bar drinks (Manhattan, amaretto sour) will be available but off the menu.
A bar bites menu also is in the works.
Both coffee and non-alcoholic cocktails and drinks will be offered throughout the day, but the lounge will take on a more clubby vibe in the evenings, with entertainment including open mike nights, karaoke and board games.
The project will cost about $220,000, with a Kickstarter campaign having just launched to help fund it.
Hall and Gavin left the studio early this year to concentrate on Memento.
Gavin is a manager at a vape shop; and Hall works as a barista in a Noble Coffee & Tea Co., which roasts chocolate wedding cake and strawberry shortcake coffee for Memento and has allowed the Memento to sell coffee-inspired clothing from the shop.
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Drinking less
Health consciousness is a major factor in more moderate alcohol consumption, according to The Food Institute; and the demand for non-alcoholic beverages grew 60% from July 2020 to 2021.
While both Gen Z and millennials are more deliberate drinkers — 40% four are mindful about how much they’re drinking and 30% are actively limiting their intake — 84% of Gen Z shoppers are buying alcohol compared to 90% of millennials, according to consumer research firm Numerator. The younger generation considers drinking to be more about socializing than millennials.
“Our generation seems to be more conscious,” Hall said, “about what we are putting into our bodies.”
That has more places are aiming to meet the call for alcohol-free experiences.
Hotel Indy’s The Cannonball Lounge, 141 Washington St., opened in downtown Indianapolis in 2021 with a commitment to serving sophisticated spirit-free cocktails to the point where the bar’s signature cocktail was alcohol-free.
Groups have…