Athletic Brewing in Baltimore, MD

Brendan Dorr and Eric Fooy opened Dutch Courage in 2019 as Baltimore's first gin-centric cocktail bar, filling a 1,500-square-foot rowhouse on North Charles with roughly 150 bottles of gin, genever and old tom, plus a private courtyard out back. The printed menu carries a boxed Spirit Free section rather than an afterthought list: the N.A. Groni (Giffard's NA aperitif, botanical 'gin' sirop, Tortuga jasmine kombucha, orange bitters and orange oil), the First Lady with Seedlip Grove 42 and Opia NA sparkling chardonnay, the Bird of Paradise on Ritual NA rum with Roots Divino Rosso and pineapple gum, and the Clear Cityscape stirring Ritual NA whiskey with Pathfinder NA amaro. Two NA wines by the glass, Athletic Upside Dawn and Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher round out the section. The zero-proof cocktails run $13-14 — the same as the gin cocktails a few pages earlier, which tells you how the bar files them.

Gunther & Co. has run on Brewers Hill's Toone Street for a decade under executive chef Jerry Trice — a Culinary Institute of America graduate who previously led Yin Yankee in Annapolis and Bethesda — and director of operations Nancy Hart Trice, who designed the restaurant out of raw space. The drinks menu carries a standing 'Zero Proof Cocktails' section rather than an on-request afterthought: the Amalfi Spritz builds a house-made zero-proof 'Amalfi' aperitif over Lyre's NA sparkling wine and soda, while A Highball Strike and Rose of Althea are built on house-made shrubs — blood orange, carrot and saffron for the first, hibiscus and lime for the second — priced $6 to $12. The bar backs that with eight non-alcoholic beers, including Go Brewing's New School Sour, Athletic Brewing's Upside Dawn Golden, Brooklyn's Special Effects IPA, Patagonia's Black Butte Porter and Estrella Galicia 0.0. The kitchen runs modern American on local and seasonal sourcing, and a 3% 'Labor of Love' service charge funds employee health insurance and benefits.

Pink Flamingo is a rum-focused tropical tavern that Dutch Courage co-owners Brendan Dorr and Eric Fooy opened in April 2025 in the Remington building that ran as Dizzy Issie's from 1937, became The Dizz in 1997, and sat shuttered after closing in fall 2019. Its Spirit Free list is a standing section of the menu rather than an on-request favor: the Road Less Traveled builds Pathfinder N/A amaro into a mule with blood orange-Calabrian chile honey, lime and ginger beer, while The Shallows pours Lyre's N.A. cane spirit with fassionola and All The Bitter aromatic bitters. If The Shoe Fitz mixes Mionetto N/A prosecco with aperitif and soda water, and a Yuzu-Thai Basil-Limeade rounds out the zero-proof cocktails alongside NA cans from Athletic, Best Day and Lagunitas. Bar manager Nick Pikounis told PUNCH the Road Less Traveled is the bar's single most-ordered N/A drink. The bar was named a 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Bar.

Sally O's is a cozy corner bar in Highlandtown with a from-scratch kitchen and a handful of named spirit-free drinks rather than an on-request afterthought. The Sun Tropics leans tropical with island fruit, agave and a squeeze of lime, and Athletic Brewing's Free Wave Hazy IPA holds down the non-alcoholic beer slot.