Athletic Brewing in Chicago, IL

Billy Sunday is an award-winning craft cocktail bar that opened in 2013 in Chicago's Logan Square, part of chef Matthias Merges' Folkart Management group. The bar is best known for one of North America's largest collections of vintage fernet and amaro — bartender Alex Bachman's deeply researched back bar earned a place in James Beard Award-winning author Brad Thomas Parsons' book on amaro. While the cocktail list is spirit-forward, the menu also carries a dedicated "Spirit Free" section. Named zero-proof options include the Lupine Lady (lavender- and thyme-infused verjus, lime, mint, basil, and sparkling water) and an Italian Cream Soda (cola reduction, stewed cherries, cream, nutmeg, and Perrier). The bar also pours a rotating Athletic Brewing non-alcoholic beer alongside house-fermented sodas (note: the house sodas contain trace amounts of alcohol).

Bar None is a zero-proof evening bar in Chicago's West Loop, running Friday to Sunday from 5pm to 11pm inside Froth, the coffee cafe in the lobby of The Duncan at 1515 W Monroe St. It launched on 28 February 2026 from Heritage Hospitality Group, the team behind Froth, with beverage director Luke Nevin-Gattle (previously Bunker and Larry's). Every cocktail is genuinely alcohol-free, built on real NA spirits at $13 — a St. Agrestis Phony Negroni, an espresso martini with Ritual rum alternative and Pathfinder, Good Vibrations with Ritual gin alternative and Giffard elderflower, a spicy margarita with Ritual agave and Lyre's Italian orange, and a Gold Rush — alongside nine non-alcoholic beers and ciders at $6 and Leitz Eins Zwei Zero wines at $9. IMPORTANT: the venue brands itself a THC-integrated sober lounge. Any cocktail can be upgraded with a 2.5mg THC microdose for $4, and it sells 5mg THC seltzers at $9. The alcohol-free drinks stand on their own, but anyone avoiding all intoxicants should order without the upgrade and skip the seltzers.

The Loyalist is a chef-driven restaurant and bar at 177 N Ada Street in Chicago's West Loop, occupying the garden level beneath Smyth, its three-Michelin-starred sibling, both run by husband-and-wife chefs John Shields and Karen Urie Shields. It opened in summer 2016 and is best known for a dry-aged burger that has appeared on national best-of lists, now served as The French Smash with herb butter, cornichon, mornay and frites. Its non-alcoholic list is a full section headed "Spirit Free Cocktails", six drinks at a flat $12, each built on a real zero-proof base rather than juice: Bright & Refreshing (AMASS Riverine, chamomile, lemon, lovage, NA prosecco), Herbal & Citrus (Seedlip Garden, basil, yuzu, ginger), Juicy (Seedlip Grove, pineapple, smoked morita pepper, lime), All Barq's No Bite (St. Agrestis Amaro Falso, vanilla bean foam), Italian Spritz (Lyre's orange, NA prosecco, bubbles) and Velvety & Smooth (Lyre's Amaretti, almond orgeat, lemon, lime, egg white — note the egg white is not vegan). Dinner runs Monday to Saturday, 5–10pm, with reservations through Tock.

The California Clipper is Humboldt Park's longest-standing neighborhood bar, established in 1937 in a building that has stood at California and Augusta since 1912, and it carries one of the deepest non-alcoholic lists of any old-line Chicago tavern. The drink menu keeps a standing Non-Alcoholic section rather than a token substitution: two built zero-proof cocktails - the Last Call N/A with Seedlip Notas de Agave, white peach and lemon, and the Choomjito N/A - plus bottled Lyre's Prosecco, Amalfi Spritz and gin and tonic, a St Agrestis Phony Negroni, Athletic Brewing hazy IPA, Old Mil N/A lager and yerba mate. Note that the Choomjito and the Choom soda contain THC and the Chelsea B soda contains CBD; the rest of the list is free of both.

Estereo is the Latin-American all-day bar from Heisler Hospitality on Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square, known for one of Chicago's most serious agave spirits lists and, alongside it, a standing Non-Alcoholic section on the same printed menu. Two of its zero-proof pours are built in-house: a tepache of pineapple, black pepper, cloves, piloncillo and Rare Tea Cellar Mallorca melon tea, and an agua fresca of Seedling Farms tart cherries and mint. Two are mixed drinks - a Rosemary Spritz with rosemary syrup, lime and Martini and Rossi Floreale, and a Three Spirits Mule with ginger syrup, pina, lime and Three Spirits Nightcap. Athletic Brewing's Atletica NA copper ale and Lagunitas hop water complete the list, and the house coffee cocktail has a stated NA version.