Athletic Brewing in Kansas City, MO

Cliff's Taphouse is a neighborhood bar and restaurant in Kansas City's Martini Corner, opened in 2021 by Larry Kime, a former manager of the South Plaza institution Nick & Jake's. It took over the former Ollie's Local space at 3044 Gillham Road, leaning on a dozen-plus local taps, scratch American food, and a deliberately inclusive, family-style atmosphere — the name honors a Chicago beat cop who "welcomed all into his world." Though best known for fully-leaded craft beer dinners, the bar keeps a standing, clearly-labeled non-alcoholic section: Athletic Brewing IPA and Hazy IPA, Boulevard Quirk Superfruit N/A, Guinness 0, Heineken 0.0, Paulaner Weizen Radler, and Border Baseline Pale Ale, mostly $6–$7. Several house cocktails — Eva's Bourbon Berry Smash, Bucky's Botanicals, and Chan's Brew — can be made as mocktails on request.

Le Lounge is the intimate cocktail bar inside No Vacancy, an eight-room boutique guesthouse on the corner of 18th and Wyandotte in Kansas City's Crossroads Arts District. Conceived as "a love letter to the lobby bar," it leans into traditional hotel-bar elegance: a marble-topped island, café tables, lounge seating, and cinematic lighting. The bar opened in 2024 and was later moved to a more accessible ground-floor space within the same red-brick building. It is open to walk-ins and reservations, not just hotel guests. Alongside an ambitious craft-cocktail program — lead bartenders have used liquid nitrogen to keep martini glasses cold — Le Lounge maintains a small but genuine non-alcoholic offering, including the Sober Lush (a grapefruit, citrus, and jalapeño mocktail) and a non-alcoholic golden ale from Athletic Brewing. It opens Thursday through Saturday evenings, with no cover charge.

Boulevard Brewing Co. is Missouri's largest craft brewery, founded by John McDonald along Kansas City's historic Southwest Boulevard, where the first beer was brewed in the fall of 1989; it was acquired by Belgium's Duvel Moortgat in 2013. Its public-facing Beer Hall is a 10,000-square-foot, second-floor taproom pouring 30 rotating taps with sweeping city views. For non-drinkers, Boulevard makes its own zero-proof IPA, Flying Start (0.5% ABV), a hop-forward NA beer produced in collaboration with Athletic Brewing and available both on draft and in cans to take home. The Beer Hall also pours Quirk Hard Seltzer's non-alcoholic superfruit seltzer and a non-alcoholic lemon wheat, giving sober visitors a genuine taproom experience without the alcohol. The space is family-friendly and card-only.