Lucky Saint in Manchester, England

Hinterland is Manchester's only permanent, purpose-built fully alcohol-free bar and vegan café, tucked into the basement of the Manchester Buddhist Centre in the Northern Quarter. Opened in June 2024 as a registered community interest company, it was founded by Stephen Jeffreys — drawing on his own recovery — with friends from the Buddhist Centre. The menu runs to eight alcohol-free cocktails alongside no- and low-alcohol beers, wines, ciders, kombucha and speciality teas, with vegan food from the Wholesome Junkies pop-up kitchen. Expect live music, spoken word and sober socials in a calm, dark-green room.

Schofield's Bar is the eponymous City Centre venue of award-winning bartender brothers Joe and Daniel Schofield, set on the art deco corner of 1930s Sunlight House. Widely regarded as one of the UK's most decorated cocktail bars, it gives its non-alcoholic drinking a dedicated 'Temperance' section on the main menu, poured with the same care as its cocktails. Current alcohol-free serves include the Dove (rose, pink grapefruit soda, lime), El Ranchero (apple, nutmeg, lemon, vanilla, almond, soda), Fortuna (cranberry, ginger, raspberry, grenadine, lime) and a from-scratch Virgin Mary, alongside Lucky Saint 0.5%, homemade ginger beer and a spread of Fentimans.

Red Light is a discreet, female-owned, LGBTQ+-inclusive basement cocktail bar hidden behind the red-brick façades and cobbled walkways of Kampus, in a converted Victorian warehouse on the edge of Manchester's Gay Village. It opened in May 2023 from Deana Ferguson, a longtime Manchester hospitality figure previously at Ducie Street Warehouse and Hawksmoor, who set out to build a proudly queer bar pairing incredible drinks with top-notch service. There is no signage beyond a single red light glowing on Little David Street, a nod to the area's hidden history, and the room has earned a place on the Top 50 UK Cocktail Bars list — intimate and low-lit, with plush booths, queer local artwork on the walls and a disco-leaning soundtrack. The zero-proof drinks are built like the full-strength list, from house-made acidulated juices, seasonal sorbets and specialist 0% spirits, and treated as equals. Just don't call them mocktails.

Hawksmoor Manchester is the acclaimed British steak-and-seafood group's Deansgate restaurant, set in a landmark former bank a short walk from Spinningfields. Alongside its charcoal-grilled, dry-aged native-breed beef and grand banking-hall dining room, it keeps a genuine, named alcohol-free cocktail list — the 'Lo & No Alc' section, part of the group's wider 'Temperates' philosophy of what to drink when you're not drinking. Zero-proof builds run from Steady Pete's Ginger Brew (Tanqueray 0.0 and Lucky Saint IPA) and a Non-Alc Cherry Negroni with Lyre's Amaretti to the Afterburner, made with Botivo and Almave non-alcoholic agave spirit. Homemade sodas and a grown-up Shirley Temple riff round out a list built with the same care as the full bar.