Seedlip in Indianapolis, IN

Sundry & Vice is an apothecary-themed cocktail bar inside the Bottleworks Hotel at the top of Massachusetts Avenue, opened on 23 October 2021 as the second location of the Cincinnati bar of the same name in Over-the-Rhine. The fit-out runs to pharmacy cabinetry, tincture bottles and a soda-fountain sensibility, and the program is built on house-made syrups, freshly squeezed juice and cocktails on draft. That component-driven approach is why the zero-proof drinks work: The Young and the Spiritless layers Spiritless non-alcoholic bourbon with pineapple, cinnamon, orgeat, plum bitters, mint and ginger beer, and 24 Carrot Magic builds Seedlip Grove over carrot, lemon, pineapple, black pepper and ginger.

16-Bit is a 21-and-over retro arcade bar on East New York Street downtown, where the cabinet games are free to play and the money is made at the bar. That model happens to make it one of the easier nights out in Indianapolis for someone who is not drinking, because the reason to be there is the arcade rather than the round. The non-alcoholic list is longer than most bars manage and every drink is named in the same register as the cocktails: Kissed By A Rose is built on Seedlip Garden 108 with hibiscus, lemon, rose and mint, Gym Class Zero runs desert pear with lime and tonic, and Pinky and the Brain, Optimus Prime and Lisa Simpson fill out the simpler end.

Union Jack Pub is a long-running British-styled pizza pub on Broad Ripple Avenue, and one of the neighbourhood's fixtures. Its non-alcoholic offer is narrower than a cocktail bar's but properly made: the Elderflower Garden builds Seedlip Garden — the pea and garden-herb expression of the London non-alcoholic distillate — over an elderflower simple syrup and tonic, which drinks like a proper gin and tonic substitute rather than a sweet mocktail. It is an all-day room, open from 11am on weekdays and 10am at weekends, which makes it usable for lunch as well as an evening. The company's Speedway location, open 41 years, closed permanently; the Broad Ripple pub is the one still trading.

Cholita is a Los Angeles-style taqueria on Broad Ripple Avenue serving tacos and Mexican street food, with a bar that takes its non-alcoholic drinks seriously enough to build them from a proper base. The Fauxjito is the drink Indy Maven picked out: Seedlip Garden 108 — the herbal expression made from peas, rosemary, thyme and spearmint — worked into a mojito structure with lime and mint, so the herbal weight comes from the distillate rather than from sugar. In a neighbourhood whose bar scene runs heavily to margaritas and late-night drinking, a restaurant with a competent zero-proof build and a full dinner menu is a genuinely useful thing to know about.