Dry January in Chicago: Where to Drink Alcohol-Free

Kumiko is a Japanese dining bar in Chicago's West Loop, opened in 2018 by bartender and restaurateur Julia Momosé, who also leads it as creative director and beverage visionary. Named for the Japanese kumiko woodworking technique reflected in its design, the venue treats food and drink with equal reverence. Its alcohol-free program is a genuine cornerstone: Momosé created a line of zero-proof drinks she calls "Spiritfrees," built from ingredients like shiso-pickled umé, sanshō, yarrow flower, sweet osmanthus, and Japanese seven spice rather than NA spirit brands. Spiritfree is offered both à la carte and as one of four formal tasting-menu pairings, alongside light cocktails, stirred cocktails, and sake. Kumiko won the 2025 James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar and was named World's Best Bar at the 2025 Spirited Awards, and it ranked among North America's 50 Best Bars. Reservations recommended; guests 18 and older.

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.

Andros Taverna is chef Doug Psaltis's Greek restaurant on Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square, built around a wood fire, mezze and slow-roasted lamb, and its drinks menu carries a dedicated Zero Proof section priced at a flat $14 - the same tier as the low-ABV cocktails and only three dollars under the full-proof list. The section holds four drinks: a St Agrestis Phony Negroni, a Ghia Spritz labeled Lime and Salt, the Root and Bloom built from Seedlip Grove with tonic and lime, and an NA 75 of passionfruit and Roots non-alcoholic vermouth. A Gruvi Golden Lager is stocked at $10 for anyone who wants a beer with the grill. The program has been part of the restaurant since its early days and has grown rather than shrunk.

Bungalow by Middle Brow is the Logan Square brewery, bakery and pizzeria that Middle Brow Beer Co. opened after eight years of contract brewing, and it runs a properly built non-alcoholic cocktail list under an N-A heading on its drinks menu. Three house zero-proof drinks anchor it: a Middle Brow Paloma with Lyre's N/A tequila, sudachi and sparkling grapefruit; an Amaro Negroni with Seedlip 94, non-alcoholic Amaro Lucano and Lyre's Red Aperitivo; and a Dark and Stormy with Lyre's N/A dark rum, Pathfinder hemp root amaro, lime and ginger beer. A Fair State Hypercold N/A lager and Leitz Eins Zwei Zero N/A sparkling rose sit beside them. The room opens at 8am for coffee and toast and runs through naturally leavened pizza in the evening.

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.

Miru is the Japanese restaurant on the eleventh floor of the St. Regis Chicago in Lakeshore East, looking out over the mouth of the Chicago River toward Navy Pier and Lake Michigan, and it runs one of the deepest hotel-restaurant zero-proof lists in the city. A Spirit Free heading on the cocktail menu holds six drinks at $14-$16: Setting Sun with fresh yuzu, Valencia orange, lychee and soda; Sunny Day with lemon, passionfruit, rice cordial and ginger beer; an N/A Rita of agave, fresh lime and sea salt; a Phony Negroni Bianco; an N/Aperol Spritz built on Lyre's Italian Orange and Lyre's sparkling; and a Coffee Cloud of Metropolis cold brew, demerara and vanilla. A separate zero-proof wine list carries Prima Pave and Oddbird by the glass and bottle.

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.

Bokeh is a cosy neighbourhood cocktail bar in Albany Park, two blocks north of the Kedzie Brown Line stop, opened in 2019 by a hospitality veteran and former professional photographer who built the room around a photography theme — bokeh being the name for the soft out-of-focus light behind a subject. It was nominated for Neighbourhood Bar of the Year in the Chicago Tribune's 2025 Readers' Choice food awards. Its menu carries a printed "Alcohol-Free Cocktails" section of four drinks at $11, all built from house syrups, jams and fresh juice rather than bought-in zero-proof spirits: Watermelon Man (watermelon juice, mint syrup, lemon), Shinjuku Sweetheart (yuzu, soursop, honey), Echo Mist (chicory syrup, mulberry jam, soda, lemon), and Hi-Potion (lime, lemon, salt, mint), a like-for-like alcohol-free build of the bar's own gin-and-vodka cocktail of the same name. A Deschutes Kernza non-alcoholic lager is $7, and food runs vegetarian-leaning snacks and paninis. The list rotates seasonally.

Dearly Beloved is a self-described "cocktail restaurant" from Machine Hospitality Group, which opened in May 2024 in River North's former Kiki's Bistro space at 900 N Franklin St. The beverage program is led by mixologist and beverage director Aneka Saxon, who sourced ingredients on travels through six countries. Alongside its spirited menu, the venue maintains a permanent "Zero Proof Cocktails" section rather than a one-off list — a commitment Saxon highlights as core to the program. Named non-alcoholic builds include Clearly Cultured (with Seedlip Grove), Understory (Heywell lime adaptogen soda), Fresh Cut Grass (dandelion honey, grasshopper syrup, liquid chlorophyll, lime), and Soda Pop (orgeat, oat milk, coconut soda, orange flower and rose water). A Happy Hour zero-proof option, Zeal Without the Rest, uses the Crodino NA aperitif. In January 2025 the venue hosted Chicago's Spirit-Free Cocktail Fest, pouring eight zero-proof drinks.

Kasama is the Filipino bakery and two-Michelin-starred tasting-menu restaurant on the corner of Winchester and Augusta in Ukrainian Village, a counter-service pastry case by day and a reservation-only dining room at night. Its non-alcoholic offering is structured, not incidental: the evening tasting menu is $325, the beverage pairing $195, and a full non-alcoholic pairing is listed at $95, so a table can be split between drinkers and non-drinkers without anyone dropping out of the format. Resy's guide to Chicago's zero-proof cocktails documented the alcohol-free drinks the kitchen has served alongside the tasting menu, including a yuzu highball, the clarified-watermelon Beekeeper and a Toddy-mansi built on genmaicha tea and calamansi juice. The restaurant also holds a 2023 James Beard Award.

Pilot Project Brewing, opened in August 2019 by co-founders Dan Abel and Jordan Radke, bills itself as the country's first dedicated brewery incubator — a Logan Square tasting room, café, and kitchen that gives startup and minority-owned breweries a launch pad for production and distribution. Its non-alcoholic credentials are unusually deep for a brewery: Pilot Project is the U.S. brewing and distribution partner for Mash Gang, the London NA-beer brand founded by Jordan Childs and James Loveday in 2020. Pilot Project brews Mash Gang's lineup stateside and pours it on tap here, including Journey Juice (a Tajín-spiked mango IPA at 0.5% ABV) and Stoop Lite (a light, chili-and-Szechuan-tinged lager). The rotating Mash Gang range also features Chug (hazy IPA), Glug (cerveza), and the seasonal Lesser Evil (chocolate-cherry stout). Local coffee and tea round out the zero-proof options.

Tzuco is chef Carlos Gaytan's Mexican restaurant on State Street in River North, opened by the James Beard Award winner who was the first Latin American chef to earn a Michelin star, and its cocktail list carries a Spirit Free (Non-Alcohol) section on both the dinner and bar menus. Three drinks sit under it: Daydream, a long build of cucumber water, lime juice, chia seeds and aloe vera juice at $12; On Thyme, made with a non-alcoholic agave spirit, thyme, strawberry, lemon and soda at $15; and an NA Cosmopolitan combining a non-alcoholic agave spirit and an orange aperitif with lime juice, prickly pear syrup and cranberry juice at $15. Seedlip Notas de Agave is also poured neat by the ounce alongside the tequila and mezcal list.

Arbella is a globally inspired cocktail lounge in River North with a dedicated six-drink zero-proof menu, dim lighting, DJ sets, and small plates — a full night out that doesn't require alcohol.

Michelin Green Star–holding pasta restaurant in Logan Square with a dedicated 'Spirit Free Treats' menu built on the same zero-waste, fermentation-forward philosophy that drives the kitchen.

Gilt Bar is the River North restaurant and bar that launched Brendan Sodikoff's Hogsalt group in 2010, a dark, brass-and-leather room that describes itself as dedicated to the pleasures of drinking in restaurants and eating in bars, with a concealed speakeasy called The Library beneath it. Its cocktail menu carries a Spirit-Free heading whose drinks are priced at $14.95, within three dollars of the full-proof list. The Citrus Ritual is built on Ritual's tequila alternative with blood orange, lime, mint and club soda; the Seedlip Sour pairs Seedlip Grove 42 with cranberry; and a St. Agrestis Phony Negroni is poured from the bottle. Resy singled the program out in its guide to Chicago's non-alcoholic cocktails.

Machine Cocktail Bar opened in May 2025 on West Institute Place in River North and treats every drink on its menu as a piece of stagecraft, with the zero-proof ones given exactly the same production values as the spirit-forward list. Breakfast in Bed is built on Seedlip Spice with French toast syrup, pineapple juice, lime juice and a splash of soda at $15; Judgement Free Zone combines watermelon, mango, passion fruit, habanero and lime juice at $13; and Pretty Peas - honeysuckle, sugar snap peas, lime juice and soda - arrives hanging inside a glass globe. The bar keeps late hours on Friday and Saturday, running to 2am, and Block Club Chicago made it a stop on its Dry January sober drink crawl.

The Publican is the European beer-hall-inspired restaurant in Fulton Market known for its raw bar, heritage pork and house charcuterie, and its drinks list carries a named non-alcoholic section called High & Dry. Two built drinks sit under it at $12 each: What's French for "Pineapple", made with Giffard's spiritless pineapple and a house lime cordial, and Fleur de Sangre, which combines Giffard elderflower with a house lemon cordial and San Pellegrino Aranciata Rossa. A non-alcoholic hop water from Fair State Brewing Cooperative is listed at $8 within the beer list itself. Note that the bar offers an optional 5mg THC shot as a $7 add-on and stocks THC sodas separately; the High & Dry drinks are free of THC unless that add-on is requested.

A World's 50 Best Bars honoree tucked in a River North basement, Three Dots and a Dash brings the same obsessive tiki craft to its dedicated mocktail menu that it applies to its rum-forward cocktail program.

The Aviary is the avant-garde cocktail bar of The Alinea Group — the Chicago restaurant empire of Michelin-starred chef Grant Achatz and partner Nick Kokonas — opened in 2011 in the Fulton Market District of the West Loop. It treats drinks with fine-dining rigor, using molecular techniques, custom glassware, and a dedicated ice chef. Critically, its non-alcoholic program is a first-class equal, not an afterthought: every experience, from multi-course cocktail progressions to the à la carte list, is available fully zero-proof, with a dedicated NA pairing menu. The kitchen's commitment runs deep enough that the Alinea Group published "ZERO: A New Approach to Non-Alcoholic Drinks," a book of nearly 100 alcohol-free recipes. Named NA pours include the 310 to Yuzu and the Fill Collins. Accolades include a James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program (2013) and repeated World's 50 Best Bars rankings.

Bar Esmé is the à la carte bar adjoining Esmé, the one-Michelin-star Lincoln Park restaurant opened in August 2021 by chef Jenner Tomaska and his partner Katrina Bravo. Where the flagship serves a tasting menu built around rotating collaborations with artists, the bar is a smaller, more casual route into the same kitchen without committing to the full format. Drinks are led by beverage director Stevan Miller, who also oversees Esmé and the group's French brasserie Petite Edith, and whose stated approach is the reverse of the usual order: non-alcoholic cocktails, he told Third Coast Review in 2026, are something he thinks of before every other part of the menu. A current zero-proof example is Apple Island — apple with habanero and agave, force-carbonated so it lands with the bite of a hard soda. Note that the bar does not publish a working drinks list online, so the rotating menu is best read on arrival, and any zero-proof drinks named in pre-2026 coverage predate the current beverage team. Service runs Wednesday to Sunday from 5pm.

Oriole is chef Noah Sandoval's two-Michelin-starred tasting-menu restaurant in the West Loop, reached through an unmarked back-alley door and a freight elevator, and it is one of the few rooms at that level in Chicago to publish a spirit-free pairing as a first-class option. The restaurant lists three pairings against its $325 tasting menu - spirit free, standard and reserve - with wine director Emily Rosenfeld curating the wine flights and bar director Maddie Balintona building the spirit-free one from creative non-alcoholic beverages made to complement the menu course by course. Cocktails in the dining room are created by Balintona; the wine list, curated by Rosenfeld, is old-world in emphasis with a focus on white wines. Service runs Tuesday to Saturday evenings only.