Dry January in Denver: Where to Drink Alcohol-Free

Honey Elixir Bar is a wellness-forward elixir lounge tucked into the art-covered alley behind Denver Central Market in RiNo, opened in 2019 by Jocasta Hanson. The bar's animating principle is 'rejuvenation over depletion' — by day, the menu runs cacao, jun (a fermented honey tea similar to kombucha but built on honey instead of sugar), kefirs, smoothies, matcha, and chai; by night, it shifts into apothecary cocktails and a full lineup of NA potions, all made with organic herbs, botanicals, raw honey in place of sugar, and adaptogens including lion's mane, chaga, reishi, mucuna pruriens, and Shatavari. The NA potions are unlike anything else in Denver: drinks like the Radiant Roots (turmeric, ginger, house-made jasmine rice milk, oat milk, honey, vanilla) and the Love Spell (hibiscus, blueberry, star anise, shatavari, damiana, rose, violette) come garnished with actual crystals — citrine, rose quartz, rainbow lemurian — and flowers including gardenia, pink yarrow, linden, and cherry blossom. The space is a retro velvet-forward lounge that doubles as a rotating gallery for Denver artists, with a retail section for local makers. Music event nights run every other Friday; regular service is 18+, music nights are 21+. Featured in Westword's January 2026 NA roundup and 5280 Magazine's restaurant guide.

Point Easy is a chef-driven New American restaurant in Denver's Whittier neighborhood, opened on June 29, 2022 in the former Whittier Pub space at the corner of East 28th Avenue and Williams Street. The owners are Andy Bruch and brothers Dan and Dennis "Denn" Phelps, alumni of the Kitchen Restaurant Group in Boulder who had developed the concept years before the pandemic delayed it; Denn Phelps, who wrote the opening menu, died unexpectedly on July 22, 2022, weeks after the doors opened, and the team has run the restaurant in his memory since. The kitchen is now led by executive chef Reuben Tomlins, with Richard Long as general manager. The menu is seasonal and farm-driven with a house-made pasta program, and the wine list favours biodynamic and small-producer bottles. The bar keeps a headed 0% ABV section of six drinks on its own published menu, from a fermented pineapple tepache and a Colorado-made non-alcoholic crabapple cider to cocktails built on Dr Zero Zero amaro, Citadel non-alcoholic gin and Giffard elderflower non-alcoholic liqueur, and the bar's Get Fed service will build a drink to a guest's stated preferences.

Williams & Graham is a Prohibition-style speakeasy in Denver's LoHi neighborhood, entered through a hidden door disguised as a bookcase in a faux bookstore. Bartender Sean Kenyon opened it in 2011 with partner Todd Colehour, and it has become one of the country's most decorated bars — a James Beard nominee for Outstanding Beverage Program, a World's 50 Best Bars listee and a Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards winner. Alongside its classics it keeps a standing "Temperance" section of seven zero-proof options priced $8 to $12 and built on serious non-alcoholic spirits: Staycation (The Pathfinder, chocolate and roasted corn, Coco Lopez), My Bitter Clementine (Earl Grey, clementine shrub, Giffard aperitif, lemon), Heat Seeker (Three Spirit Nightcap, Amass Riverine, lime, gochujang and tea, Coco Lopez, cucumber), Imposter Syndrome (Giffard aperitif, The Pathfinder, Giesen zero-proof sauvignon blanc, strawberry rose living vinegar), Windowshopper, Passionate Earl and three house-made sodas. A second outpost operates at Denver International Airport.

El Five is a fifth-floor rooftop Mediterranean tapas restaurant in Denver's LoHi neighborhood, opened on May 3, 2017 by chef and restaurateur Justin Cucci as part of the employee-owned Edible Beats group. The dining room and open-air patio look across the downtown Denver skyline, and the menu draws on Spain, North Africa and the Middle East: paella, mezze, spreads, kebabs and croquettas. The current dinner menu carries a dedicated Zero-Proof Cocktails section rather than a token option. It runs the Faux Fashioned (Three Spirit Nightcap, spiced piloncillo, Turkish tobacco bitters), the Faux Negroni (Lyre's zero-proof spirit, verjus blanc, aperitif syrup, orange zest), the Scarlet Shrub (strawberry, pink peppercorn, champagne vinegar, soda) and a seasonal Faux Sangria, plus three of the bar's gin and tonics made zero-proof with Lyre's. Executive chef is Corey Ferguson. Dinner reservations are recommended, especially for the patio.

Fellow Traveler is a fully vegan bar and cafe that opened in January 2022 at 3487 South Broadway in Englewood, just south of Denver, from a team including former Sputnik bartender Joe Phillips. It is celebrated for a deep collection of roughly forty amari and bitter liqueurs, but it also runs one of the inner metro's most developed zero-proof programs: a dedicated Zero Proof cocktail list alongside non-alcoholic beer and wine. Named alcohol-free pours include Nectar of the Gods (grapefruit, lemon, pickle brine, simple and soda), Billows & Thieves (grapefruit, lemon, cold brew, cardamom-cinnamon syrup), the N/agroni (Sanbitter, tart cherry, juniper syrup) and the N/alort, the house zero-proof answer to Malort, plus a Rosemary Peach Bellini, an Agua de Jamaica and a tart cherry, lemon and ginger health shot. 5280 flagged its "great nonalcoholic cocktail choices," and Westword named it Best You'd-Never-Know-It's-Vegan Restaurant in 2025.

Yacht Club is a 2021-founded neighborhood bar in Denver's Cole neighborhood, co-owned by McLain Hedges and Mary Alison Wright. The 'anti-club club' concept sits at the crossroads of upscale cocktail haunt, natural wine bar, and beloved dive bar — with hot dogs and dim-sum-style snacks rounding out the food offering. The bar debuted on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2023 and won the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award at North America's 50 Best Bars the same year, recognized for sustainability initiatives including fermentation programs that extend the shelf life of seasonal ingredients. The non-alcoholic program is featured on the menu under 'soft bangers' and has been covered in detail by Visit Denver's December 2025 spirit-free roundup (the Paradise Waits — green pineapple, Lyre's white cane, celery, lime, curry leaf) and Sober Bars Finder's Denver mocktails feature (the Friends In Low Places — Three Spirit Nightcap, Late Harvest Verjus, coffee, N.O.T. Chocolate Vinegar). The split-based, wine-forward cocktail philosophy that defines the alcoholic menu extends to the NA program: thoughtful, ingredient-driven, and far from the standard mocktail playbook.

Adrift Tiki Bar is an immersive Polynesian and Caribbean-inspired tiki bar on South Broadway in Denver, established in 2011 and bought in 2016 by current owner Loren Martinez, who also runs Little Man Ice Cream. The room is a full tropical build: a totem-pole-flanked bar, pufferfish lights, and an outdoor patio with a firepit, with a kitchen turning out spice-route Polynesian and Caribbean plates to match the rum-forward list. The menu carries a dedicated "On Dry Land (No ABV)" section — Anchored Tides (ginger, lime, demerara, Leopold Bros non-alcoholic aperitif), the N/A Mai Tai and N/A Painkiller (both built on Ritual N/A Rum), and the P.O.G. of passion fruit, orange and guava — plus a Mash Gang non-alcoholic IPA. A separate "In Shallow Water" section lists low-ABV cocktails for guests moderating rather than abstaining. Vince Polizzi is bar manager.

Death & Co Denver is the second outpost of the New York cocktail bar, opened in 2018 inside The Ramble Hotel in Denver's River North Art District. Founders David Kaplan, Alex Day and Ravi DeRossi opened the original Death & Co in a windowless Manhattan room in 2007, where it helped lead the modern craft cocktail movement. The Denver location is a multi-bar complex within the boutique hotel: the marquee lobby bar with 1930s decor and plush velvet seating, the DC/AM coffee and brunch bar serving 7am to 3pm daily, the seasonal outdoor Garden, and Suite 6A, a mezzanine lounge overlooking the lobby bar. The bar keeps a standing Zero Proof section on its Denver menu, currently the Vibe Shift, Porch Swing, Business Casual and Cap Gun, alongside non-alcoholic wine and beer. Opening bar manager Alex Jump, since departed to open The Peach Crease Club, is widely credited as a founding figure of Denver's modern non-alcoholic bar scene.

Lady Jane is a neighborhood cocktail bar on West 32nd Avenue in Denver's LoHi (Lower Highlands), established in 2018 and known for a menu that rotates frequently and a collaborative bar team led by general manager Stuart Weaver. Westword has described the non-alcoholic program as having "a permanent place" on the menu rather than being a Dry January promotion, and the current list keeps four built zero-proof drinks at a flat $12 alongside the spirited cocktails: the Grapehojicha Swizzle (Three Spirit Livener, Concord grape, Giffard pineapple shrub, pineapple, hojicha tea, lime), the Pineapple Nogroni (AMASS Riverine, Giffard bitter aperitif, pineapple, Leopold Bros non-alcoholic aperitivo), the Cucumber Spritz (UNDONE Little French Aperitif, cucumber, matcha honey, soda) and Morning Bun & Coffee (The Pathfinder Hemp & Root, Three Spirit Nightcap, cold brew, morning bun syrup, cardamom). The bar was named Reader's Choice Best Bar in 5280's Top of the Town 2023 awards, and operates mainly first-come first-served.

Nocturne Jazz & Supper Club is a modern jazz and supper club opened in 2015 by Nicole and Scott Mattson, set inside a restored early 20th-century warehouse in Denver's RiNo Arts District. The two-level art deco space — designed for the acoustics of its raw steel and tall wood ceilings, with a mezzanine overlooking the stage — features live jazz nightly Wednesday through Sunday, including an Artist-in-Residency programming where artists explore a single musical icon, genre, or original work across a four-to-eight-week run. The dinner program is built as 'Dinner and a Show' — a three-course seasonal menu paired with the evening's music — and Nocturne is the only venue in Colorado to feature jazz programming exclusively. The non-alcoholic offering is just as intentional as the live music: the seasonally-rotating 'Ain't Misbehavin'' menu is a curated collection of four original NA cocktails, available à la carte at the bar or paired with the dinner menu. Current and recent named selections include the Violet Suede (Lyre's N/A gin, verjus, aquafaba, blueberry pink peppercorn syrup), Crimson & Clover (Lyre's London Dry N/A gin, spiced cranberry syrup, soda), Cha Cha Chai (chai-infused Seedlip 94, rosemary, coconut water, cranberry, lemon, orange), and Golden Harmony (Lyre's White Cane Spirit, Seedlip Garden 108, tamarind, verjus, orange, spice whipped honey). A Billie Holiday mural by Denver street artist Detour marks the entrance. A per-guest artist fee is added to checks to support the performing musicians.

Poka Lola Social Club is a cocktail bar inside The Maven Hotel at Dairy Block in Denver's LoDo (Lower Downtown) neighborhood, with a concept that blends art-deco elegance and Midwestern soda-shop nostalgia inspired by turn-of-the-century American soda fountain culture. Beverage manager Lexi Parker runs a seasonal cocktail program built around fresh produce — recent menus have featured ingredients like ube, lychee, snap peas, turmeric, and pink peppercorn-infused spirits. The bar maintains a dedicated non-alcoholic cocktail menu on its own website, which turns over with the seasons: the current list runs Water Your Garden (La Borosa non-alcoholic agave spirit, Giffard NA aperitif, herbes de Provence, lemon), Sandy Cheeks (house coconut cream, pineapple, lime), Walking on Sunshine (strawberry, honey, mint, lemon), and Rootin' Tootin' (sarsaparilla, molasses, wintergreen, star anise). The venue features live music, an alley bar that opens for warm-weather seating, and a 'Dealer's Choice' option where the bar crew creates a custom cocktail based on the guest's preferences.

Retrograde is a retro-futuristic cocktail lounge hidden behind the freezer door of Sweet Action Ice Cream on East 19th Avenue in Denver's Uptown. Guests flip a light switch by the door to signal staff, then enter a dim room styled with mid-century furniture, cosmic detailing and cult films projected on the walls. The cocktail list is named after B-movies, and the non-alcoholic list follows the same conceit: the current board, titled "Invasion of the Pod People", carries four built non-alcoholic cocktails rather than a single bartender's-choice option. They are Forbidden Texture (apple custard, toasted sugar, aromatic bitters, aqua faba), Low Orbit (apple, orange, marshmallow), The Thing on the Rocks (American oak tea, pear core, aromatic bitters) and The Day the Juice Stood Still (clarified orange juice, cold pear, lemon, sobacha, soda water). Retrograde is 21+, first-come first-served with no reservations, and caps parties at five.

The Peach Crease Club is a mid-century-inspired vinyl listening bar in Denver's RiNo district, across the plaza from Mission Ballroom, opened November 28, 2025 by husband-and-wife bartenders Alex Jump and Stuart Jensen. The culinary-driven cocktail list names drinks after the dishes they reference, and — crucially for non-drinkers — the menu prints the alcohol-by-volume of every drink and marks those that can be built non-alcoholic, with a full Non Alc page carrying four cocktails of their own: Green Curry (non-alcoholic rum, curry spices, palm sugar, rice, coconut, MSG, soda), Peanuts & Cola (The Pathfinder, Three Spirit Nitecap, peanuts, cola), Borscht (non-alcoholic vodka, beets, yogurt, dill, lime, horseradish cream) and Hazelnut & Peaches (non-alcoholic white wine and French aperitif, peaches, sweet potato, dukkah). Non-alcoholic beer, wine and Casamara Club sodas are listed alongside. It earned a 2026 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards nomination for Best New US Cocktail Bar.

Briar Common is a brewery and restaurant on the corner of Clay Street in Jefferson Park, a short walk from Empower Field, focused on classic beer styles paired with an eclectic food menu. Its bar list carries a dedicated "Zero Proof" heading with six house non-alcoholic drinks at $7 each — all built from fresh juices, house syrups and teas rather than bought-in mixers — plus a guest non-alcoholic beer shelf at $6 that runs Best Day Brewing's Electro-Lime and West Coast IPA alongside 4 Noses Camp Zero Tangerine Guava Blonde. The zero-proof list includes a colour-changing lemonade made with butterfly pea blossom syrup and a hot chamomile-and-honey drink, so the range covers a full evening rather than one token option.

Forget Me Not is a cocktail lounge tucked off Clayton Street in Cherry Creek North, opened in 2019 with a bright, floral-leaning room and a small-plates menu of salmon crudo, street corn dip and wagyu steak tartare. Its drinks list carries a standing "Zero Proof" heading rather than a footnote, with three house non-alcoholic cocktails priced at $13 — the same tier as much of the low-ABV list — that rotate with the seasons. All three are built on Seedlip non-alcoholic spirits and treated as compositions rather than juice: the earthy Deep Roots, the herbal Green Machine and the floral Osaka Afternoon. Both 5280 and Visit Denver have singled the bar out for its zero-proof program.

Gold Point is a whiskey-forward neighbourhood bar on Larimer Street in Five Points, known locally as an industry hangout where bartenders drink after their shifts, with a patio and no pretension. Despite the reputation, it keeps a standing "Non-Alcoholic" heading on its own drink menu alongside cocktails, cans and bottles, wine and combos. The three house zero-proof drinks are built on non-alcoholic spirits rather than juice, and priced at $11 to $12: a fruity non-alcoholic French 75 made with Ritual gin, a Phony Negroni, and a tropical bitter spritz built on The Pathfinder hemp spirit. The bar also stocks Athletic Brewing's Atletica Mexican-style lager and Three Spirit Spark by the can. It opens at 4pm on weekdays, 2pm at weekends, and trades to 2am daily.

The Tatarian is a contemporary neighbourhood cocktail bar on Tennyson Street in Berkeley, opened in 2018 and named for the Tatarian maples that shade the sidewalks outside. Its drinks are themed around trees of the world, and the theme extends into the non-alcoholic list: the house zero-proof cocktail, Luna, is named in honour of the activist Julia Butterfly Hill, who occupied a thousand-year-old California redwood to stop it being logged. Unusually for a Denver bar, the back bar carries non-alcoholic spirits as stocked bottles rather than as a single house pour — CleanCo Tequila Blanco, Lyre's London Spirit and Seedlip Garden 108 are all listed by the glass — alongside Partake's non-alcoholic IPA. 303 Magazine picked the bar out in its 2025 sober-summer guide.

Beckon is a Michelin-starred, 18-seat chef's counter in Denver's RiNo neighborhood, opened in 2018 by chef and owner Duncan Holmes, a James Beard Award semifinalist. Diners sit facing the open kitchen for a multi-course, reservation-only seasonal tasting menu that changes through the year, with produce coming in part from the restaurant's own one-acre farm. Beyond the wine list, the beverage menu carries a labelled Zero Proof section built to track the food rather than to sit beside it: First Ascent (passion fruit, almond, ginger beer) and Starry Maid (flowering coriander, hibiscus, Seedlip Grove 42, Ghia non-alcoholic aperitivo, lime, faba), both at $10. Allison Anderson of Beckon won the Michelin Guide Colorado Service Award in 2024. It is a fine-dining counter rather than a walk-in bar; book ahead.

Chez Maggy is the ground-floor French restaurant of the Thompson Denver hotel on Market Street, and the first restaurant outside Los Angeles from Michelin-starred chef Ludo Lefebvre. It is named for Lefebvre's late mother-in-law Margaret, a Colorado native who was killed by a drunk driver in 2019 — context that gives the restaurant's zero-proof list more weight than a hotel bar's usual courtesy offering. Visit Denver describes a delectable selection of zero-proof cocktails, naming the Earl Grey Bliss, built on tea-infused Ritual zero-proof gin with lemon and honey, and a St. Agrestis Phony Negroni made with the brand's non-alcoholic mezcal. The kitchen applies the same approach to the food, cooking classic French dishes with Colorado ingredients. Bar M, in the hotel lobby, is the companion cocktail room.

Dew Drop Inn is a women-owned gastropub at 17th and Downing in Denver's Uptown neighborhood, opened in 2021 by the team behind two of Denver's classic dive bars — the Horseshoe Lounge and the Embassy Tavern. Named Westword's Best New Bar in 2022, the venue blends a neighborhood-bar warmth (all-day $8 beer-and-shot specials, two daily happy hours running open–6pm and 10pm–close) with a serious gastropub program: Bangkok-style mussels, charcuterie, muffuletta, fried chicken, with 85% of the menu prepared gluten-free. The bar runs a named non-alcoholic program called 'clear-headed cocktails' — six rotating NA cocktails alongside two NA beers and a non-alcoholic prosecco, called out by 303 Magazine in their 2025 Sober Summer mocktail roundup. Named NA selections include the Be Nice (NA gin, lavender bitters) and the Cosmonaught (orange liqueur, cranberry, citrus). The space — tiger-print wallpaper, exposed brick, long wooden bar — is consciously designed to 'make regulars,' a philosophy the founding team has carried through 20 years of Denver hospitality.

Wildflower is the restaurant of the Gravity Haus Denver hotel on Navajo Street in Highland, serving locally-sourced, carefully curated dishes and listed in the Michelin Guide. Its non-alcoholic list is short but built with the same technique as the cocktails: Westword describes the El Corazón as melding coconut, lemon, orgeat and hoja santa, the Mexican herb whose flavour runs close to root beer, and the Padre Pio as combining chamomile honey, lavender and lemon. A sparkling green tea rounds out the list. The pairing of a hotel restaurant with an outdoor-focused hospitality group means the room draws a mixed crowd, and the drinks are priced and presented alongside the full-proof list rather than tucked away. Wildflower serves dinner Monday to Saturday and closes on Sundays.