Dry January in Los Angeles: Where to Drink Alcohol-Free

The Rendition Room is a 1930s-style speakeasy hidden in the basement of Vitello's, the Italian restaurant that has served Studio City's stretch of Tujunga Avenue since 1964, entered through a door disguised as a bookshelf. The intimate, low-lit room leans hard into Prohibition-era Hollywood atmosphere, and the dress code is enforced rather than suggested: business casual or cocktail attire, with jeans, ball caps, shorts, T-shirts, sandals and athletic wear refused at any time. Its non-alcoholic list is headed "Spirits Away" and runs six drinks at a flat $12, all built on fresh juices and scratch sours rather than bought-in zero-proof spirits: Nectar of the Gods (watermelon, cucumber, scratch sour, lemon, seltzer), Eve on Earth (white cranberry, grapefruit seltzer, scratch sour), Pearadisio (scratch sour, pear, seltzer), Cloud 9 (pineapple, lemon, coconut, mango), Fauxjito (lime, mint, seltzer) and Spa Water (cucumber, mint, lime seltzer). Per Resy, the bar recently extended its NA offerings upstairs to its Rat Pack-themed lounge, The Velvet Martini, citing demand from younger guests. Vitello's Italian food can be ordered in the speakeasy, which is cashless.

Belles Beach House is a retro tiki restaurant and bar at 24 Windward Avenue, just off the Venice Boardwalk, opened in late 2021 by restaurateur Nick Mathers of the Wish You Were Here Group, who describes it as Hawaiian izakaya meets tiki bar. Eater named it one of the fifteen most beautiful restaurants in Los Angeles: it took over the former Larry's, with teak sliding doors and no enclosed walls on three sides, so the whole place feels like an open-air patio. Art is by the Venice artist Larry Bell. Its zero-proof section is one of the larger ones on the Westside — CORRECTION: nine items, not eight, spanning $7 to $14 rather than mostly $11. The three fruit-and-herb spritzes are $11 each (Watermelon Mint, Apple Ginger, Thai Basil Cucumber), the Palm Reader is $14, the Red Wing Spritz $14, fresh guava lemonade $9, pure coconut water $9, and an iced mango sencha green tea $7. NOTE: the Palm Reader contains Aplós Ease, which carries 100mg of lion's mane extract per serving — a non-psychoactive nootropic, but worth knowing. Open from noon, to 2am on Friday and Saturday, with DJs at weekends.

COMPLETE MENU CHANGE — WE HAVE REPLACED THIS LISTING'S DRINKS. Big Bar is the cocktail bar attached to Alcove Cafe at 1929 Hillhurst Avenue in Los Feliz, housed with the cafe in two historic bungalows with one of the larger patios on the east side. It opened on 8 October 2010 from Tom Trellis, who had opened Alcove itself in 2004. The cocktail programme has since been rebuilt entirely around a board-game theme, and none of the drinks we previously listed — Supernova, Tropic Thunder, The Apothecary, Pocket Full of Horses — remain. The current non-alcoholic section is headed "fun & games non-alcoholic cocktails", four drinks at $14, each named for a game: Can Chevy Come Over? (Red Rover) with Plaid Circus kimono dragon, dandelion, lime and corn silk kefir; Sister Sister (Twister) with Plaid Circus vespa rossa, Optimist Cali amaro, dogwood lemon oleo, celery and blueberry; Billie's Holiday (Cat's Cradle) with Seedlip Garden, catnip cream and vanilla bean; and Something Wicked (Ouija) with Pathfinder, sour Fuji apple, green almond orgeat and lemon. Non-alcoholic Best Day IPA and Fremont Dark are $8 each. Open from 8 or 9am daily.

Lemon Grove is a rooftop restaurant, bar, lounge and garden at the top of The Aster at Hollywood and Vine, with unobstructed views of the Hollywood Sign, the Capitol Records building and the hills. IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION: The Aster below it is a private membership club, but Lemon Grove itself is open to locals, hotel guests and members alike — only the weekday members-and-guests lunch is restricted, so brunch, dinner, the bar and the lounge are all public. It opened in October 2022; Daniel Pfeifer-Kotz is now executive chef, and cocktails are credited to Ash Ramos. Its drinks list carries a printed "Zero Proof" section holding three named mocktails — The Afters (espresso, cherry syrup, cola, cocoa), Meet Me In Venice (grapefruit, ginger beer, lime, mint, smoked salt) and Leading Lady (seasonal berries, lemon, cranberry, sparkling brut) — alongside genuine non-alcoholic wine, with Lyre's Classico Grande sparkling brut and Giesen's dealcoholised Sauvignon Blanc and rosé from Marlborough, plus Athletic Brewing's non-alcoholic golden ale. The section appears to be priced at a flat $16, though we could not confirm that beyond doubt. Closed Mondays.

Melrose Umbrella Co. is a post-Prohibition-themed craft cocktail bar at 7465 Melrose Avenue in the Fairfax District, open since 2013 from owners Zach Patterson and Austin Melrose. The room is built from salvage: an 1890s fireplace facing an arched ceiling covered in New York City subway tile, and a massive 1920s wooden apothecary cabinet shipped from the East Coast and retrofitted as the back bar, with a string-lit heated patio behind. Its non-alcoholic offering is a genuine nine-item menu across two printed sections. Under "Non-Alcoholic Cocktails" sit five at $15: Not Even Smashed (Ritual zero-proof whiskey, blackberry, mint, lemon, elderflower tonic), the Pa-No-Ma (Ritual zero-proof tequila, prickly pear, green apple, ruby red grapefruit), the Keto Pepino (Ritual zero-proof gin, cucumber, lime, monkfruit, celery salt), The Valet (Pathfinder, Pentire Coastal Spritz, Seedlip Garden 108, orange), and a canned Piña Margarita or Negroni. Under "Non-Alcoholic Beers, Bubbles & Beyond" sit four cans at $7, including Athletic's Run Wild IPA and Deschutes' organic Kernza Golden. Open from noon, closed Mondays; reservations via Resy.

Bar Benjamin is a second-floor craft cocktail bar that opened in May 2025 above The Benjamin Hollywood on Melrose Avenue, from The Hundreds co-founder Ben Shenassafar with partners Jared Meisler and Kate Burr. The cocktail program — developed by Jason Lee (n/soto, Baroo) and beverage director Chad Austin — is known for elaborate, food-driven drinks, and the non-alcoholic list is a genuine priority rather than an afterthought: Austin, who is five years sober, builds the zero-proof cocktails with the same rigor as the full menu. Named NA drinks on the current menu include the Smiley Face (a mango-margarita riff with yellow bell pepper syrup, fermented mango, acid-adjusted pineapple, Wilderton Citrus Bitter, and Optimist Smoky), plus Aura Farm, Bangkok Dangerous, and Tepache Bird. The room is intimate and reservation-friendly, with walk-in bar seating.

Felix Trattoria is chef Evan Funke's acclaimed regional-Italian restaurant on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, opened in 2017 with restaurateur Janet Zuccarini. Known for handmade pasta produced daily in a glass-enclosed "pasta laboratorio," Felix is a Michelin Guide restaurant and a fixture of LA's dining scene. Its bar runs a genuine named non-alcoholic cocktail program built around imported and craft zero-proof bases — England's Pentire botanical aperitivo and Seattle's Pathfinder hemp-and-botanical amaro — plus house-made ginger beer. Lead bartender Henry Terhune frames the list around Italian aperitivo culture: drinks meant "to pique your appetite" before a carb-rich meal. Named zero-proof options include the Monte Rosa, Mare Nostrum, Zenzero, and the Coca-Felix, a Chinotto-style "bitter Coca-Cola" riff — composed, restaurant-quality options rather than an afterthought.

Death & Co Los Angeles is the first West Coast location of the cocktail brand founded in New York's East Village on New Year's Eve 2006, and it opened in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles at the end of 2019 from the Death & Co team of David Kaplan, Alex Day and Devon Tarby with Ravi DeRossi — the same group behind the Normandie Club, Bibo Ergo Sum and the Walker Inn. The main room runs a seasonal menu organised into six sections, from the lightest and most refreshing through the most spirituous, with zero-proof drinks treated as one of those sections rather than an appendix; a separate walk-up Standing Room bar operates Thursday to Saturday. The zero-proof list currently holds three built cocktails at $16–$18 on genuine non-alcoholic spirits including Seedlip, Ritual, Giffard and Wilderton, backed by non-alcoholic wine and beer from NON, Lyre's, Athletic and Suntory.

Kato is a two-Michelin-starred Taiwanese-American tasting-menu restaurant at Row DTLA, promoted from one star to two in the 2026 guide, from chef and co-owner Jonathan Yao — who won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: California in 2025. It opened in a Sawtelle strip mall in 2016 and moved to its current 4,000-square-foot Arts District room in February 2022. The main dining room tasting menu is $325 and an abbreviated bar tasting is $185. Its non-alcoholic offering is one of the most ambitious in America: a dedicated Alcohol-Free Flight at $120, described as a progression of alcohol-free beverages created by the bar team, and priced as a genuine peer to the $145 traditional wine flight rather than a discount alternative. Bar director Austin Hennelly, who built it, believes it is the largest alcohol-free wine, beer and ready-to-drink list of any bar in the country. Documented drinks include the Garden Tonic — bitter melon and Korean cucumber, clarified and force-carbonated with white tea — and an amazake swizzle. Guests must be 21 or over to sit at the bar.