Sober Nightlife in Des Moines, IA
Where to go out late in Des Moines without drinking: every spot here keeps a strong zero-proof list — or serves no alcohol at all — and stays open past midnight. Ordered by how late you can stay, each one checked by a person with the closing time we found.
5 verified spots open past midnight · latest close 2am
- NA Program Strength: 4 of 5?
The Bartender's Handshake is a vintage-styled cocktail bar on Ingersoll Avenue, open 2pm to 1am seven days a week and to 2am at weekends — the widest hours of any venue in this city guide. Its two documented alcohol-free builds are unusually savoury: the Vacation Email uses orange spice tea with grapefruit, lime, cinnamon, tonic and coconut, and the Karate Kid runs carrot and ginger syrup against lime, ginger beer, ancho chili and mint. Two sources of heat and a vegetable base is about as far from a sweet mocktail as a bar can get, and it is what makes both drinkable across a long evening.
Order: Vacation Email — orange spice tea, grapefruit, lime, cinnamon, tonic, coconut · Karate Kid — carrot, ginger syrup, lime, ginger beer, ancho chili, mint
Hours: Sun-Thu 2pm-1am; Fri-Sat 2pm-2am
- NA Program Strength: 4 of 5?
Bellhop is Des Moines' tiki bar in the East Village — classy tiki rather than cheesy tiki, by its own description — with elevated takes on the classics and a robust craft beer list. Its alcohol-free builds are the Beachbreeze, of pineapple, passionfruit, coconut and lime with cherry, and Sandy Beaches, which uses blue coconut water with lime, Don's Mix and cinnamon. Don's Mix is the grapefruit-and-cinnamon syrup at the heart of the original Mai Tai-era tiki canon, and a bar using it in a drink with no rum in it is applying its real technique rather than a shortcut.
Order: Beachbreeze — pineapple, passionfruit, coconut, lime, cherry · Sandy Beaches — blue coconut water, lime, Don's Mix, cinnamon
Hours: Thu-Fri 4pm-2am; Sat 2pm-2am; Sun-Wed closed
- NA Program Strength: 4 of 5?
Hello, Marjorie occupies the former Register & Tribune building on Locust Street in downtown Des Moines, styled as a mid-century living room, and it runs the most serious alcohol-free programme in the city — a rotating spirit-free list built on real non-alcoholic liquor rather than juice. The Amaretto Stone Sour uses N/A amaretto and N/A rum with orange, lemon, cinnamon and orgeat; the G&T is Seedlip Spice 94 against a house tonic with spiced pear, clarified lime and soda water. Clarifying a lime is a technique most bars will not do for a drink with alcohol in it, let alone one without.
Order: Amaretto Stone Sour — N/A amaretto, N/A rum, orange, lemon, cinnamon, orgeat · G&T — Seedlip Spice 94, house tonic, spiced pear, clarified lime, soda water
Hours: Mon-Thu 4pm-12am; Fri-Sat 4pm-1am; Sun closed
- NA Program Strength: 4 of 5?
In Confidence is the speakeasy inside the Hotel Fort Des Moines, and it stocks the Lyre's range properly — a Zero Proof Mint Julep built on Lyre's bourbon alternative with simple syrup and mint, and a gin and tonic on Lyre's London dry with Fever Tree tonic. Both are straight substitutions into classics, which is exactly what a lot of non-drinkers actually want: not an invented fruit drink, but the thing they used to order, made properly. A julep in particular is almost all spirit, so making a convincing one without alcohol requires the bar to have bought a real product rather than improvised.
Order: Zero Proof Mint Julep — Lyre's bourbon alternative, simple syrup, mint · Gin & Tonic — Lyre's London dry spirit, Fever Tree tonic
Hours: Thu-Sat 5pm-1am; Sun-Wed closed
- NA Program Strength: 4 of 5?
Revival House is a neon-lit tiki bar in downtown Des Moines and it carries three alcohol-free builds, the deepest single list in the city. The Cyclone runs orange juice, passion purée, lime, demerara and grenadine; the Blue Hawaiian is built on pea flower tea with pineapple, coconut and lime; and the Double Tea Old Fashioned uses double-steeped Earl Grey with demerara, orange and Angostura. That last one is the interesting build — double-steeping tea concentrates its tannin, which is what stands in for the grip of whiskey in an old fashioned. Local coverage notes the booze-free versions come with a smaller bill too.
Order: Cyclone — orange juice, passion purée, lime, demerara, grenadine · Blue Hawaiian — pea flower tea, pineapple, coconut, lime · Double Tea Old Fashioned — double-steeped Earl Grey, demerara, orange, Angostura
Hours: Wed-Thu 4pm-10pm; Fri-Sat 4pm-1am; Sun 4pm-10pm; Mon-Tue closed
How this page decides what counts
Three facts, all verified, all required. The venue has to rate at least 4 of 5 for its non-alcoholic program — a fully alcohol-free room, or a licensed venue with a strong named zero-proof list, the same floor our Des Moines sober bars page uses. It has to be somewhere you can sit, so bottle shops are out. And its hours have to run past midnight on at least one night, which is what makes this a nightlife page rather than a second copy of the sober bars list: at that cut a restaurant with a good zero-proof menu drops out, and the bars, lounges, kava bars and late coffeehouses remain.
“No alcohol served” is written on a card only when the venue's own verified description says so — never inferred from a rating or a name. Everything else here is a bar with a real non-alcoholic program, and it is labelled as a bar. Hours are the venue's live listing, re-synced weekly; the drinks on each venue page were read off its current menu and carry the date we last confirmed them.
Questions people ask
Yes. We have verified 5 Des Moines venues that both keep a strong zero-proof list and stay open past midnight on at least one night: The Bartender's Handshake, Bellhop, Hello, Marjorie, In Confidence, Revival House. The latest close we found is 2am.
None of the 5 listed here is a fully alcohol-free room; all are licensed venues with a strong, named zero-proof list. If "no bar tab anywhere in the building" is the requirement, check the city page for alcohol-free cafes and bottle shops that close earlier.
Every venue here closes after midnight on at least one night; the card for each shows the latest closing time and how many nights a week it applies. The list is ordered latest-first. Hours come from each venue's live business listing and are re-synced weekly — but late hours are the first thing a bar trims, so check the day before a special trip.
Order from the zero-proof list by name — every venue here has one, and each venue's own page lists the drinks we read off its current menu with ingredients and prices. A named drink built on a real non-alcoholic spirit (Seedlip, Lyre's, Ritual, Pathfinder and the like) is a different thing from a soda with fruit in it, and it is priced and served like a cocktail. If the list has changed since we checked, ask what the bar is making that week rather than for "a mocktail".
It is an honest one. The venues marked "no alcohol served" are rooms where nobody at the next table is drinking either, and for many people that is the only kind of night out that works. The licensed venues are bars — good ones for a non-drinker, but bars — and the page says so plainly rather than blurring the two. Choose by the label, not the name.
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