Backbar

Backbar has traded since 2011 from a converted space at 7 Sanborn Court in Union Square, reached through an orange door in the alley between The Independent and Bronwyn, with no sign on the street and no reservations taken. Sam Treadway founded it and has been its public face throughout, and the bar still runs cocktail classes and tastings in its small Closet Bar under his name. For a 39-seat room the recognition has been disproportionate: Boston Magazine rated it the number one bar in Boston in March 2020, Time Out placed it on a list of the 28 coolest bars in the world in August 2021, and in November 2024 both Wine Enthusiast, which called it Best Overall Bar in Boston, and Boston Common Magazine, which put it in the city's top ten, returned to it. Meet Boston's January 2026 zero-proof guide judged the array of flavours structured and nuanced, making this one of the most serious zero-proof programs in the city.

What distinguishes the alcohol-free offering is that it is a designed, themed menu in its own right, redrawn on the same cycle as the bar's pop-culture cocktail menus — a comic-book menu in 2023 carried a spirit-free Wolverine, and the current one is built around Studio Ghibli films under the heading "Rated NA: Non Alcoholic!", with every drink at $11. Means to Fly is the most elaborate, stacking Seedlip Grove and Seedlip Spice with raspberry, orange shrub, ginger, lemon, cardamom, chocolate bitters, egg white and non-alcoholic sparkling wine. "Baluse", subtitled The Spell of Destruction, runs complex, herbal and bitter on Pathfinder Hemp & Root with hojicha tea, sakura blossom bitters and rosemary. Arrietty's Libation is rich and earthy, built from Lyre's gin alternative and Lyre's Coffee Originale with prickly pear, Lucano Amaro Zero and lime. No Face closes the list with Seedlip Spice, Lucano Amaro Zero, cold brew concentrate, demerara, elderflower and cream. Bartenders will also build a bespoke spirit-free drink to taste on request.