Baleia

Baleia opened in 2024 on East Berkeley Street in the South End as the newest restaurant from Coda Restaurant Group, the Boston operator that began with CODA in 2008 and went on to open The Salty Pig in 2012, SRV in 2016 and Gufo in East Cambridge in 2023. The name is Portuguese for whale, and the restaurant states its premise plainly on its own site: a love letter to Portugal, to its seafood-forward cuisine, its easy-drinking cocktails and bold wines, and the soft lines of its sun-faded architecture, all infused with a global influence and a creative twist. In practice that means a seafood-led menu with Portuguese anchors treated freely rather than a strict regional reproduction. The Boston Globe included Baleia in its January 7, 2025 list of twelve spectacular spots for mocktails, describing it as a stylish new Portuguese restaurant from the team behind Gufo and SRV drawing a crowd willing to experiment with non-alcoholic drinks.

The alcohol-free drinks are printed under a Low + No Proof heading that is split into a Mocktails block and a Non-Alc Wine block, and — as at the group's other restaurants — they are built with commercial zero-proof spirits rather than juice alone. Dutchess Palmer is the entry point at $8, a tea-led build using MEM's Duchess Grey with grapefruit, lemon and tonic. Bebida Errada at $12 is the most complex, combining a Free Spirit rosso zero-proof vermouth with aperitivo, syrup, Wolffer non-alcoholic sparkling, rose and a lemon twist — effectively an alcohol-free spritz with real bitterness in it. Strawberry Fields, also $12, is built on Almave, the de-alcoholised agave spirit, with elderflower, strawberry, vanilla, lemon, orange blossom and sea salt, and functions as the list's margarita substitute. The non-alcoholic wines are the same three the group pours across its restaurants, all German and all under 0.5%: Wolffer Estate "Spring in a Bottle" rose and Wander + Found "Cuvee Blanc" white at $13 each, and Odd Bird "G.S.M Rouge" red at $14. Baleia serves dinner nightly from 5pm.