The Butterscotch Den

The Butterscotch Den sits on Broadway in the Oak Park area, south of downtown Sacramento, and completes the Irish Hospitality Group's trio alongside The Snug and Ro Sham Beaux. It stocks the same alcohol-free products: the bottled St. Agrestis Phony Negroni and Guinness 0.

Geography is the argument for listing all three separately rather than treating them as one entry. Look at where Sacramento's alcohol-free options actually are: Juju and Dive Bar downtown, Kupros and Ro Sham Beaux in Midtown, Revival at Downtown Commons, Teetotalist in Midtown. That is one relatively small area, and it serves the people who live and work in it. Broadway and Oak Park are a different part of the city with their own population, and a bar there stocking reliable zero-proof products means somebody local does not have to drive into the centre to have a decent drink without alcohol.

The same reliability argument applies as at its sibling venues. A bottled Phony Negroni is not a craft cocktail, but it is bitter, herbal, properly made and identical every time — which for a neighbourhood bar is exactly the right level of ambition. Nobody expects a Broadway local to run a zero-proof programme; stocking two good products consistently is a better and more sustainable commitment.

Hours run to midnight through the week and 2am on Friday and Saturday, seven days. Between this, The Snug and Ro Sham Beaux, the group gives Sacramento three geographically spread late-night options with the same dependable stock — which is a quietly significant contribution to the city's scene.

Oak Park itself is worth a word. It has changed considerably over the past decade, with Broadway gaining restaurants and bars that draw people from across the city, and it now supports a night out on its own terms rather than as a detour from Midtown. A bar there carrying the same alcohol-free stock as its central siblings means that growth includes people who do not drink — which is not automatic, and does not happen unless an operator decides it should.