Cafe Sauvage

Cafe Sauvage occupies 25 Massachusetts Avenue at the western edge of Back Bay, where the neighborhood runs into the Berklee and Symphony blocks, and describes itself as cafe, kitchen and bar in one. The cooking is modern French with European and West African influences, and the room runs a daytime service from 9am and a dinner service from 5pm every day except Monday, with brunch every weekend and on Fridays. It is one of the venues Meet Boston, the city's official tourism organisation, named in its January 2026 guide to zero-proof drinks.

The drinks card is themed and rewritten regularly; the summer 2026 edition ran a World Cup conceit with sections named Starting XI, On the Bench and Grandes Bulles, and gave the alcohol-free drinks their own block simply headed mocktails. There are five of them and they are built with the same syrups, purees and foams as the cocktails on the facing page. Still in the Bus is fresh blueberries, lavender syrup and club soda at $9. The Ochoa Save is $9 and the menu's own description is the whole tasting note: everything you love about a margarita, minus the booze. Le Carre Magique is $10 and layers pineapple, basil and orange under a coconut-strawberry lime foam. DKR Sunrise is $11 and combines orange juice, bissap, the hibiscus infusion drunk across West Africa, passion fruit and club soda, which is the drink that best explains the kitchen's Paris-to-Dakar framing. Parisian Sakura is $10 with lychee, ginger syrup, lime and club soda. On the beer list, Athletic Brewing's Upside Dawn golden ale is poured at 0% for $7, alongside the full-strength drafts. The restaurant closes on Mondays and runs two services the rest of the week, 9am to 3pm and 5pm to 9pm, with a 10pm close on Friday and Saturday. The Paris-to-Dakar framing printed at the top of the card runs through both halves of the drinks list, which is why bissap turns up in the alcohol-free section and not just in the cocktails.