Century Grand

Century Grand is less a bar than a building full of them. Behind an unremarkable Indian School Road frontage in Arcadia sit three separate concepts, each with its own room, menu and conceit: Platform 18, built as a 1920s railway carriage complete with scenery moving past the windows; Grey Hen Rx, an apothecary-styled room of tinctures and bitters; and UnderTow, the below-deck tiki bar that had a cult following before the rest existed. The group is now operated by Barter & Shake, and it has been a repeat finalist in national bar awards.

The reason it belongs on a non-alcoholic directory is unusual, and it is not the mocktail list. The bar team distils its own alcohol-free spirits in house and uses them across all three concepts — which means a zero-proof order is not a bartender improvising with fruit juice but the same programme running on a different base. The results carry names of their own rather than being described as versions of something else. Platform 18 pours the Constable's Companion, a gin alternative with mint, poblano and lime. Grey Hen Rx has Chart the Course (bourbon-inspired, with peach, pineapple and lemon), Mark My Words (rum and plum tea) and the yuzu-led Prayer at Mid-day, plus non-alcoholic bubbles. UnderTow builds the Shipless Sailor from a rum substitute with cinnamon, clove, orgeat, hibiscus, lime and pineapple.

Phoenix New Times, surveying metro bars where alcohol-free drinks are actually on the menu, noted in January 2024 that the three-bars-under-one-roof concept "doesn't exclude designated drivers". Two practical points: each concept has its own door policy and UnderTow in particular needs a reservation, and the venue is a full-strength cocktail destination — the alcohol-free work is a genuine parallel programme, not the character of the place.