Charlie was a sinner.

Charlie was a sinner. opened in 2014 in Midtown Village and is entirely plant-based across both food and drink — one of the earlier ventures from Nicole Marquis, the restaurateur behind HipCityVeg and Bar Bombón. The room is deliberately dark and atmospheric: brass bar top, button-tufted banquettes, antique fixtures, candlelight. Visit Philly's assessment captures its position well — amid the alcohol-heavy nightlife of 13th Street, it is an upscale respite that always keeps several zero-proof options going.

That standing "Zero Proof" section runs to roughly four non-alcoholic cocktails at around eleven dollars, and the construction is what distinguishes it. The drinks are built on house-made syrups and cordials, and the bar makes its own zero-proof gin rather than buying a commercial substitute. That is a meaningful difference. A bought bottle is a fixed flavour the bar has to work around; a house infusion means choosing the botanicals — juniper, citrus peel, spice — to suit the specific drinks being poured, which is the same freedom a bar has with its syrups and almost never exercises with spirits.

The named drinks span the range. No Regrets and the Spicy Pineapple sit at the cocktail end, while the Basil Fennel Lemon Soda and Blackberry Ginger Soda are house sodas — and the fennel is the interesting choice there, an anise-scented vegetal note that is savoury rather than sweet, doing the job a botanical spirit would.

The vegan constraint helps here in the same way it does elsewhere. A bar that cannot use egg white has to solve foam and texture another way, usually with aquafaba, and a kitchen practised at building richness without dairy is already fluent in the thinking a good alcohol-free drink requires.

The hours make it a genuine night out: four in the afternoon until eleven most nights, and until two in the morning on Friday and Saturday.