Coa Cantina

Coa Cantina sits on Merle Hay Road in north-west Des Moines, away from the downtown and Ingersoll clusters where most of this guide is concentrated, and it earns its place by covering two needs at once.

The first is the drinks. A margarita is lime, agave and tequila; a paloma is grapefruit, lime, agave and tequila with soda. In both, the citrus and the agave are doing the majority of the flavour work, which makes them among the most convincing cocktails to build without alcohol — far more so than anything spirit-forward. Coa makes both spirit-free, which means a table sharing a plate of tacos can all order roughly the same thing.

The second is the beer. Stocking non-alcoholic beer alongside the mocktails is the part most venues skip, and it addresses a different customer entirely: the person who does not want an occasion drink, does not want to explain themselves, and just wants what everyone else is having. Between a built spirit-free margarita and a cold NA beer, this room can serve both moods, which very few in this guide can.

This entry is graded three. The drinks are documented as spirit-free versions of the house cocktails rather than as their own named builds, there is no printed zero-proof section verified, and the specific NA beer brands stocked could not be confirmed.

The hours run 3pm to midnight on Wednesday and Sunday and 3pm to 2am Thursday through Saturday, closed Monday and Tuesday. The 2am close is worth noting — along with The Bartender's Handshake and Bellhop it is one of only three rooms in this city guide licensed that late, which makes it one of the few genuine options for a Des Moines night that runs past one in the morning without alcohol.