Codependent Cocktails + Coffee

Codependent Cocktails + Coffee occupies the base of The Independent tower downtown, opened by Kevin Burns and Merrill Alley of the design firm Urbanspace. The room is mid-century modern with floor-to-ceiling windows, and the concept is Italian aperitivo culture crossed with Austin hospitality. It runs as a coworking space in the mornings and afternoons — laptops are welcome until 4pm and pointedly not after.

That all-day structure is what makes it work for a non-drinker, because it means the venue has a purpose at every hour rather than only after dark. Aperitivo culture helps too: the Italian aperitivo is built on bitterness, dilution and low strength, which is the one drinking tradition that translates almost intact without alcohol. A bar whose house style is already spritzes and bitter aperitifs is starting from a much better position than one built on spirit-forward drinks.

Visit Austin describes the mocktails as leaning fresh and lightly textured, naming the Well Manoered Monk — a non-alcoholic tequila with cucumber and pineapple — and Tell Me Something Good, built on prickly pear and coconut water. Coconut water is an interesting choice: it carries a mineral salinity that gives a drink body without sugar, which is the recurring problem zero-proof drinks have to solve. Athletic Brewing non-alcoholic beer is available alongside the cocktail and coffee programmes, and a small private speakeasy with house-made ingredients sits behind the main bar.

The hours are the widest of any bar on this Austin list — from 8am on weekdays, 9am at weekends, running to 11pm early in the week and 1am on Friday and Saturday. Somewhere you can have a coffee at nine in the morning and a properly built zero-proof aperitivo at eleven at night, without changing venue or explaining yourself at either end, is a genuinely useful address downtown.