Cultured Cheese Shop

Cultured began as a cheese and charcuterie bar at 1007 East Main Street in Butchertown and has since moved a few blocks east, into the Copper & Kings building at 1121 East Washington, where it now trades at rooftop level with views over the city. It is locally and female-owned, and the proposition is unchanged: farmstead cheeses, cured meats and shared boards, in a room designed for sitting for two hours rather than eating and leaving. It does not take reservations.

The drinks are the reason it is in this guide, and specifically the fact that the alcohol-free ones are named and built rather than improvised. The Tart Cherry Old Fashioned, the Turmeric Ginger Mule and the Cucumber Aloe Margarita all run on mixers from Modica, a Louisville company founded by JD Mitchell and Eric Wentworth — Wentworth came out of bartending and ownership at The Hub on Frankfort Avenue — whose mixes are built around superfoods, vitamins and electrolytes with up to 70% less sugar than conventional cocktail mixers. Roughly a third of Modica's customers use them for mocktails rather than cocktails, which is a rare case of a mixer company designing for both from the start. Pairing bitter, tart and vegetal alcohol-free drinks with a cheese board is also simply better than pairing a sweet mocktail with one.

One point of confusion worth flagging: aggregators still carry the original 1007 East Main listing, some marked MOVED and some not, so navigation apps may take you to an empty storefront. The correct address is 1121 East Washington Street, inside Copper & Kings. That co-location makes for an easy pairing — Copper & Kings' own rooftop bar keeps a separate named alcohol-free list including the Lavender Sky and Movin' To The Country — and puts two entries in this guide in one building, in a neighbourhood that already holds Pizza Lupo and Naïve.