Down on Grayson

Down on Grayson is on East Grayson Street next to the Pearl, the converted brewery complex that has become the centre of gravity for eating and drinking in San Antonio. That location matters: the Pearl draws enormous numbers of visitors, and almost everything in it is organised around a bar.

Its zero-proof list is the longest properly named one in this guide, and the composition is the interesting part. A spicy blackberry lemonade brings heat and tartness. The prickly pear "No"-jito uses a fruit that is genuinely of this landscape rather than imported for colour, and pairs it with mint. A Strawberry Basil Smash goes herbal. A blood orange crème soda goes rich and creamy, which almost no mocktail menu attempts.

That spread is worth more than any single drink. The failure mode of alcohol-free menus is monotony: two or three variations on sweet fruit, so a non-drinker who stays for three hours drinks the same thing three times and leaves cloyed. Four drinks across four different registers means the second one can be different from the first, which is exactly what everyone else at the table takes for granted.

The hours are good and unfussy — 11am to 10pm most days, to 11pm on Friday and Saturday, seven days a week, which is more consistent than most of San Antonio's alcohol-free options. Being a step outside the Pearl proper, it is also usually easier to get into than the venues inside the complex, and it sits within a short walk of Isidore and the Brooklyn Avenue cluster. That whole corner — Grayson, Brooklyn and the Pearl — is where a group with mixed drinking plans will have the easiest evening in San Antonio.