Dram & Draught (Brightleaf)

The Durham room of Dram & Draught is on West Main Street near Brightleaf Square, and it carries the same "Spirit-Free" section as the Raleigh original with a couple of dollars off each drink. For a metro where most non-alcoholic cocktails now land at twelve dollars, an eight-dollar Phony Negroni is worth knowing about.

The three builds are the same in composition. The Sunday Spritz uses Töst's alcohol-free sparkling rosé lengthened with lemon, sugar, elderberry and ginger — the closest thing on the list to a glass of something celebratory. The Phony Negroni is St. Agrestis' bottled non-alcoholic negroni poured straight; it is properly bitter, which is rare in this category and the reason it appears on so many bar lists nationally. The Honey Trap is built fresh from grapefruit, honey, ginger and lemon, and is the one to order if you would rather avoid non-alcoholic spirit analogues entirely.

The bar itself is a whisky-and-draught room, so this is a venue that works for a mixed group rather than a destination for non-drinkers specifically. Hours run to midnight during the week and two in the morning on Friday and Saturday.

One detail that trips up anyone trying to check first: both locations share a single phone number, so a search by phone will not tell you which room you have found — go by the postcode or the location-specific menu page. The generic menu URL on the group site returns a "location not found" error and must be approached through the Durham location page.