Epiphany

The Original Highlands is the near end of Louisville's Highlands — closer to downtown than the Bardstown Road strip, quieter, more residential — and Epiphany opened there at the end of 2022 on Highland Avenue. It describes itself as a cocktail bar, brewery and spirits house, and its stated ambition is to bring farm-to-table thinking into the beverage world: sourcing produce locally, making its own syrups, cordials and infusions, and building drinks around what is actually growing rather than around a back bar.

That is the single best predictor of whether a bar's non-alcoholic drinks will be any good. A bar whose cocktails are spirit plus mixer has nothing left when the spirit goes; a bar whose cocktails are built from house components has most of the drink already made. Epiphany's liquor-free list rotates with the seasons for the same reason its cocktails do. The build most often cited is the Orange Turmeric Limeade — lime and turmeric sweetened with honey from Happy Jack's Pumpkin Farm, lifted with orange blossom water and mint, which is a savoury, aromatic drink rather than a sweet one, and name-checks the specific farm the honey comes from. A Rose Ginger Lemonade runs as a seasonal alternative. Because the list turns over, the sensible approach is to ask what is on rather than arrive expecting a specific glass.

GoToLouisville, the city's official visitor bureau, singled the bar out in its guide to where to drink alcohol-free in Louisville, which is a useful signal in a city whose zero-proof coverage is otherwise thin and quickly goes stale. Worth knowing: this is a full cocktail bar and spirits house, so alcohol is very much present — the appeal is the quality of the alternative, not a sober room. It is a short drive or a long walk from the Bardstown Road cluster where Seviche and LouVino sit, and about ten minutes from Butchertown.