Idle Beer Hall & Brewery

Idle Beer Hall & Brewery is on Brooklyn Avenue in River North, a short walk from the Pearl, and it brews on site. Breweries are a specific problem for non-drinkers: the room exists to sell beer, the staff are enthusiasts about beer, and the alcohol-free provision is typically one imported can in a fridge, if that.

Idle does something better. It keeps four named mocktails on the list, and the selection shows someone thought about balance rather than reaching for juice. A Southside is a mint, lime and citrus drink, sharp and herbal. A Spanish gin and tonic is defined by botanicals and quinine bitterness, served long over ice — arguably the single easiest classic to render convincingly without alcohol, because so much of its character comes from the tonic and the garnish rather than the gin. A beachside fizz and a French twist round out the range.

What those choices have in common is dryness. None of them is a sugar delivery system, which is a meaningful signal from a venue that could easily have printed three fruit sodas and called it a menu.

The hours make it one of the more useful addresses in this guide: open from noon every day, to midnight through the week and 2am on Friday and Saturday. Combined with Double Standard and The Moon's Daughters, it means San Antonio has a genuine late-night option for someone not drinking, which is more than most cities of its size manage. Its position near the Pearl and Isidore makes it a natural second or third stop on an evening. The brewing operation also means the beer-drinkers in the group are properly served, which is what makes it work as a compromise venue rather than a concession. Nobody in the group is settling, which is the difference between a venue that tolerates a non-drinker and one that has actually thought about mixed company.