Juniper

Juniper opened as Greenville's first gin-centric bar, on the roof above the Paloma restaurant at 315 South Main, and it has one of the more enviable views in the city. It is also the most interesting alcohol-free list in the metro, which is not a coincidence.

Gin is the hardest spirit to do without. Its whole character is botanical — juniper, coriander, citrus peel, root — and the non-alcoholic versions have to work much harder than a zero-proof rum or tequila to be convincing. A bar built around gin has, by necessity, a deep bench of botanical thinking, shrubs, cordials and aromatics, and that is exactly the pantry an alcohol-free drink needs.

The three Zero Proof builds show it. The Juice Bomb runs a watermelon shrub against black sesame seed syrup with lemon, grapefruit and grapefruit soda — the sesame is the unusual move, adding a savoury, nutty weight that stops the fruit dominating. Root For Me is blackberry sauce, ginger and lime cordial, sharper and more direct. The Kiwi Crush uses a kiwi cordial with pineapple, agave and club soda. All three are $10, priced with the rest of the list rather than beneath it.

Worth noting for anyone reading the local coverage: the Greenville Journal has written about Juniper rolling out low-alcohol cocktails under the headline that it should not be called a mocktail programme. That distinction is doing real work — a low-ABV list and a zero-proof list serve different people, and this bar keeps both, which is more useful than either alone.

The hours need planning around. Juniper is closed Monday and Tuesday, does not open until 5pm Wednesday through Saturday, and on Sunday trades only 11am to 3pm.