LBM

LBM opened on Madison Avenue in Lakewood's Birdtown district in 2017 and describes itself as your friendly neighbourhood cocktail bar — weird cocktails, dope food, loud music. The Norse theming is played straight enough to read as character rather than gimmick, and the room has become one of the west side's reliable late bars, running to 2:30am on Fridays and Saturdays when most of Lakewood has closed. Co-owner Eric Ho captains the bar and has run an intentional non-alcoholic programme since the doors opened, which in Cleveland made LBM an early adopter by roughly five years; Cleveland Magazine and Ohio Magazine have both since profiled it among the region's best bars.

Ho's argument, made in Cleveland Scene's survey of the city's zero-proof offerings, is simply that a serious cocktail programme implies a serious non-alcoholic one — in any other city, he said, if you have one you have the other. LBM builds accordingly. The spirit-free drinks are named and presented like the rest of the list rather than filed under mocktails, and they use the bar's own syrups, infusions and citrus. The zero-proof spirits behind them include Ritual, whose whiskey alternative Ho has singled out for the capsaicin burn that gives a drink some of the heat alcohol supplies, along with more botanical-forward bottles for the lighter builds. On the beer side the fridge carries Athletic Brewing and Untitled Art's non-alcoholic range, which covers anyone who would rather hold a can than a coupe.

Because the drink list rotates, the specific zero-proof builds change through the year rather than sitting as a fixed menu section — worth knowing if you are going for a particular drink. The kitchen runs a short plates menu, and the bar takes reservations for parties of six or more by email to Eric directly; smaller groups are first-come, first-served, with an automatic gratuity on parties of eight or more.