Little Sparrow

Ford Fry took the former JCT Kitchen & Bar space at 1198 Howell Mill Road — a room he had run for well over a decade — and reopened it in October 2023 as Little Sparrow, a Parisian-style bistro named after Edith Piaf, whose nickname it was. The neighbouring bar Marcel is named for the boxer Marcel Cerdan, Piaf's lover, so the pair read as a set. The kitchen deals in the classics done properly rather than reinvention: frites, fats, shellfish, steak. It has been recommended in the Michelin Guide and Esquire named it one of the best new restaurants in America in December 2024. The dining room seats through dinner Monday to Saturday with weekend brunch service added on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

What earns Little Sparrow a place here is that the non-alcoholic cocktails are printed on the standing menu with the same descriptive care as the full-proof list. There are three. No Regrets is the one that gets written about: the menu itself calls it peaty and complex, reminiscent of a fine Speyside malt, which is an unusual register for a zero-proof drink and a claim the bar is willing to put in print. Triple Crown is built on Wilfred's bitter orange aperitif and finished as a ginger-forward highball, giving it the bitterness and length that a juice-based drink cannot reach. Rose-Colored Glasses is the lightest of the three, a blood orange fizz meant to sit alongside the raw bar. DiningOut singled the programme out in its April 2026 survey of Atlanta zero-proof bars, updated that June. Three drinks is a modest list by the standards of a dedicated alcohol-free bar, but they are house-built, kept on permanently and served in a room where the rest of the table is drinking wine — which is the situation most sober diners actually face.