More or Less

More or Less sits at 434 Leonard Street NW, about a five-minute drive from downtown Grand Rapids, and is the state's first shop built entirely around drinks with no alcohol in them. Chad Clark and Neil DeMeester met by chance at Clark's original business and went into partnership on it; both had quit drinking and both had developed an interest in what the non-alcoholic category was starting to produce. They opened at the turn of 2023 as Alt City NA Bottles and Beer, and later rebranded to More or Less — a piece of wordplay about the industry, and a nod to how many people walk through the door who still drink and are simply looking for something to alternate with. The pair describe the business as a passion project and the buying as deliberately selective, blending what they characterise as Clark's creative instincts with DeMeester's more analytical approach.

The inventory runs past 450 items and spans most of what the category now offers: non-alcoholic beer, zero-proof spirits, canned craft mocktails, botanical and CBD seltzers, adaptogenic drinks, gourmet sodas, and non-alcoholic wines. Because the category is young and unfamiliar — and because a 750ml bottle of zero-proof spirit costs about what a real one does — the shop keeps a rotating selection of roughly six to ten bottles open for guests to taste in store before buying, which is unusual for a retailer and is the closest thing the business has to a bar program. Trading hours are Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 7pm, closed Sunday and Monday. It is the only venue in this guide that is a shop rather than a place to sit and drink, and it functions as the supply line for much of the rest of the city's alcohol-free drinking.