neat.

neat. sits on Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles, between Westwood and Sawtelle, and its stated purpose is a bar born to remind us of what it means to get back to basics. In practice that means an unusually deep spirits collection - bourbon, Japanese whisky, mezcal and rare bottles that mostly do not appear on other LA back bars - plus guided whiskey and spirits tastings run in the room. It is, in other words, a bar for people who care what is in the glass, which is exactly the sort of place where a non-alcoholic list is either an afterthought or genuinely good.

Here it is the latter, and it is printed on the same drink menu as everything else rather than produced on request. Five items sit under the non-alcoholic heading. Wishful Sinful, at $10, is built on Pathfinder - a distilled hemp-and-root non-alcoholic spirit with real bitterness to it - with yuzu, lemon and ginger. Eyes Wide Shut is the cheapest thing on the list at $8 and the most interesting: espresso, cucumber tonic and orange, which is a genuinely odd combination and works. Alter Ego, $10, runs elderflower, cucumber, mint and lemon. There is an N/A Negroni at $12, which is the drink that most often exposes a weak non-alcoholic programme because the bitterness has nowhere to hide. And for anyone who wants a beer rather than a cocktail, Weihenstephaner's alcohol-free lager is $8 - the alcohol-free version from the world's oldest brewery, and a better pour than most NA taps in the city.

What is worth noting is the pricing. The non-alcoholic drinks run $8 to $12 against house cocktails and rare pours considerably above that, so they are not discounted to the level of a soft drink and not padded to the level of the full-strength list. That is the correct treatment and still not the common one. Practical notes: neat. is closed on Monday, opens at 5pm every other day, runs to midnight on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday and to 2am Thursday through Saturday, and has a daily happy hour from 5 to 7pm. There is metered and side-street parking; the room is small enough that a weekend visit after 9pm usually means standing.