Point 5

Point 5 sits on West Cary Street in Carytown, Richmond's most walkable shopping strip, and it was the first dedicated non-alcoholic bottle shop the city had. In 2026 it is also the only one: Ceremony, the Fan district shop that local guides still pair it with, has closed its Richmond location and relocated to Norfolk. That leaves Point 5 carrying the whole retail side of Richmond's alcohol-free scene by itself.

The range is the reason it matters. Owner Jody Sidle stocks north of 100 brands, spanning zero-proof spirits, non-alcoholic beers and wines, functional and adaptogenic drinks, ready-to-drink mocktails and botanical elixirs. That breadth changes what is possible for a non-drinker in a way a supermarket aisle cannot: you can compare three non-alcoholic gins side by side, find out whether a dealcoholised red is worth the money before buying a case, and ask someone who has tasted all of it. For anyone building a home bar without alcohol — which is where most sober drinking actually happens — a shop like this is more useful than any number of bars with a token mocktail.

It also functions as the closest thing Richmond has to a community hub for alcohol-free living. The shop hosts tastings, education classes and events, which gives people a reason to be in the room together rather than simply buying a bottle and leaving. In a city that has just lost both its dedicated alcohol-free bar and its second bottle shop, that social function is doing real work.

There is a wider point buried in Point 5's survival. Dedicated alcohol-free retail is a genuinely difficult business: the margins are thin, the category is young, and the customer base is still forming. Richmond has now lost two alcohol-free businesses in quick succession while this one has held on, which says something about both the fragility of the sector and the value of the shops that make it through. If you care about there being somewhere in your city to buy this stuff in five years, the shops that exist now are the ones worth using.

Practical notes: it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, opens 11am Wednesday to Saturday and noon on Sunday, and closes early — 6pm at the latest, 5pm on Sundays. Plan it as a daytime stop rather than an evening one, and pair it with the rest of Carytown while you are there; Lolita's and The Daily Kitchen & Bar are both within a short walk.