Saltbrush

Saltbrush is a restaurant on West Grove Street in downtown Boise, and its two named alcohol-free drinks are worth a moment because of what they are called.

Queen of the Meadow is an old English country name for meadowsweet, a hedgerow herb with a long history in drinks — it was used to flavour mead and beer for centuries before hops took over, and it carries a faintly almond, faintly bitter character. Quivering Quinine names the compound that makes tonic water taste of anything: quinine is the bitter alkaloid from cinchona bark, and it is the reason a gin and tonic is refreshing rather than merely cold.

Both names foreground bitterness. That is unusual and it is diagnostic. The default alcohol-free menu leads with fruit — strawberry, passionfruit, pineapple — because sweetness is easy and inoffensive. Naming a drink after a bitter herb or a bitter alkaloid is a statement of intent: these are drinks designed for people who want something dry and structured, not a soft drink in a nice glass. Given that bitterness is the single hardest quality to deliver without alcohol, a bar advertising it up front is one that has done the work.

A note on the address: local coverage lists Saltbrush at 106 North 6th Street, while Google places it at 506 West Grove Street. The Grove Street address is recorded here as the more current, but it is worth confirming.

The hours are moderate — 4pm to 9pm through the week, to 10pm Friday and Saturday, closed Sunday. Being on the same block as Tavolàta makes the two easy to combine, and both are a short walk from the 8th Street bars. Grove Street and 8th Street together hold most of what this guide recommends, which makes downtown Boise unusually walkable for a non-drinker.