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, but the more current address, recorded here, is 506 West Grove Street. It is worth confirming before a trip.

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.