Soul at The Joseph

Soul is the resident bar and restaurant on the ground floor of Le Méridien Columbus, The Joseph, at 620 North High Street — next door to The Guild House and across from Marcella's, on the stretch of the Short North that has become the densest concentration of printed zero-proof menus in the city. It opens at 6am for breakfast and runs through to 11pm on weeknights and 1am on Fridays, which makes it one of the few rooms in the district where a non-drinking guest can get a properly built drink either side of dinner.

The bar's signature work is the Lost Cocktails of Columbus, a researched list that reconstructs drinks connected to the city's own bar and hotel history: the Deshler, named for the downtown hotel; the Kahiki Coffee Grog, a nod to the vanished Kahiki Supper Club; alongside a Pink Squirrel, a Clover Leaf, a Jack Rose and a Midwestern Negroni. Set apart from that list is a printed section headed ZERO-PROOF BEVERAGES, and it is composed rather than defaulted. The Casablanca Fog and the Lawn Dart share a base of Garden Spirit with kiwi, kefir and agave — kefir being an unusual choice that gives both drinks a lactic weight most zero-proof builds lack. The Orange Blossom uses Lyre's non-alcoholic gin with a house orange cordial and New Orleans N/A bitters. The Old Old Fashioned is the one that shows the intent most clearly: Lyre's non-alcoholic whiskey stirred with ginger and non-alcoholic orange bitters, a spirit-forward drink for someone who wants the shape of a whiskey cocktail without the alcohol, rather than something fruit-led. The usual hotel roster of sodas, Fever-Tree mixers and sparkling waters sits beneath, but the four named builds are the reason to go.