The Charlotte

Zero-proof menus have a predictable shape: something with cucumber, something with ginger beer, something fruit-forward and long. The Charlotte's boxed Zero Proof section on Henderson Avenue is worth recording because it does the opposite — all four drinks are martini-format, served up, which is the hardest style to pull off without alcohol and the one non-drinkers most often miss. A long drink can hide a thin base behind ice and soda; a martini cannot, because there is nothing in the glass but the thing itself.

The Dirty Martini is the proof of intent. Built on Ritual's gin alternative with olive juice and blue cheese-stuffed olives, it is savoury, cold and bracing in the way the original is, and it gives a non-drinker something to hold that reads as an adult drink at a glance — which, in a room where everyone else is holding stemware, is a substantial part of what people are actually after. The Pornstar Martini uses vanilla, pineapple and passion fruit topped with non-alcoholic sparkling; an espresso martini and a pomegranate martini complete the set, covering the after-dinner and the fruit-forward ends respectively.

Two practical notes, because this is a venue where the published information is thinner than the menu deserves. The restaurant publishes no telephone number and no closing times — its own Instagram says it opens daily at 11am, which is all we can confirm, so treat a late visit as a gamble unless you have checked that day. And for anyone arriving from a listicle: there is no non-alcoholic French 75 on the current menu, despite it being widely reported, including by outlets that also get the Pornstar Martini right. The four martinis above are what is actually served, and they are enough of a reason to go.