The Semi-Tropic

The Semi-Tropic has been an Echo Park fixture since 2015, and its name comes from local history rather than marketing: the Semi-Tropic Spiritualists Association was an early-1900s utopian collective that kept a rustic base in the wooded hills at the northern edge of the neighbourhood. The Infatuation described the room as a mellow wine and bar with a large, couch-filled space that feels more like a co-op community room than an actual bar - which is the useful detail for anyone choosing where to spend an evening without drinking. Couches, chaises, an outdoor area with fire pits, a good sound system and a room that does not push you to keep ordering are more decisive than the drinks list on that question.

The drinks list is good too. The bar is licensed, with beer, wine, spirits and cocktails, and the menu carries a Non-Alcoholic section with three shaken drinks made to order rather than poured from bottles. Plantasia, $13, is built on Amass Riverine - a Los Angeles-made non-alcoholic botanical distillate - with cucumber, cilantro, lime and yuzu soda, and the cilantro is what stops it reading as a cucumber cooler. Pineapples in Stereo, also $13, uses Martini and Rossi's Floreale, the alcohol-free version of their aperitivo, with pineapple, sugar snap pea and lime; the snap pea is the unusual ingredient and it works as a green, vegetal counterweight to the fruit. Garden Lemonade at $8 is the simplest and the one to order over ice on a hot afternoon: fresh lemonade with lavender, chamomile, soda and butterfly pea extract, which turns it violet. Beyond the cocktails the non-alcoholic list carries Stumptown nitro cold brew at $8, Tehuacan sparkling mineral water, Mexican Coke and a house wellness shot of ginger, honey, lemon, turmeric and black pepper at $7.

Practical notes. The bar opens at 2pm on weekdays and 11am at weekends, closes at midnight most nights and 2am on Friday and Saturday, and serves a full food menu from a kitchen that runs later than most neighbourhood bars. Happy hour is until 6pm daily but covers beer, wine, well drinks and three classic cocktails rather than the non-alcoholic list. It is 21-plus at all times, which is worth knowing if you are planning around a group.