The Twisted Tail

The Twisted Tail occupies a corner of Headhouse Square in Society Hill, working a Southern menu against a deep bourbon list, with live music downstairs most nights. It is, in other words, a whiskey bar — which makes the composition of its two zero-proof drinks more interesting than it would be anywhere else.

The Zero Proof Ginger Spritz is built on Ghia, and that choice tells you the bar took the category seriously. Ghia is a Mediterranean-style bitter aperitivo made with gentian root, elderflower, ginger, yuzu and riesling grape juice concentrate; gentian is the same intensely bitter root that gives Aperol and most amari their backbone. A spritz built on it has real astringency rather than sweetness, which is precisely the quality that makes an aperitif work before food and precisely what juice-based alternatives cannot produce.

The Zero Proof Chili Margarita uses Aplós, a newer alcohol-free spirit built with adaptogens — botanicals such as ashwagandha marketed for their calming effect — against Persian lime, habanero and sea salt. It is worth being clear about that ingredient for a readership that includes people in recovery: adaptogens are herbal rather than intoxicating, and this contains no alcohol, but anyone who prefers their drinks entirely free of functional additives should order the spritz instead.

Both drinks are thirteen dollars, level with the bar's alcoholic cocktails. That parity is a choice and generally a good sign — the bottled alcohol-free aperitifs these use are expensive, and a bar that absorbs the cost rather than discounting the drink is treating it as a cocktail rather than as a consolation.

The hours suit a proper night out: four in the afternoon to midnight on Friday, an eleven o'clock Saturday opening that runs to midnight, and a ten o'clock start on Sunday for brunch. With live music downstairs, the evening has a structure that does not depend on rounds.