Tzuco

Carlos Gaytan opened Tzuco at 720 N State Street in River North, naming it for Huitzuco, the town in Guerrero where he grew up. Gaytan is a James Beard Award winner and, as the restaurant states, the first Latin American chef to achieve a Michelin star; the cooking sets Mexican technique against French training, and the restaurant describes its own approach as an austere experience in which richness comes from the purity of ingredients and the story of their origin. The dining room runs dinner six nights a week with weekend brunch service, and the bar keeps its own menu.

The non-alcoholic offering is set out under a Spirit Free (Non-Alcohol) heading that appears on both the dinner list and the bar list, sitting directly beneath the tequila and mezcal cocktails rather than in a separate corner. Daydream is the lightest of the three, a $12 build of cucumber water, lime juice, chia seeds and aloe vera juice with real texture to it. On Thyme, at $15, uses a non-alcoholic agave spirit with thyme, strawberry, lemon and soda - the closest thing on the list to a long agave highball. The NA Cosmopolitan, also $15, combines a non-alcoholic agave spirit and an orange aperitif with lime juice, prickly pear syrup and cranberry juice. Beyond the mixed drinks, Seedlip's Notas de Agave is available neat by the ounce at $9 for 1.5oz and $12 for 2oz, listed in the same block as the whiskies and amari, which means a non-drinker can order a pour and sit with it in the same way as everyone else at the table. Aguas frescas - horchata, jamaica and tamarindo - are $6, and there is a full soft list beneath that. The restaurant serves brunch on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 2pm and dinner every night except Sunday's earlier close, and the Spirit Free block appears on more than one of its menus rather than on a single card, which is the practical difference between a program and a gesture. Micheladas and a full aguas frescas list sit immediately alongside it for anyone who wants something simpler.