UnBAR Cafe

UnBAR Cafe opened on Larchmere Boulevard on 20 January 2020, weeks before the pandemic closed everything, and it has become one of the most quietly important rooms in Cleveland for people who do not drink. Melissa Garrett-Hirsch built it around a simple observation about how sober socialising actually fails: it is not that non-drinkers have nowhere to buy a soft drink, it is that they have nowhere to bring their friends. Her own description of the fix is the clearest statement of the idea anyone in this guide has offered — people can bring their friends here and have a good time, they can do karaoke, trivia and cards, and their friends can have the alcoholic beverage, but they don't have to. She describes the space as being like a loved one's living room, and it looks like it: green and purple walls, positive art, inspirational quotes lettered where you will actually read them. The programming does the rest, with comedy, game nights, karaoke and poetry. Her regulars' verdict, which she repeats with some affection, is that they hate telling people about UnBar because they do not want it to change.

One clarification is needed, because our earlier entry implied more than is true. UnBAR is not an alcohol-free venue. It serves alcohol, running a wine offering alongside the non-alcoholic drinks, and it hosts events aimed at sober audiences within a space that is licensed. That does not diminish it — arguably the opposite, since a mixed room where a non-drinker is genuinely catered for is harder to build and more useful to most people than a fully dry one — but it is a material fact and we had it wrong. What earns the listing is that the non-alcoholic side is made by a mixologist who specialises in that work rather than being an afterthought behind the coffee machine, alongside espresso, smoothies, soup and a light, health-conscious food menu. Two practical cautions. Its website is currently broken, serving an error page under a mismatched certificate, so there is no authoritative online menu to check. And its phone number is listed three different ways across directories. Its social accounts are active and are the reliable place to confirm hours before you travel.