How Bars Can Profit from the Sober Curious Trend & Zero-Proof Menus

Looked at your menu and thought, “No one’s really gonna order that $12 juice, right?” I thought the same. 

But here’s the truth mocktails and zero-proof drinks are on the rise. And if your bar isn’t leaning in, you’re probably leaving money on the table.

In this episode, I’m breaking down how the sober curious trend is changing the game and how bar owners like you can turn it into a real opportunity.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why mocktails can actually be more profitable than cocktails
• What Gen Z and Millennials really want when they walk into your bar
• How to create a zero-proof menu that’s easy to sell and hard to ignore
• Housemade sodas, seasonal flavors, and those Instagrammable drinks people love
• Pricing tricks, staff training, and menu design that make this all work

This isn’t about turning your bar into a juice bar. It’s about adapting to the shift without losing what makes your place your place.

So if you’ve been side-eyeing this trend, give this a listen. You don’t have to understand it you just have to be smart enough to use it.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to the Sober Curious Movement and Its Business Potential
• 1:04 Understanding the Market Trends
• 2:59 Profitability of Non-Alcoholic Offerings
• 5:01 Creating a Dedicated Zero Proof Menu
• 7:52 Pricing and Staff Training for Non-Alcoholic Options
• 9:46 Embracing the Zero Proof Revolution

Transcript

Chris Schneider 00:00:00
Today uncover why the sober, curious movement is a golden opportunity for increasing guest check averages. Learn how to create and price a dedicated, zero proof menu that drives profits and master the art of crafting housemade ingredients for unique non-alcoholic offerings. Hello and welcome to the Bar Business Podcast, where we help bar owners increase profits, attract loyal guests, and simplify operations so you can avoid burnout and finally enjoy your life outside of your bar. I'm your host, Chris Schneider, the bar business coach. Before we get started, a quick thank you to our sponsors, Spot On, who provide a great modern solution for the bar and restaurant industry, and Starfish to use AI to turn your books into actionable steps to increase profits. So we're diving into how bar owners can capitalize on the booming non-alcoholic beverage trend. Create innovative zero proof offerings and boost profits while attracting a broader customer base. Now, we discussed mocktails all the way, way back in episode 17, which was 2023. This was the first coming on the scene. 

Chris Schneider 00:01:04
I think I expressed in that episode, I really don't understand this whole movement. I'm gonna be real honest with you. I still don't really understand why. Mocktails and sober curious are a thing. Not that I don't understand that people want to have that social experience and not drink. But for instance, my brother is not a drinker. He never consumes alcohol at all, and he orders club soda because it's cheap. So I don't understand why you could order club soda, hang out with your friends, no big deal. And you'd rather order, you know, a $12 thing of juice of different juices put together with maybe some fake booze in it. But here's the fun part about this: it doesn't have to make sense to me. It doesn't even have to make sense to you. It doesn't have to make sense to any of us because this is a trend that is real. This is something going on in our market and as a business, we have to respond to that. And we have to look at, hey, do we have these offerings? Are we maximizing the ability of our non-alcoholic cocktails for our bar? 

Chris Schneider 00:02:08
And what's interesting is if we look at the current landscape with all this, Google searches for non-alcoholic cocktails have surged over 300% in the last few years, but many bars are still treating them as an afterthought. That's telling you right there that, yeah, we don't have to understand it. I don't get it. You may not get it, but we need to do it. And the challenge that most bar owners feel here, and it's the challenge that I feel too, is balancing traditional alcohol sales—what we know to be true—with evolving customer preferences and maintaining profitability. Right? The less people that want to drink, the harder it is for us to make money. Again, from a consumer perspective, why you would be a non-drinker and you'd go to a bar and order anything other than a soda is beyond me. But from a bar owner perspective, yeah, I'd much rather sell you a $12 glass of juice or different juices and some fake booze put together in a glass. 

Chris Schneider 00:02:59
But the good news here is when we think about this overall, if we take on the right approach and we look at this and treat it as a reasonable part of our business, non-alcoholic offerings can be just as profitable as traditional cocktails, open up new revenue streams and bring in new guests. So to really dive into our conversation a bit today, where I want to start with is understanding the market and the opportunity. So if we look at Millennials and Gen Z, these are the folks driving this sober curious movement or that are all into mocktails. And the big difference, I think between—and this: I'm a millennial, but I'm an older millennial, like barely not Gen X millennial. And so maybe that's part of what's going on here, because these Millennials and Gen Z, the younger Millennial and Gen Z folks, are willing to pay premium prices for non-alcoholic alternatives to cocktails. And so in turn, that means in some cases, zero proof drinks can actually yield higher profit margins than traditional cocktails. Now, obviously, that's going to depend on exactly the juices, whether or not you're using, say, non-alcoholic vodka or non-alcoholic tequila, which again, it's beyond me that that's even a thing. 

Chris Schneider 00:04:08
But if you write those menus properly, they can be just as profitable as the rest of your menu. Because if you really think about it, you could have a tiki bar. And as long as you had a fake rum or a non-alcoholic rum—which again, I don't understand—but if you had that, you could do all the things on your normal tiki bar menu, both with booze or with fake booze, same margins. And you know, I will admit I have not costed out a lot of non-alcoholic alcohol because, well, if I'm gonna drink, I'm gonna drink and I don't own a bar. I've had some clients that have looked into this. And the thing is that a lot of times we can find good non-alcoholic alternatives for different types of alcohol that have basically the same cost. So our cost structure is no different there regardless of what we sell, whether it has booze in it or not. Now the big thing here is because Millennial and Gen Z are so into this... 

Chris Schneider 00:05:01
That's your young folks. That's the people you need to come in in the evening and really bring energy into your bar. And so expanding your customer base beyond traditional alcohol consumers is going to be huge, as that number of traditional alcohol consumers—especially among Gen Z—is declining. And this also helps us create a more inclusive environment for all guests. And it's going to increase our ability to have repeat business. An argument I made a few years ago when I was talking about mocktails is: look, if your bar is next to somebody that doesn't have mocktails and you have mocktails, and a group of people are going out and some of them don't drink alcohol, you've now become the most attractive option on the block. So it definitely can help us reach different customers and create a better environment, a more inclusive environment where more people are going to want to come in and spend their time at our bar. But also when they spend more time at your bar, they're spending more money in your bar, which is what's really important at the end of the day, to keep your business afloat. 

Chris Schneider 00:05:57
So how do we go about putting in place some of these options? Well, the first thing is, I would say create a dedicated zero proof menu. Now why do I want that as a separate menu? You could include it in your regular cocktail list. That's absolutely fine. And there are lots of bars out there that do it. But if you're really going to focus on zero proof items, there's no reason not to print out 5 or 6 of them on a separate page, even if it's also on your cocktail menu. So when people say they don't drink, you can just hand them exactly what they can order. And we need to look at, you know, with craft cocktails, mixology—a lot of what that mixology craft cocktail movement was, if we think about the late 40s into the early teens—it was a lot about housemade infusions, housemade juices, housemade combinations. You can do all of that for mocktails as well. And so really, the higher-end mixology and the mocktails almost go together better than your neighborhood bar and mocktails and this whole sober curious thing. 

Chris Schneider 00:06:59
The other thing you can do that I think is absolutely brilliant is make housemade sodas. So I don't know how many of you have ever looked into making soda. It's not near as hard as it sounds. It's essentially some syrup, some water, and some CO2—you have a soda. It's pretty easy. And you can charge a heck of a premium on housemade sodas, and they're not that expensive to make at all. And they're not that hard to make. So that's a great way to have a sober curious or a mocktail-type item. Also, look at incorporating seasonal and local ingredients for fresh appeal. Just like the rest of your menus change on a quarterly basis to reflect what's going on in your local community, the seasons, the weather, all of that good stuff. If you are running a mocktail program, that needs to be on that same pace. And make sure, just like with cocktails, that what you're producing for your mocktails is an Instagram-worthy presentation. You want people to take pictures of that, talk about how great it is. 

Chris Schneider 00:07:52
And the last note I will say here on kind of the menu and implementation: when we're looking at pricing for mocktails, you want them to be basically the same as the same drink with alcohol. So let's say you had a—I don't know, I'm not being innovative today—Tequila Sunrise on your menu that’s $10, your mocktail version of a Tequila Sunrise, which is probably just the same stuff with non-alcoholic tequila in it, should be the exact same price. It's simple, it's easy to understand, and it makes sure that you have great margins. Now obviously, if the fake tequila costs more than the real tequila, yeah, it might need to be a little more, but that's something you need to figure out. As much as possible, I would keep those two prices pegged together. Now let's talk a little bit about implementation and staff training before we wrap up for the day. So you need to train your staff to present non-alcoholic options with enthusiasm. They need to be just as excited about the mocktails as they are the cocktails. 

Chris Schneider 00:08:44
And quite frankly, when we think about servers, bartenders, I've always referred to them as being, at least in part, a commission-based salesperson. So if they're getting $12 for the real cocktail and $12 for the mocktail, makes no difference to them—their tip, their commission is going to be basically the same, if not higher, because now they have offerings to sell that most other bars don't. Make sure, just like with a normal cocktail, you're developing tasting notes and selling points for each drink and training your team on those. Make sure you have standardized recipes so that everything comes out absolutely consistent every time, just like you would with a normal cocktail. But most of all, the one thing that I would do differently about mocktails than cocktails is I would track your sales closer. I would get customer feedback. I'd start with mocktails as essentially just non-alcoholic versions of my cocktails, and then I would kind of define that, narrow it in as time goes on, so that we can better serve the market that you're in and that you can actually build some mocktail business. 

Chris Schneider 00:09:46
So just remember, the zero proof revolution represents a significant opportunity for bar owners to increase profits, attract new customers, and stay ahead of industry trends. It's weird. We may not understand it, but that sentence is still true. So by implementing a thoughtful non-alcoholic beverage program, training your staff effectively, and maintaining high standards, you can successfully tap into this growing market while maintaining your traditional offerings and in turn, increasing your bottom line. That about wraps it up for today. If you enjoyed today's insights, make sure you like, subscribe and leave a review. If you are ready to take your bar to the next level, schedule a strategy session with me by clicking the link in the show notes below. Until next time, have a great day and we will talk again later.