At a new, cool, constantly booked Parisian bistro last month, I asked the waiter if they had any alcohol-free drinks. An enthusiastic yes! “Orange juice, artisanal cola, water, sparkling water.” That waiter may be among the last to hear about the explosion of sober and sober-curious customers yearning for something less boring than water, less sweet than juice, and less garbage than Coke, or even, respectfully, artisanal cola. Every other restaurant seems to be catching the buzz.
Reformed drinkers are sampling dry January, dry July, sober October, and months that don’t even rhyme (parched March?). For the abstemious, there are wine and liquor stores—Boisson, Spirited Away, the New Bar, and Soft Spirits—that sound boozy but sell no wine or liquor. La Grande Épicerie, the stylish food market in Paris owned by LVMH, devotes valuable real estate to alcohol-free bottles. So does Selfridges in London. Even on the flight from New York to Paris on the business-class airline La Compagnie, I was offered a glass of bubbly from French Bloom, a sparkling wine with 0.0 percent alcohol by volume. Don’t mind if I do.
