Nate Gallant: What does one drink at dinner if not alcohol or soda?Ā
I personally have usually turned to two evening beverage standbys. The first is seltzer, which is fine. The effervescence makes me feel like I am consuming something that is, for lack of a better term, "fun." This word has come to stand for everything that I can enjoy about food and drink now that my body can no longer sustain the mindless consumption of solid and liquid calories. Something closer to the idea of a nutritious meal, rather than whatever David Chang-esque, quasi-nostalgic itch may be scratched by a beverageās craftsmanship or pure junkiness.Ā
The ideal for me has always been a decaf coffee. I grew up with the obligatory post-dinner decaf, a standard menu item in the Italian-American dense Northeast, particularly around suburban New Haven. However, as we have written about before, the coffee in DC is remarkably bad-to-mediocre for all its supposed culinary cosmopolitanism (the new Roman restaurant Aventino in Bethesda is a notable exception). I will drink any coffee during the day, I'm not a snob by any means, but when I am charged upwards of $8 for a cup at a sit-down restaurant, a bad coffee lacking in even the caffeinated boost goes down much worse. Granted, itās hard for a restaurant to keep an espresso machine running if itās not seeing constant use, but for that price one could expect an individual pourover. (At the high end, one could even try this naturally ālow caffeineā Brazilian coffee bean recommended to me by an expert friend.)Ā Ā
Perhaps the more pointed question asked by my consumption habits here is what makes a drink a "thing" if not for alcohol or caffeine? As a new teetotaler, and given the paucity of quality coffee, I have attempted something of a journey to figure out the relative satisfaction derived from beverages outside the chemical hit or addictiveness of liquid sugar and/or alcohol content.Ā
The obvious first choice is fake alcohol. The problem is that currently most of it is bad, often trying too hard to mimic mixology culture with subpar NA wines and whiskeys, at quite absurd price points for glorified or chemical-tasting juice. Personally, the high I have been chasing in this unseasonably hot spring is the cold bitterness of an Aperol or Campari, an oddly hard find in NA form. (Many of those on offer feature āadaptogensā or some other form of theoretically healthy, totally unnecessary additive.) I do recommend the increasingly omnipresent St Agrestis Phony Negroni. I prefer this 1:1 with some seltzer water and even a twist of lemon or lime, but for those who really want to get straight to the bitter-punch, enjoy this very cold and neat.Ā
Out at Namak, the new Eastern Mediterranean restaurant in Adams Morgan, I had the best NA spritz I have had to date, on the menu as a āNaperol Spritz.ā (Get it?) A huge thanks to their very knowledgeable and creative bartenders who found a great combination of "alcohol-removed" amaro and bubbly, Amaro Lucarno and Freixenet, respectively. The amaro is that rare combination of light and bitter, and the alcohol-less bubbly adds just that nice, extra tang and effervescence to make you feel you have sipped something of summer. It belongs properly beside a seasonal cocktail list. The combination has the sparkle and dark-golden hue of a proper spritz, over plenty of ice cubes, and the herbal flavor is pungent enough to substitute for the gentle burn of booze. Do make sure to keep stirring the drink, though, as the substitutes seem to separate faster than their alcohol-inclusive versions.Ā
"So, is this a kind of grape juice," I sheepishly asked the bartender about the Raisin Sharbat at Green Zone, by some distance the best bar in DC for the NA crowd (and probably for everyone, frankly). The answer was an understanding and educational but firm "no." Their version took advantage of the aging of grapes that occurs naturally in raisins, which are rehydrated and juiced for the beverage. The result is a great alternative to wine for the NA curious. The drink is aged, earthy, a bit sweet, and often made far more than the sum of its parts with bitters, date-syrup, or other bar staples. This is the definition of the elevated "juice," which their menu alludes to is a tribute to a famous version from an Iraqi juice house, profiled here. For those looking to make this concoction at home, here's a slightly different take, which constitutes another, similar drink called a "jallab." Itās one of the more approachable recipes I found for those limited to American liquor store supplies.Ā
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Have you tried the Italian soda, Sanbitter? It tastes remarkably like Campari in my opinion. I like it mixed into a good N/A beer with a big squeeze of lime or lemon. I shared the combo in a recentish post. And Lyreās N/A Amalfi Spritz is close enough to an Aperol spritz to be very satisfying as a cocktail dupe. I enjoy the One Thing posts ā thanks for the thoughts and finds!
As someone who cut out booze just over two years ago, I've got some thoughts on this. When I first cut it out, a few years back, I was all about the alcohol substitutions and had a fridge full of NA beers, ginger beers, and the like and would have welcomed the range of NA cocktails now available. This go around, however, I've taken a different stance on it all and now welcome the chance to be less drink-obsessed. I generally just drink water, flat or sparkling, coffee or tea. If I'm at a restaurant, I'll order a virgin caesar, but I could probably take it or leave it.
I'm especially skeptical of a lot of the new sparkling water takes, usually made by booze companies looking to diversify. No issues with what they're doing, but there is something to be said for just having water and not needing it to be anything more.
I would also add that after cutting out booze, I have come to roll my eyes somewhat at my previous obsession with drinking craft beers or a particular brand of gin or bourbon, as though I was a person of specific taste, who distinguished myself by this or that preference.
There's something freeing about just saying goodbye to all that and just ordering a bottle of sparkling water for the table, without much consideration for the brand.