January may be dry, but for many, limiting or completely avoiding alcohol lasts much longer than the first month of the calendar year. Reasons for abstaining from the drink range widely, but trends are clear: more people from all demographics are cutting back.From alcoholism to clinical health concerns, adverse interactions with medications to simply not matching the vibe of one’s individual personality or friend group, the market for non-alcoholic beverages and emergence of “mocktails” is hot. The New York Times reported in October 2024 that some Gen Z-ers and younger millennials enjoy going to the bars as much as their older counterpart Gen X-ers and Boomers, but they’re consciously consuming less alcohol for a variety of reasons.Industry publication Nation’s Restaurant’s News listed mocktails among their “9 restaurant food trends for 2025.” While noting that non-alcoholic adult drinks aren’t particularly new, writer Bret Thorn wrote, “Young people are drinking less, possibly because cannabis is even more widely available, and also possibly because many people who came of age during COVID-related lockdown just didn’t develop the habit of drinking in bars.” Thorn posited that restaurants responded to this by creating “well thought out and expertly crafted cocktails” that don’t happen to have liquor in them. Mark Hemmis, owner of Phoenix Upper Main in Ellicott City, told Baltimore Fishbowl he is planning to launch their mocktail menu next Tuesday. While a permanent mocktail menu has been something they have talked about for a long time, it will become a reality next week.Carrie Foley, general manager of Phoenix Upper Main, told Fishbowl that when recently a customer asked for one of their signature cocktails, the Blackberry Bramble, with everything except the gin, the server asked Foley what the cost of the drink should be. That got a conversation going with the staff about mocktails in general.“We really need to do that,” Foley said. “When we started talking to the staff, like ‘We’re going to do mocktails,’ they were like, ‘Oh, that’s great. We got asked for that all the time.’” Foley noted that the serving staff are the eyes and ears on the regular customer interaction, so they know better than anyone else what is in demand.At Phoenix Upper Main, though, the wait staff usually mix the drinks for their customers, so they must learn how to make the new mocktails as well. At the time they first started considering mocktails, they had just moved locations right before the pandemic hit. (You can follow that move on Gordon Ramsey’s show “24 Hours to Hell and Back,” as Hemmis’ restaurant was one of three featured on the episode “Save Our Town.”) The idea came up again about two years ago when Hemmis returned from Disney World with a mocktail menu from one of the restaurants there. He says they should have run with it back then.They’re running with it now, though, including getting new barware specifically for the non-alcoholic drinks, and while the menu is not yet printed, it is finalized. “We have put real thought into it,” Hemmis said. “Because I told the staff, I told Carrie and our restaurant manager that what I didn’t want to see was a pint glass with three different kinds of juice in it. We wanted good drinks.”For those who would like to have their mocktails premixed and ready to serve at home, more liquor stores are widening their non-alcoholic drink sections, and there is even a place in Hampden whose entire beverage inventory consists of non-alcoholic drinks for those who are sober or sober-curious.Modern World is on West 36th Street in Hampden, and sells a wide variety of non-alcoholic beverages along with conservas (tinned fish) and home goods. Laurie Hefner, owner of the store, calls Modern World a microbusiness because the store is very small and they don’t have any investors or funding.“The realities of the non-alcoholic beverage industry, though it is in the last few years the fastest growing section of the beverage industry, in a small store it doesn’t yield a ton of profit,” Hefner told Fishbowl. “So, it’s not a very lucrative endeavor for a small business.”While there are a range of reasons that running a non-alcoholic retail microbusiness is expensive, Hefner did notice an increase in sales over the last year, and said the store had a fruitful holiday season in 2024. Non-alcoholic beers are very popular among her regular customers, but Hefner says they arere also less risky than spirit alternatives for making mocktails at home. “I think as far as the cocktail situation goes, people do tend to look towards the RTDs, or the ready-to-drink canned cocktails, like the Phony Negroni and stuff like that,” Hefner said.She is, however, collaborating with several restaurants in the neighborhood to create their mocktail menus, and is conducting workshops helping people learn how to mix their own mocktails. On Saturday, Jan. 18, Hefner is joining with Candace Scott, owner of You Deserve the Earth, for a combined workshop called “This Time, Next Year: An Intentional Cocktail & Collage Workshop.”Hefner hopes to continue doing workshops, hosting pop-up events, and of course, running her shop at Modern World as demand continues to increase for healthy, adult-flavored alternatives to alcoholic beverages.When dining out, if a restaurant does not have a mocktail menu listed, simply inquire whether the bartender is willing to create one. You never know how talented the staff can be until you ask them!