Where to Get Incredible Non-Alcoholic Cocktails in Los Angeles

Far as we are from the equator, L.A.’s produce overlaps with the tropics, giving Lucia ample access to passionfruit, citrus, and greens for lush cocktails. At this visually stunning Fairfax Caribbean hotspot, beverage director Melina Meza sprinkles her NA cocktail menu with citrusy, tangy sorrel and earthy, aromatic chado beni. The grows-together-goes-together formula works here, with cooling cocktails like the Cucumber and Chado Beni (Aplós Calme, aloe vera, citrus, and sage) tempering intense dishes like the Trini-Chinese chicken with pickapeppa, malta-ginger and pickled ginger. 

The Passionfruit and Strawberry, a tropical, slightly tart combo of Ritual NA tequila, lemon and cranberry juice, plays well with salty or spicy dishes like the snapper escovitch and pepper shrimp toast with chado beni aioli. Meza favors the warm, spicy Sorrel and Blood Orange with Bitter Optimist Cali Amaro.  “It has a surprising amount of complexity for a zero-proof cocktail, with floral notes from the sorrel, a savory warmth from the jerk spice, and the bright spice and fruit combination of blood orange and ginger all playing together in a layered way,” she says.

Hitting the downstairs bar at Mirate feels like you’ve descended deep into a jungle, with verdant vines and warm tile galore. There, you’ll find head bartender Max Reis, a mad scientist of the most welcoming variety, shaking, stirring and pouring smoke and foam with a mischievous grin. Reis, whose work catapulted Mirate to the 12th spot in 50 Best Bars’ North America rankings last year, says his NA cocktails can match their spirited siblings punch for punch, in terms of balance, texture, thoughtful ingredient quality, and food pairings. 

“(The NA cocktails) are designed to be complete, satisfying cocktails, not stand-ins or imitations,” Reis says. Try the Guerito, a mocktail version of the popular alcoholic El Guero cocktail, which draws its flavor from aguachile, nopales granita, and fresh lime juice. Or try the Taquerito, made with pineapple juice, lacto chorizo, chamomile honey, and lemon. Both cocktails, hewing to the restaurant’s Mexican American offerings, pair well with the ceviches, aguachiles, tacos, and grilled meats on the food menu.

Settle into the glowing honey onyx bar at Beverly Hills’ Marea for a sip of the impressive NA menu. Few bars are more elegant and welcoming for hanging your hat for an hour, with friendly bartenders and half-portions of pasta, plus plenty of seafood. “People want drinks that are well built, layered and intentional,” says Sheremet. “If it hits the table it should feel as considered as anything coming out of the bar.”

Drinks, overseen by bar director Kelly Verando, are inspired by Italian cocktail culture. Start with the Sunset Over Salerno, which balances the stronger flavors of Almave’s non-alcoholic blue agave and Wilfred’s bittersweet aperitif (an excellent Campari substitute) with orange and basil flavors. 

Move into the Flush Reale, which combines lime, mint and morello cherry with a fresh, herbal switch-up for dry vermouth called the Roots Divino Bianco aperitif, and is finished with a dramatic tableside pour of French Bloom NA sparkling wine into the coupe. And if you need a little pick-me-up, the Fiore della Passione brings black and green tea to the glass, with passion fruit, marigold, honey and sage for a sweet yet balanced finish. 

Photo by Brandon Barré, courtesy of Lucia

A mysterious Old Town Pasadena speakeasy lies tucked behind a restroom door in the basement of the Indiana Colony building on Colorado Blvd., below Intelligentsia Coffee. Give the password and you’re transported into a dark and sultry bar with low velvet armchairs and amorous photographs. Run by local entrepreneur Leo Temory, who also owns two other Pasadena establishments, The Speakeasy and The Cellar, this bar employs culinary techniques in the NA cocktails, including clarification, temperature control, acid balance, tea infusion, and layering texture, to make them feel “intentional and layered, not like substitutes.” 

The Day & Night features Almave Blanco, which stands in for tequila, with tangerine cordial, served in a rocks glass with a Tajín rim. Go tropical with the Beauty & The Beast, Almave Ambar NA spirit, guava juice and makgeolli, shaken and strained into a lovely flowered glass. If you prefer refreshing cocktails, sip the Android & Apple, a bright, tart mixture of Seedlip Spice, a wintry, warm NA spirit, pineapple cordial, soda water and raspberry syrup, finished with a plum powder garnish. “It’s a standout because it delivers structure, acidity, and texture in a way that appeals to all drinkers,” Temory says. “The subtle savory backbone keeps it from feeling sweet or one-dimensional.” Pair this cocktail with bites of crudo, hot honey pizza, and anchovy toast.

This Prohibition-themed Studio City speakeasy has  low red lights, a cozy brick faux fireplace, and a bubbly NA menu. Sister bar to classic Italian neighborhood spot Vitello’s, The Rendition Room has long offered NA cocktails, but recently added them to their upstairs music venue and Rat Pack-themed lounge, The Velvet Martini, due to demand. “We want all kinds of people to feel welcome and enjoy the speakeasy experience, even if they don’t imbibe,” Shelton says, noting that it’s often the bar’s younger clientele who opt for their NA cocktails. 

Most of the bar’s NA cocktails are bubbly affairs built in-glass and served on the rocks in Collins glasses, including the Nectar of the Gods, a refresher made of watermelon, cucumber, lemon and seltzer; the Eve on Earth, with white cranberry juice, grapefruit seltzer and scratch sour; and the Pearadisio, a fizzy combo of scratch sour, pear juice and seltzer. Shelton’s favorite is the Cloud9, a light and airy coconut concoction with the tropical flavors of pineapple, lemon and mango. “It’s sweeter without being too juicy—the pineapple whips up a little to create a lighter feeling, hence Cloud 9,” she says. 

If you’ve been to Thunderbolt, you know it’s not like other bars. Though the atmosphere is casual (think quieter upscale sports bar, with a casual gourmet food menu featuring a pimiento cheese burger with pickled green tomato), extreme care is taken with the cocktails, earning it the distinction of being named the twenty-fourth best bar in North America. You might not think of it as NA-friendly, but general manager Camron Robertson says that’s a misconception.

 “We have some fun NA cocktails, but our bar staff is also really creative and can create something for you on the fly,” he says. The diverse NA menu serves varied tastes, resulting in four cocktails, alongside Athletic’s Upside Dawn Lager: The Pride of Oxnard, a bubbly cocktail using whole juiced, then clarified, strawberries, combined with juniper and jasmine teas; School Night, a milk punch with Wilderton citrus and a bit of Wilderton bitter, plus passionfruit, orange and guava juices, chai and coconut; Lychee Daiquiri, made with rum extract, lychee, lime and salt in a frosty glass; and Thumper, a savory swizzle inspired by Thai red curry, made with fresh carrot and green apple juices with coconut, red curry and NA hemp amaro.

In the future, Robertson hopes to focus even more on adding texture, which he sees as missing from some NA cocktails. “[We want] to  scratch that itch that makes an NA cocktail taste like much more than just a juice drink.”

Photo courtesy of Hermon’s

Pull up a stool to the U-shaped bar of this welcoming Monterey Hills neighborhood spot, where the NA cocktails lean toward natural, fresh and straightforward, with surprising ingredients. “Eric (Alperin, of Day by Day Hospitality, who created the Hermon’s cocktail menu) and I have the same philosophy when preparing syrups for bars: little processing, little intervention,” bar lead Danny Zacharczuk says. 

He draws from his own life to bring two unexpected and creative NA cocktails to the menu, a celery spritz and a coconut fizz. The former was inspired by a desire for more intensity: Zacharczuk drank a Cel-Ray soda and found it lacking in actual celery flavor. Thus began a period of experimentation with celery cocktails, resulting in this invigorating opener of celery and fennel juice, rice and apple vinegar, lemon juice and soda, topped with a lemon peel.

The coconut fizz was inspired by the coconut ginger egg cream he used to make after exhausting swims and runs. “It was a flavorful and hydrating drink, and since third wave coffee shops took off, finding a shelf-stable coconut milk has become fairly easy,” Zacharczuk says. He mixes it with a spicy ginger beer syrup, lime juice and seltzer, serving it in a highball glass, garnished with candied ginger and a lime wedge. Both cocktails handily accompany the bar snacks and nostalgic American entrees (don’t miss the loaded potato fritters with a cream cheese cloud, bacon and chives). 

The lovely wood-paneled, plush-boothed Art Deco bar above The Benjamin is well worth advance reservation, whether for after dinner or a date. Crafting a dedicated NA menu was especially important to beverage director Chad Austin. “I’m five years sober, so I always pay close attention to NA menus when I’m out,” he says. “Unfortunately, I often don’t order because the drinks feel like an afterthought.” 

Austin built Bar Benjamin’s menu on flavors that shine sans spirits, with seasonal and at times unexpected touches that result from wild experimentation. Take the Taro Milk Punch, which combines taro, clarified milk, hemp spirit, genmaicha, lemongrass and cinnamon for a hearty standalone cocktail, or the Auro Farm, which blends tequila and negroni alternatives with Bordelet pear cider, strawberry and gochujang, for a hint of spice and smoke. The Smiley Face is Austin’s take on a mango margarita, with daring yellow bell pepper syrup, plus fermented mango, acid-adjusted pineapple, Wilderton Citrus Bitter for orange liqueur, and Optimist Smoky NA spirit instead of tequila. “The result is a savory, smoky, bright flavor profile that feels familiar but totally new,” he says. “It’s layered, complex, and genuinely delicious for anyone. Once you try it, you get it, and you fall in love.”

Chef Evan Funke’s Abbot Kinney trattoria Felix is known for its round wood-fired focaccia and its window into the kitchen, where you can watch the beautiful strands of tagliatelle come to life. The cocktails tend toward the lighter side: “In Italian drinking culture, you typically start with a cocktail to pique your appetite, before eating a decadent, carb-filled meal,” lead bartender Henry Terhune says. For that reason, he recommends the Monte Rosa, an NA amaro cocktail on the rocks in a Collins glass, layered with house-made ginger beer and lime, then garnished with fragrant basil leaves. “This drink acts in the same manner, but it can also act as a palate refresher throughout the meal.” 

The “senza alcol” section features six drinks spanning from herbal to subtly tropical. Terhune sought out superior NA aperitivo and digestivo style spirits. If you’ve ordered a rich amatriciana or cacio e pepe pasta, the Mare Nostrum, an herby spritz with England’s botanical Pentire NA apertivo, alyssum and rosemary, can clear your senses without being overly distracting. The Zenzero is a treat of freshly-juiced ginger and farmers’ market pomegranate juice with soda and lemon. For dessert, pair with the Coca-Felix, a mix of tonic and Seattle’s Pathfinder NA amaro that Terhune likens to the classic Italian soda Chinotto, “something akin to a bitter Coca-Cola.”