No Liquor? No Problem. Order a Mocktail.

• Jaimie Warren
• Fud’s Heidi VanPelt-Belle will make your liver happy.

That first cocktail of the night is the best. Your senses are still collecting data, and your taste buds have yet to be muddled. That third cocktail, though? Boy, howdy. There you sit, piping blue slush down your gullet, ruining tomorrow in advance. Alcohol abstention is in your immediate future. You need a new drink, and not some uninspired soda or cup of burned coffee — you’re taking a break from booze, not style. It’s time for a mocktail. A well-crafted nonalcoholic beverage can still be refreshing, even bracing. And it can still taste and look as complex as the mess-you-up liquor mixtures you’ve sworn off.

But where do you find them? Many local watering holes don’t include nonalcoholic drinks on their menus, and finding a place that has put some thought and craft into its mocktails is a time-consuming, frustrating task. (Don’t even try a Google search with the words virgin and drink, an errand that yields unfortunately eye-opening and soul-crushing results.) Bartenders often are up to the challenge of de-boozing a favorite drink, though, so sitting at the bar helps.