MOCKTAILS

Young adults are redefining what it means to celebrate and socialize at bars or restaurants, the difference being that fancy drinks may be part of the spread, but not alcohol.

The trend has seen bars and restaurants in larger cities adding more sophisticated non-alcohol offerings on “mocktail” menus, taking the classic Shirley Temple line of liquid refreshment to a new level of sophistication and class.

The movement toward mocktails — the non-alcoholic version of cocktails — is hot in cities like Austin, Houston and San Antonio, and is spreading to smaller satellite communities such as Taylor.

“With the Samsung plant coming and more people moving to the area, it just seemed like the right move, offering something here that they can get in the bigger city,” said Grant Lewis, owner for 1922 Libations and Bites, located in Old Taylor High at 410 W. Seventh St. in Taylor.

Samsung Austin Semiconductor announced in 2021 the company would build a $17 billion chipmaking plant in Taylor, and Elon Musk’s Tesla Gigafactory and SpaceX are 30 miles away between Bastrop and Del Valle. The 1922 Libations and Bites bar-restaurant owner said these businesses and the new residents they draw to the area made the timing just right for a place offering upscale food and drinks — including mocktails.

So, with decades of experience in the bar and restaurant business, Lewis opened 1922 Libations and Bites in the fall of 2023. He said he hopes to offer a little nicer menu and bar experience “in my own town where I live” to give locals the options they would have in a larger city.

Part of that sentiment included the Mocktail menu.

“We have some on the menu, and we will also create or make whatever someone asks for,” Lewis said. “Some are made with sugar-based syrups — all made in-house — and we also offer spiritless liquors of gin, tequila and bourbon.” He often buys the ingredients for the syrups from the apothecary upstairs from the bar to get the freshest, best ingredients possible.

While studies show that younger adults — Generation Z and millennials — have led the trend toward mocktails, others benefit from the practice, too.

“It really varies. During Dry January, we got all kinds of demographics asking for mocktails,” he noted. “Beyond that, it is more the younger generation, and they want something more than just juice thrown in a glass, something more thought out.”

Ty Schepis, a professor of psychology at Texas State University in San Marcos, specializes in research on adolescent and young-adult substance use. He said the studies do show that higher numbers among those age groups have decided to abstain from alcohol use.

“I don’t know if we necessarily see those changes in older generations unless it is just a result of aging” rather than a conscious decision, Schepis said.

Some studies show that Generation X through baby boomers have higher rates of substance abuse than earlier generations, and as compared to millennials and Gen Z, he noted.

For reference, demographers say baby boomers are those born in the post-World War II years from 1946 to 1964; Gen X 1965 to 1980; millennials (or Generation Y) are 1981 to 1996; and Gen Z are those born in the late 1990s and early 2000s, or 1997 to 2012.

“I think it is an ongoing trend that started with millennials and continues,” Schepis said, likening it to the change in tobacco use in the United States over the past 50 years. “You can see that the norms, the rules have changed.”

It is more acceptable among millennials and Gen Z to drink less or not drink at all, Schepis said.

The downside, if there is one to the alcohol statistics, is that young adults are more likely to use cannabis than in past generations.

“That is another norm that has changed with the increasing acceptance of cannabis,” Schepis said.

Tom Prince, lead bartender at The Ruby Hotel & Bar in Round Rock, says it is true that younger people drink less, but he also said that a lot of people like the atmosphere of a bar and socializing there, but don’t want to drink alcohol or simply want to drink less of it.

The Ruby Hotel, 400 Fannin Ave., put mocktails on the bar menu about three years ago, but “upped the game” about a year and a half ago to start offering more well-thought out and creative drinks.

“People are willing to pay more than they would for a simple non-alcohol drink to have a mocktail made with intention,” he said. “We usually have two or three rotating mocktails at any time and try out more during Dry January.”

He said he definitely has pregnant women who come in with family or friends and want to “have something nicer than just a soda.”

It is a hotel bar, and he said children accompanying their families also enjoy the non-alcohol drinks that are just a little more special.

Danielle Varnell, operations manager for the Spirit of Texas Brewstillery in Pflugerville, agreed that children like to have something festive and fun while out with the adults. That was one consideration in the decision to add mocktails to the drink menu at Spirit of Texas, 1715 Dalshank St.

“We recently developed 15 different drinks, and I am thinking of trying to come up with a sugar-free option maybe by this summer,” said Varnell, sister of brewstillery owner Shaun Siems.

Spirit of Texas started as a distillery in 2009 with a couple of homecrafted stills and a lot of hope and hard work, Varnell said. They added craft beer in 2018, thus the name “brewstillery.” It only made sense, Varnell said, to add mocktails to the menu.

“We currently have two rums and a whiskey and seven craft beers,” she said. “And we are a very family-friendly place. We have groups come in with people who simply do not drink, pregnant women and children. We get lots of people asking for a non-alcohol option.”

She developed 15 different mocktails geared to different taste preferences and said some of the sweeter tasting options that include grape or pineapple syrup may appeal to children, while a coffee mocktail speaks to a different age group.

“Everyone should be able to have a good time here, and there should be options for people who want non-alcohol,” Varnell said.

Melissa Hegstad, lead bartender at Applebee’s in Taylor, 103 Carlos G. Parker Blvd. N.W., said that through their corporate office there is always a rotating monthly mocktail available. But in Taylor, it is more likely to be children who ask for it.

“At this location, we tend to get more families rather than people just out for a drink,” she said. “I think the kids see these drinks and want something special, too. They are popular with children.”

Lewis said some of the offerings at his Taylor bar-restaurant are definitely adult, like the non-alcohol Bees Knees or Old Fashioned, or certain syrups made from herbs he gets from the apothecary. Others that are concocted with sweeter syrups or other sweet ingredients appeal to others.

Sometimes, he said, he simply pulls someone aside and asks if they would like a non-alcohol mixed-drink option to continue the night with friends.

“Some guys come in early, and drink while they wait for a group of friends. So by the time the friends show up ready to drink, the first guy has already had a couple,” he said. “If you notice something like that, it’s only good business to pull that guy aside after a while and ask if he would like something that looks like and feels like a drink but is non-alcohol. I mean, it’s on us as bar owners to keep everyone as safe as we can.”

Jeremy Coleman, operations manager for the Third Base in Round Rock, Second Street Station Kitchen & Bar and La Scala Italian Restaurant, both in Taylor, said mocktails are not as in demand yet in Taylor as they are in Round Rock or Georgetown.

The bars did participate somewhat in Dry January, but he has not seen a strong demand for a set mocktail menu yet.

“I’ve seen the statistics about Gen Z, and maybe mocktails are more popular right now in college towns or nearby very young populations,” he said.

Coleman, however, thinks mocktails might go over in a place like the more upscale La Scala restaurant rather than in the bars such as Third Base that are geared to service-industry folks who come to unwind after a shift at work.

“In my experience, it’s a slightly older crowd more likely to want mocktails,” he said. “I would be interested to try a mocktail menu in La Scala more than the other sites.”

La Scala is at 203 N. Main St. and Second Street is next door. Third Base is at 3107 Interstate 35 South frontage road.

He noted that as people settle into their 30s and have spouses and children, alcohol often just does not play the part in their lives that it once did. He was never much of a drinker and is less now, he added.

“And my wife, for instance, still likes to see her girlfriends and has her friend group that gets together regularly to go out,” he said. “But, since we have had kids, alcohol just does not agree with her anymore. Sometimes she ends up drinking water, but I know you want to feel part of the group and like it is something special to go out. Mocktails would be a great option for her. I mean, I think the concept appeals to an older crowd, too.”