In an era where consumption of mocktails; non-alcoholic wines, beers and spirits; and low-proof wines and spirits is on the rise, chefs and beverage directors aren’t shying away from folding these into the most elevated part of a menu: the chef’s tasting.
“From craft kombucha to mocktails, our guests were ordering them,” says Jeff Cleveland, general manager, sommelier, and partner at Birch in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “Having a pairing option for the tasting menu was the next logical option.” For example, this past spring at the farm-to-table restaurant, where the six-course chef’s-tasting menu changes daily, to best reflect what’s fresh, in season, and available from local farmers, a sugar-snap-pea dish appeared. Cleveland opted to pair it with a Pea Shrub. “I remember one guest commenting that he actually liked this pairing better than that course's wine pairing, which his wife had ordered,” says Cleveland.
For another course, featuring steelhead trout tartare served with Holy basil aioli, and where the guest was encouraged to eat it out of a perilla leaf, ginger-lime kombucha was the answer. “The beverage contributed its own flavor to the pairing, providing flavor not found in the original dish,” says Cleveland.
At Sauvage in Canmore, in Canada’s Alberta province, the five-course tasting menu is described as “a curated adventure through the Canadian landscape.” In addition to wine, fresh juice blends can be paired. “Some of our favorite matches have been,” says chef Tracy Little, “begonia spritz to pair with the sablefish with wild ginger, miso, and lovage; and Saskatoon and dandelion root fusion to pair with bison that was garnished with Okanagan cherry, black pudding, wild horseradish and potato.”
Because a huge part of the Sauvage’s concept is to celebrate foraged ingredients, these tie right in. “We get to showcase teas, ferments, infusions, and foraged botanicals with the same care and creativity as our wine list,” says Little.
In a competitive climate where it’s important to ensure you’re not overlapping with what other restauranteurs in town are pouring on their wine list, this new market category adds a definite edge. But it’s also feeding customer demand. “We launched a non-alcoholic pairing for the chef’s tasting menu because we wanted every guest to feel fully included in the experience,” says Little. “More diners are choosing little or no alcohol, and it didn’t feel right for them to miss out on the progression and storytelling that pairings bring. “
As restaurants and bars stive to be more inclusive to diners who hold not only different ideas about what makes a delicious meal, but may also request accommodations for allergies and dietary preferences, allowing these healthier drink options makes sense. This appeals to diners who simply don’t drink at all or those who want to cut back but aren’t ready to adopt sobriety. There’s also the concern of having a designated driver in a group, virtually impossible if everyone is tacking on wine pairings to a tasting menu.
Rolling out spirit-free and alcohol-free options still falls into the role of a beverage director, especially when matching flavor profiles and creating balance on the palate. As a former mixologist at other venues, Cleveland has had to learn about non-alcoholic pairings through trial and error at Birch, while still drawing upon his years of pairing experience. “It's different in that you can't rely on all the previous knowledge you gained about wine, yet some of the same rules apply,” he says. “It is important to think: Are you trying to complement the flavor or provide contrast? Will your idea elevate or overpower the flavors in the dish? Is it delicious? These are actually the same questions you ask with wine.”
Little tackles the challenge of developing a juice pairing for a specific food dish by considering three aspects:
- The role the drink plays on the palate (either cutting through the richness or extending flavors),
- If they share a sense of place (for instance, through ingredients, terroir or foraged elements),
- How this fits into the overall progression of the meal (starting light and fresh is preferred before moving into complexity)
Navigating this process allows her to flex creative muscles as it’s not just tasting wines. It’s more dimensional, while also time-consuming.
“Wine arrives with built-in structure—acid, tannin, alcohol—that naturally interacts with food,” she says. “With non-alcoholic beverages, we create that structure ourselves. Acidity might come from wild vinegars, grip from teas or herbs, texture from carbonation or fat-washing, and aromatics from foraged plants and spices. It’s a whole different ballgame to build the drink from scratch versus the natural constrictions of wine.”
Overall, the feedback for these beverages from diners has been positive: with Birch having “more and more success” with these items, says Cleveland. Some diners will even go 50/50, pairing only a few dishes with alcohol and others not, as a chance to test out something different. “While it still remains a smaller percentage of pairings sold, those who choose this option seem to do so to consume a little less alcohol. Some guests occasionally worry that traditional pairings might be overwhelming in size. By providing half of the courses with low- or no-proof options, this concern is lessened.”
The same is true at Sauvage. “Guests who don’t drink often say it’s the first time they’ve felt truly included in the ‘pairing ritual,’” says Little, “while curious drinkers sometimes choose it just to see what we’ve created.”
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