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SoBar takes over the Alchemy Coffee space at 814 W. Broad St. on Friday and Saturday nights. (Photo courtesy Vera House Studios)
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The bar area inside Alchemy Coffee (Photo courtesy Vera House Studios)
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Inside the speakeasy (Photo courtesy Vera House Studios)
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The bar setup at the sober speakeasy (Photo courtesy SoBar)
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Photo courtesy Vera House Studios
On weekend nights — during those after-dinner hours when you’re not quite ready to retreat for the evening but don’t want to sit at a bar or go to a music venue — finding somewhere to hang out where drinking isn’t the focus can be tricky.
Alcohol is pervasive, spilling into everyday moments from work happy hours and sporting events to post-shift get-togethers and even run club meetups. The food world is dominated by wine dinners, cocktail tastings, distillery tours and multicourse meals with pairings. Alcohol has long been a boozy backdrop for society, so much so that opting out can feel like opting out altogether. But in Richmond, one place is rewriting the rules of a night out.
Enter SoBar, an alcohol-free speakeasy and the first of its kind in the city. On Friday and Saturday nights, Alchemy Coffee at 814 W. Broad St. transforms into an intimate bar setting: low lights, live music and the ritual of cocktails — all without a drop of booze.
Bobby Kruger, owner of Alchemy Coffee and Brambly Park winery in Scott’s Addition, says the idea stemmed from conversations he had with sober individuals, where a clear theme emerged: the loss of connection.
“The common thread amongst everyone I spoke with was just missing that ability to go out and socialize or be somewhere in the evening without being in an alcohol-rich environment,” he says.
The restaurateur admits, “I’ve made my livelihood on alcohol, … but this process has definitely been informative to me that alcohol culture has claimed a lot of spaces.”
With his cafe closed at night, the opportunity seemed obvious, Kruger says. “There is the possibility to have a bar space that people can congregate in and socialize, and that doesn’t involve alcohol. Unfortunately, it’s been so closely intertwined forever that these things are almost impossible to separate, but we’re trying to find a way to do that.”
Taylor Flanagan, a sober bartender for the speakeasy (Photo courtesy SoBar)
One answer was hiring a sober bartender to oversee the beverage program. Taylor Flanagan, a longtime service industry worker, has been abstaining from alcohol — a growing movement within the industry — for nearly five years.
“It’s literally a dream that I’ve always had to be able to have zero-proof cocktails on a menu that I’ve helped curate,” she says.
Flanagan, 29, attends local meetings of support groups Ben’s Friends and Riffs in Recovery. She has served at Lulu’s and The Lilly Pad, and previously worked behind the well at Get Tight Lounge. While she had been in recovery for other substances for nearly a decade, Flanagan never quit drinking. During a trip with friends she decided to cut back, only to discover it wasn’t that easy.
“At 24 I was experiencing withdrawals,” she says, and came to a realization: “I really wanted to live my life and remember things, and I just finally got to this point where I said, ‘I’m really tired of being angry and using the alcohol and everything else as an excuse.’”
Early in her sobriety, Flanagan found herself at Point 5 in Carytown, the city’s first nonalcoholic bottle shop, run by founder and owner Jody Sidle. She quickly became a regular and eventually the first in-store employee. Flanagan has lived and learned sobriety and is appreciative of the lens it gives her to create spaces for nondrinkers.
She notes the other benefits of operating a teetotaler bar: no risk of accidentally serving alcohol to a person in recovery, no longer having to navigate those “Has that customer drunk too much?” moments and even getting to taste the cocktails before serving them.
During SoBar’s inaugural weekend earlier this month, Flanagan says, “I felt really good knowing that my only responsibility that night was to make sure people had a good time and not worry about everything else. There’s something unique about being in a space where the focus is entirely on the people and the experience.”
Flanagan says the sans-booze atmosphere of SoBar feels simultaneously familiar and different. There is a welcome calm that permeates the room, backed by an energetic buzz stemming from conversation rather than overconsumption.
“It’s giving the experience of being in a bar environment, which I know I’ve missed, and giving people that space and the safety to be out somewhere and have a drink and know that nothing is even going to remotely hinder their sobriety,” she says.
In recent years, there has been a noticeable decline in alcohol use in the United States, with younger generations choosing to opt out and those before them recognizing its downsides. Drinking is no longer a given for many Americans. Nearly half of adults — 46% — now abstain from alcohol, according to Gallup, marking a record low in consumption. With it, the market for nonalcoholic beverages has steadily boomed, sober spaces have become more common, and mocktails are more mainstream. The first fully dedicated alcohol-free bar, Sans Bar in Austin, Texas, opened in 2017. While nonalcoholic options are widely available in the Richmond area, as a fully alcohol-free space SoBar is a singular concept.
For SoBar, immersing itself into an “imbibing” atmosphere also means appreciating the art behind drink-making. Sweet and fruity, juice-forward sips and basic NA highballs are set aside in favor of carefully crafted cocktails.
SoBar cocktails (Photo courtesy SoBar)
Accustomed to slinging drinks in high-paced environments and streamlining processes, Kruger has found himself doing the opposite at SoBar. “I added steps to my recipe that weren’t truly necessary or could be consolidated, just because that experience and that vibe match of getting someone to craft something for you is super important,” he says.
There are a dozen mixed drinks available at SoBar, with prep duties split evenly between Kruger and Flanagan, as well as nonalcoholic beer. While Kruger leaned into cocktail archetypes, he says, there were some revelatory moments along the way — like when he made an NA dirty martini and the response was, “This tastes too much like alcohol.” Now the drink celebrates brininess rather than booziness, carried by the punch of a prime olive (Kruger tried 30 different kinds before finding the perfect one).
Flanagan contributed recipes she has tinkered with over the years, including her original go-to sober sip: a blueberry-ginger mule, now dubbed Something Blue, and several cocktails with names inspired by her Latin heritage.
Other drinks include the Not So Dirty Chai Martini, made with Lyre’s coffee liqueur, Alchemy Yama concentrate, chai syrup and vegan foam; Cielito en Fuego, with Free Spirits tequila, lime, jalapeno, a Tajín rim and cucumber seed oil mist; Lucid Sunset Spritz, featuring Undone No. 5 Not Italian Apero, Gruvi dry secco and orange zest; Banana Bird, blending Free Spirits bourbon, Demerara sugar, banana, soy, walnut extract, lime, aromatic bitters and orange; and the High Priestess, combining Dromme Calm Empress Gin, Roots Divino bianco and grapefruit peel.
Ali Thibodeau, aka Deau Eyes, performs an acoustic set at SoBar. (Photo courtesy SoBar)
Each week, SoBar will host a musical act, from singer-songwriters (Ali Thibodeau, aka Deau Eyes, played the inaugural weekend) to DJs spinning jazz on vinyl.
The vision, Kruger says, is to expand SoBar to Sunday and Monday nights as well, aiming to appeal to the service industry community. Looking ahead, the goal is to introduce a full range of nonalcoholic cocktails, beer and wine at Alchemy Coffee and eventually bring the SoBar concept to his forthcoming Alchemy outposts. Kruger is also exploring the production of nonalcoholic wine at Brambly Park.
With a concept that reaches far beyond his raucous bar beginnings, Kruger says, he and his team are tapping into what the future of consumption could look like. He describes this as a moment of “reclaim” and a chance to redefine bar culture on more inclusive, intentional terms.
“Everyone, regardless of what their choices are, should have access to a space that caters specifically to them and to their needs,” he says. “This isn’t just about giving beverage options to people that don’t drink; it’s about giving a space that’s deliberately focused, and trying to bring something that the community is really missing here.”
SoBar operates Friday and Saturday from 7 p.m. to midnight.
