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The Sipland Guide to Nashville
Audrey
An ode to Appalachian and Japanese culinary traditions and techniques, Sean Brock’s flagship restaurant in East Nashville’s McFerrin Park serves tasting menus and a la carte dishes that highlight local ingredients, like blue crab with Cherokee White Eagle grits and tomato gravy. Each course can be paired with drinks from the extensive NA list, where options include cult zero-proof wines, beers, and produce-driven cocktails. Only have time for a quick drink and a snack? Head upstairs to Audrey’s sister bar, June.
Try Audrey, the nonalcoholic red wine that Brock created in collaboration with Proxies, the NA producer beloved by chefs and sommeliers. “It’s a jammy red blend with balanced acid,” Kelley says.
SIPLAND’S BAR TAB
809 Meridian Street
Henrietta Red
Ever since it opened in 2017, and promptly racked up several James Beard nominations, this buzzy Germantown spot has been perennially packed. Well-dressed movers and shakers convene for drinks in the chic front bar or head to the airy restaurant behind it for seafood-centric dinners courtesy of Chef Julia Sullivan, a Nashville native who previously worked at New York fine dining destinations like Per Se and Blue Hill at Stone Barnes. The space is unapologetically photogenic, with pendant lights and tiled flooring around the blue bar, plus pale wood and midcentury furnishings in the twinkling dining room.
Sipland’s bar tab: Kelley recommends the Ghia Spritz made with nonalcoholic sparkling rosé or the American-Style Water, a Ranch Water riff made with Ritual Zero-Proof Tequila, fresh lime juice, and Casamara Onda, a Sicilian-style botanical soda.
SIPLAND’S BAR TAB
1200 4th Avenue North
Le Loup
The drinks menu at this chic Germantown cocktail den above The Optimist includes several zero-proof options developed by beverage director Kenneth Vanhooser, who cut his teeth at New York City’s the NoMad and Piora before returning to Nashville in 2019. There are also seafood-driven small plates and a full bar. With its chic marble bar and velvet seating, Le Loup feels special enough to host birthdays, dates, and other celebratory evenings, but never too precious for those nights when you just want to sit alone at a bar with oysters and a good drink.
Kelley is partial to the Four, which combines tart grapefruit, pineapple, ginger, and chili with the Japanese yogurt drink Calpico for body and balance. It comes to the bar or table in a perfectly elegant coupe.
SIPLAND’S BAR TAB
1400 Adams Street
Lola
In an elegant brick building in Sylvan Park lies this Spanish restaurant and bar with a twinkling side patio. You can come in for a drink and a snack at the lively bar, which is especially buzzy during daily happy hour, or tuck into a full meal off the rotating, seasonally driven menu Chef Liam Byers, who previously worked at Dallas’ Cry Wolf and Homewood. Expect tapas like patatas bravas, crispy artichokes, and jamon sandwiches with pickles and housemade grainy mustard, as well as larger dishes like cilantro mojo-topped salmon.
Try the nonalcoholic Paloma, Kelley says, or the Pina Coco, a coconut-scented combination of NA mezcal with charred pineapple and fresh lime juice.
SIPLAND’S BAR TAB
4401 Murray Road
This all-day cafe in Belle Meade can do it all. Need a bright, inviting space to grab breakfast or lunch? Roze Pony has you covered. Craving a cardamom rose latte in the middle of the afternoon? Of course you are, and Roze Pony’s has a deservedly devoted following. If you’re meeting a friend, date, or colleague for drinks or dinner, Roze Pony has a short but sweet menu of drinks and dishes like a wedge salad with Point Reyes blue cheese, crispy half chicken, and full bar with inventive nonalcoholic cocktails and thoughtfully curated bottles.
Roze Pony
In addition to cult nonalcoholic bottled drinks like Phony Negroni (Kelley’s pick), Casamara Club, and United Ferments’ Snow Chrysanthemum NA wine, Roze Pony serves an array of low- and no-alcoholic cocktails, including the carrot-based, habanero-spiced Firewater.
SIPLAND’S BAR TAB
5133 Harding Pike
Open since 2023, Nashville’s only nonalcoholic bottle shop hosts events and sells booze-free wines, spirits, ready-to-drink cocktails, and adaptogenic beverages in a friendly space in North Nashville. Kelley appreciates how the shop’s founder, Stephanie Styll, and her knowledgeable team share recommendations on preferred and recently launched products. “A lot of times, they can open up the bottles and pour you a taste if you’re interested in trying something out,” Kelley says. In April 2024, Styll announced that she hopes to expand Killjoy and open the city’s first nonalcoholic bar in partnership with its now-shuttered neighboring restaurant, The Loading Dock.
Killjoy
(Shopping Side Bar)
Non-Alcoholic Bottle Shop
2020 Linden Ave
Nashville, Tennessee
In Nashville, you can start your day with homespun biscuits and drip coffee, pair Turkish eggs and garlic yogurt with a cannabis-infused aperitif at lunch, and round out the day at a honky tonk or sleek restaurant run by a celebrity chef. With Music City’s record-setting population growth has come a fleet of diverse tastes and talent, complementing long-standing favorites with new openings by bar and restaurant professionals from across the country and around the world.
Cassie Kelley witnessed these changes firsthand. Raised in Nashville, she lived in Manhattan for a few years before returning to Nashville in 2007 to raise her family with her husband, Charles Kelley, lead singer of the multi-Grammy-winning country band Lady A.
“Nashville is wildly different in 2024 than it was even in 2014,” Kelley says. “The level of quality that chefs and restaurateurs offer is so high, and the expectations of diners in Nashville have grown a lot, too.”
She describes the city’s low- and no-alcohol drinks scene as emerging but exciting. “It’s a priority for some of the new places that are opening,” she says, noting that her husband is sober and she has recalibrated her relationship with alcohol in recent years. “I drink alcohol but I really enjoy nonalcoholic options. As we get older, I feel the effects of alcohol on my body more than I used to, so I’m thankful that there are great nonalcoholic options in so many places. You still have the ritual of going out and having a cocktail or a complex glass of wine without feeling the effects of alcohol the next day.”
Here, an insider’s guide to the best places for nonalcoholic drinks in Nashville, Tennessee.