'Expect to be surprised': New mocktail bar opens in Edmonton over Canada Day long weekend

A new business is offering Edmontonians the chance to enjoy the bar without the buzz.

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Spilt Zero Proof, located on Jasper Avenue and 119 Street, is the capital city's first dedicated mocktail bar.

Offering alcohol free beer, wine, spirits and cocktails, the bar follows a teetotaler trend that started gaining traction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I think we were all drinking a little too much during that time," said Spilt CEO JoAnne Pearce. "So I started making mocktails at Happy Hour."

Pearce said her boozeless experiments turned into recipes and soon she and her business partners were bottling and selling the cocktail concoctions online and at Farmers' Markets.

"We started getting attention, and it was really fascinating to behold," Pearce said, adding there was very little competition in the mocktail sphere at the time.

"Everybody was asking us, 'Where can we find you?'" said co-founder Andrew Paul. "Spilt is kind of the answer to that."

According to Paul, Spilt is the first bar of its kind in the whole of Alberta. Unlike other sober spaces, the 80's styled speakeasy is meant to look and feel like a regular bar.

"I don't know why anyone hasn't done it before, I don't know if the market could have supported it before now," Paul said.

Recent statistics show more than half-a-billion dollars were spent last year in Canada on non-alcoholic beer, wine and spirits – up 35 per cent from the year before.

"We wanted to grab the opportunity to be at the forefront of moving this industry ahead in the most interesting, thoughtful way possible and most delicious way possible," Pearce said.

Spilt held its grand opening Canada Day weekend, with drinks priced between $5 and $15. The menu features rotating signature mocktails using local ingredients, as well as local and imported non-alcoholic beer and wine.

"For Canada Day, I will be doing a maple mule slurpee with ginger beer and maple syrup," Peace added. "People can really come in and expect to be surprised."

In addition to the bar itself, the business offers catering, retail and mocktail classes. For more information visit the Spilt Zero Proof website.