Boston mocktailsThree days after learning I was pregnant with my son, I found myself in a quandary. I had arranged a Back Bay bar crawl for my husband’s birthday. How would I handle this shindig when I wasn’t ready to tell everyone I was expecting? Well, I quickly called myself the “designated dragger” and said I had to stay sober to keep everyone in line. I think people bought it.

But as a working professional in Boston, I continued to get social invites to bars and restaurants before I wanted to tell people I was pregnant. Because of this, I started scoping out non-alcoholic cocktails, otherwise known as “mocktails,” that I could order around Boston.

Over the next 30-some-odd weeks, I began a hodgepodge list of the best mocktails I tried around Greater Boston. And over the last few years I’ve added even more recommendations to my list from my bartender friends in Boston — the options get better and more plentiful as the years go by! So for whatever reason you are not drinking alcohol, you can still enjoy a fun drink with great flavor.

Earls

Assembly Row, Somerville
Prudential Center, Boston

The hip Earls has a changing cocktail menu, so my favorite cocktail — a muddled mojito-style drink with mint and lime (pictured) — may not always be on the menu. But Earls boasts others, including a spring gimlet, which uses Seedlip Garden, a non-alcohol-containing base that is growing in popularity. The gimlet also includes cucumber, rosemary, and fresh lemon.

The mocktail mint cooler at Earl's in Somerville (January 2016)
The mocktail mint cooler at Earls in Somerville

Cafeteria

Newbury Street in Boston

This Newbury Street standby is well known for its two longtime non-alcoholic offerings: the Cafeteria cooler (muddled oranges, lime, lemon, and mint with fresh orange juice) and the cucumber lemon rickey (lime, mint, cucumbers, lemon, and soda water). The cucumber lemon rickey was my go-to during our Back Bay bar crawl.

Kowloon

Saugus

I’m married to a proud Saugonian, meaning the Kowloon is a regular stop when we have a rare night out. They have a whole section of mocktails on their drink menu, including my favorite — the virgin pina colada. Sweet and tropical, Kowloon makes it look just as pretty as their alcoholic tiki drinks.

Virgin pina colada at Kowloon in Saugus (February 2016)
Virgin pina colada at Kowloon in Saugus

Banyan and The Gallows

South End

I love to hear the bartending stories of a former student of mine, so I had to ask her input on mocktails. She’s currently at The Gallows in the South End, which is part of a restaurant group with Banyan, an Asian gastropub close by. Both restaurants are well versed in mocktail concocting, with house-made syrups like cranberry, mint, and blood orange available daily. Banyan sometimes has non-alcoholic house sodas on their menu as well.

Temazcal

Seaport, Lynnfield, Burlington, and Dedham

Margaritas are my guilty pleasure. I don’t get them often, but when I do, I enjoy every last drop. Margaritas were the lone alcoholic drink I missed while pregnant with my son. Temazcal to the rescue! It is my absolute favorite restaurant in all of Boston. My husband and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary at Temazcal about a month before my son was born. We asked our waitress if there was any way they could make a virgin margarita, and she said, “Of course!” A few minutes later, she stopped by with the most wonderful and refreshing drink I had enjoyed in a long time. It still had the tart lime flavor I craved.

Non-alcoholic margarita at Temazcal in Lynnfield, April 2016
Non-alcoholic margarita at Temazcal in Lynnfield

Loretta’s Last Call

Fenway

Margaritas are one guilty pleasure of mine, and sweet tea is the other. Loretta’s has the best sweet tea I’ve ever had up North. They use it as a base in many of their alcoholic drinks, but they also offer it as a standalone drink. So if you are OK with some caffeine (it has roughly 41 mg of caffeine — less than a cup of coffee), head to Loretta’s and enjoy a sweet tea that looks and tastes as good as their fun Southern-style alcoholic options.

This post was originally published in 2018 and was updated with new Boston mocktails for 2023!

Kat Cornetta
Kat grew up in Rochester, NY, and attended college in Ithaca and Binghamton, NY. She moved to Boston to earn a graduate degree in educational administration. In addition to her career in education, Kat has a part-time freelance sportswriting career covering women’s college hockey, gymnastics, and figure skating. She contributed to the Boston Herald for a decade before moving over to the Boston Globe, where she wrote their first-ever weekly women’s college hockey notebook. Her long-term career goal is to write a book. An Ipswich resident, Kat is a mother to two sons (born in 2016 and 2018) and owns a cat named after legendary Buffalo Bills head coach Marv Levy. After having her sons in 2016 and 2018, Kat is attempting to balance a full-time job in education with her writing dream and motherhood. She loves coffee, cats and 1990s NFL quarterbacks. She dislikes chewing gum, high shelves and baby pajamas that snap instead of zipper. You can read her work at sportsgirlkat.com