Booze-free bar in trendy NYC neighborhood is a hot spot where nightcrawlers sip zero-proof cocktails, play sober trivia

It’s the driest watering hole in Brooklyn.Mockingbird opened its doors as the only booze-free cocktail bar in the borough during Dry January – and its owners said they’re turning crowds away at the door over a month later.“We had to turn people away on a drag bingo night, and on Valentine’s Day we were packed,” co-owner Coulton Vento told The Post of the Park Slope hot spot that bills itself as a “zero-proof cocktail bar.” “Our soft opening was insane – we had a line out the door,” the 30-year old Brooklyn Heights resident added.Co-owner and Prospect Park resident Evan Clark, 28, said programming is a huge draw for the bar — and he plans to kickstart the city’s first “sober trivia night” on Tuesdays“So what we’re really trying to build is that adult-centric lounge/cocktail bar area … somewhere you can spend a few hours with friends and not have to order a meal,” he said.The longtime pals — both software engineers by day — concocted their plan to open the booze-free libation station on Seventh Avenue after Vento quit drinking in January 2024.It was then when he realized a noticeable lack of upscale no-alcohol venues in the Big Apple, he said.“I love going to cocktail bars, but when I gave up drinking, I wasn’t happy with the options,” Vento said.

“We started experimenting in the kitchen, we got really into cocktail books and reading obscure Reddit threads.“There’s not a lot of information out there, you really have to seek it out,” Vento added.The result is a candlelit lounge with wall-to-wall booths, bar seating, grazing snack plates and drinks ranging from $6 beers to $13 to 15 cocktails.Signature cocktails include the Fireside Toddy (Free Spirit Bourbon, lapsang souchong, kuromitsu, clove, anise and cinnamon), Doctor’s Orders (Antidote Deep Red aperitif, kemon, lime, raspberry, egg white, cream and club soda) and Ember’s Delight (Ritual Rum, Giffard Aperitif, pineapple, lime, demerara, cinnamon and oak c...