If you were tasked with the job of predicting which country would be the first to introduce alcohol-free pubs, your mind wouldn’t immediately go to Ireland.

Yet, despite the fact that drinking is an Irish national sport, Dublin will be opening the doors of its first permanent non-alcoholic pub on Friday.

Good luck with that.

The Virgin Mary on Capel Street (points for the name), will only be serving 0% beer, wine and cocktails, reports The Telegraph.

In lieu of Guinness, punters can order instead a pint of “Chilled Raven” (nitro coffee and non-alcoholic porter poured from a stout tap to mimic the texture and appearance of Guinness).

“We had to offer an alternative to Guinness,” says founder Vaughan Yates, who admits that most people laugh at him when he tells them about his new venture. “People are struggling to get their heads around the idea. They say: ‘What? A bar with no alcohol? Are you mad?’” But if it can work in Dublin, it can work anywhere,” he insists.

Don’t get ahead of yourself there, buddy. You haven’t opened yet. There’s no guarantee that this is going to work, and you don’t even sound convinced:

“Dublin is one of the drinking capitals of Europe, and it has a culture that is saturated with alcohol – from christenings to funerals. It’s ingrained in the DNA of the Irish psyche. There’s no city in the world that has the kind of association with one drink that Dublin has with Guinness.”

But while Yates believes that there will always be a place for Dublin’s traditional drinking dens (the 51-year-old is not averse to enjoying a tipple himself in Grogan’s Castle Lounge, which he says is “a brilliant pub, full of characters and conversation”), he’s convinced that there is now demand for a booze-free pub in the city.

Apparently, the bar is opening in response to a cultural shift towards drinking less.

“People are more aware of what they’re putting into their bodies. They’ll go to the gym instead of going for a drink at lunchtime, and they’re conscious of the effects of alcohol on their health, especially the younger generation.”

…“We don’t serve tea and coffee because we don’t want people to think we’re in a café, and to come and sit in front of their computers. We want people to treat it as they would a pub. We had a preview evening this week and guests were feeling tipsy on the atmosphere, with a bit of a buzz – chatting away and laughing despite having drunk absolutely no alcohol. It got quite boisterous.”

That’s a lot of pressure to put on ‘atmosphere’.

Ireland isn’t the only place opening alcohol-free bars. Getaway Bar in New York invites you to sip on faux beer and kombucha on tap. In London, Redemption Bar offers mocktails to go with your vegan, sugar-free, gluten-free food.

Look, you do you.

Personally, I’d rather be enjoying a glass of Anthonij Rupert Merlot, or sipping on an ice-cold Sol, somewhere like Cafe Du Cap, where the atmosphere is guaranteed to be great – but you don’t have to rely on it to get tipsy.

[source:telegraph]