Whether you are sober, doing Dry January or trying to cut back on your drinking, there is a shop in Boston where you can taste non-alcoholic beverages before committing to buying a bottle.
If you go to your local liquor or grocery store, you may find some alcohol-free options, but odds are they are limited. Enter Dray Drinks: Boston’s first store dedicated completely to non-alcoholic beverages.
Paying homage to its founders Midwestern roots, the shop is called Dray Drinks “as a play on the phrase ‘on the wagon,’ and because non-alcoholic options are far from ‘dry;’ instead, they’re Dray,” the store’s website reads.
The shop sells everything from wine and beer to ready-to-drink beverages, and customers can try the drinks before they take them home. But free samples are not the only reason people keep coming back to Dray, according to its owner.
“We have hand selected stuff that tastes really good to us, that’s manufactured well, and is not going to be the same thing as you get it in the grocery store for the one month a year that they actually carry it,” said Pat Dooling, owner and founder of Dray Drinks, who added non-alcoholic beverages have a reputation for tasting bad.
“So we convert a lot of people on that,” he continued. “We really show them something unique, something they can’t see anywhere else.”
Dray Drinks, located at 18 Union Park St. in Boston, is the city’s first non-alcoholic bottle shop. Dray is also an online marketplace and community for anyone looking for alcohol alternatives.David Cifarelli
Dray Drinks operates on two principles. The first being a space to showcase non-alcoholic products that often do not get as much shelf space at other stores. The second being space for anyone looking for alcohol alternatives, no matter their reason.
“We don’t sell anything in the store that could be of concern,” Dooling told MassLive Wednesday. “If people come in here, particularly people who are sober and really care about it or for religious reasons, there’s nothing concerning here.”
Upholding that value was important to Dooling, who quit drinking a little more than two years ago. During his journey, Dooling was looking for drinking alternatives so he could still be included in social settings.
“I’m a big food and beverage guy. I generally love that kind of experience and having something that’s like a true adult beverage just without the alcohol,” he said.
“I kind of looked at it and was like, ‘I want to be part of this industry. I want to be part of the change occurring here.’ And then it just sort of became obvious that Boston doesn’t have any of this,” Dooling continued. “That’s what caused me to jump into this sort of store concept specifically.”
Dray Drinks, located at 18 Union Park St. in Boston, is the city’s first non-alcoholic bottle shop. Dray is also an online marketplace and community for anyone looking for alcohol alternatives.David Cifarelli
However, the ultimate goal of Dray Drinks is to help change the narrative around sobriety, which Dooling described as being very black and white.
“From what I’ve seen, we’ve traditionally viewed sobriety, or whatever you want to call it, in really stark circumstances,” Dooling explained. “What we’re really aiming to do is create this broader spectrum [and] bring some of the great stuff from sobriety and recovery out into the open and out to more people.”
Dray Drinks, which officially opened in late November, is located at 18 Union Park St. in South Boston. Dooling, who lives half a block away from the store, said South Boston was the perfect neighborhood to set up shop.
“It’s a great small-business community, incredibly supportive of small local family and founder-owned businesses, which is fantastic,” he said. “It’s also historically a place of really eclectic groups of people coming together, driving change within the neighborhood and the city at large.”
Dooling has also placed an emphasis on community engagement. So far, Dray Drinks has hosted mixology demonstrations, a yoga event and hosted private parties and tastings. The shop has also catered corporate and non-profit events.
Dray Drinks is also affiliated with a non-profit organization called Dray’s Better Days, which supports local alcohol and substance use recovery causes. A portion of the store’s sales goes toward the non-profit.
“We think people value the fact that local businesses are giving back to important local causes,” Dooling said. “It’s kind of the typical one-for-one giving concept in retail and we think consumers really value it.”
The shop posts upcoming events on its website’s calendar in addition to selling its products online. More information can be found by visiting the shop’s website. Dray Drinks is open 12-8 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
