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Are you sober? Are you curious about mocktails? Do you just want to eat a Druff's smashburger on a Saturday night?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, you're in luck: Sophie Liffick's new non-alcoholic pop-up, So Curious Co ., is coming to Druff's on Saturday. The event at 331 Park Central East runs from 4 to 9 p.m.
Smashburgers, both for carnivores and vegans, will be served alongside elevated versions of favorites from that one drive-in — you know the one — such as strawberry limeades flavored with basil and mint or a grape drink colored with butterfly pea flowers.
The name of So Curious Co. comes from the way Liffick approaches making "handcrafted, hand-curated (non-alcoholic) drinks" that no one else seems to be doing.
"The drinks I make are a little out there. Not everybody is going to pick up a drink that is made with vinegar and black pepper," Liffick said. "It was a play on words and a play on an idea: This is a curious thing that we’re doing and being able to bring some of the complexities that you find in a cocktail into a drink without booze, I think, in and of itself is kind of a science. It’s been fun to find how to bring the bitterness and the bite and the heat without that main ingredient.”
Using mixology skills, personal experience for mocktails
The desire to have complex, sippable drinks without alcohol comes from Liffick's own experience. After a decade in the restaurant industry and training to become a sommelier, she realized she had a problem with alcohol.
"When I realized alcohol didn’t agree with me, it kind of came with, 'OK, what now?'" Liffick said. "The 'what now' didn’t come for a while. I’m almost a year sober and it’s taken me a little bit of time to figure out."
She's not alone in her line of work — a 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health survey found that from 2008 to 2012, full-time workers in the food service industry had the third highest rate of heavy alcohol use and the highest rate of substance use disorder. In St. Louis, a sober support network for restaurant workers launched in April.
Liffick first put her mixology skills to work at J.O.B., developing their mocktail menu. The positive feedback there led her to experiment beyond the three drinks she created for them.
When Liffick stopped drinking, she noticed how simplistic some mocktail menus can be, often limited to Sprite with pineapple juice. In fact, she makes a point of avoiding cranberry, orange and pineapple juice in her creations.
"It started as a joke, like I’m not doing it and then it kind of became the basis for the project — we are putting thought into this and I’m going to put as much time and effort and thought into this as I would a cocktail menu. I don’t think people do that. I don’t think they do. I think mocktail menus, N.A. menus, are side projects."
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Liffick recognizes that not everyone has the same reasons for abstaining from alcohol.
"Anybody could use a night off, something else to do," Liffick said. "I’m really hoping to get this out to the right people, whether you’re health-conscious and want to take a night off of drinking; you’ve noticed you have a problem; you want to try something different."
More than offering complex drinks, Liffick hopes her pop-ups can offer a place other than a bar for people to enjoy the drinks, since not every person wants to or can go to bars. While she still bartends, she also recognizes that there's a gap not only in the menus but also places where people can go out and not drink.
"More or less, it’s almost a selfish project in a way. I’m doing what I want to do for myself," she said. "I’m going to host these events that I would want to go to, that would pique my interest and just hope that I connect with some other people."
'Staying open-minded and curious and optimistic' about future
While she's using ready-made non-alcoholic spirits for the pop-up, Liffick hopes to start making her own in the future. The money from the first pop-up will go toward paying for her LLC application. She also shared that she has a couple of other pop-up events planned.
Beyond that, she's not sure where she wants to go.
“I’m not putting a ceiling on myself or a cap. There are a lot of ways I could go with this and who knows? I really don’t know for sure where it will go," Liffick said. "There’s the idea of eventually packaging, bottling and selling things or opening a brick-and-mortar location, but I gotta not get too big for my britches yet. I’m staying open-minded and curious and optimistic.”
Susan Szuch reports on health and food for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @szuchsm. Story idea? Email her at sszuch@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield mixologist opens pop-up for 'handcrafted, hand-curated' drinks — booze-free
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