Move over, Shirley Temple
Unbelievable as it may sound, some diners do not want wine with their meal.
Think of the pregnant ones, the designated drivers, the folks who just plain don’t drink. Until fairly recently, there was precious little for them to sip at restaurants besides water (with an annoying waiter asking ‘‘Still, sparkling, or tap?’’) or, heaven forfend, a Diet Coke in a clunky 12-ounce tumbler.
Restaurants have decided to start paying attention to these customers. Some Boston-area chefs have added entire menus of nonalcoholic drinks that go with food — as opposed to, say, Virgin Marys and Shirley Temples that are really before-dinner drinks — while others have added one or two juice-based specialties that aren’t too fruity for a hearty holiday repast.
James Hackney, chef de cuisine at L’Espalier in Boston, remembers vividly the night the staff turned the corner. A couple had come into the Back Bay restaurant and ordered from the tasting menu, on which each of eight small x courses is paired with its own wine. The woman was pregnant and asked whether there was anything without alcohol.
As Hackney recalls, ‘‘The bar staff came into the kitchen and said, ‘What are we going to do?’ We threw a few things together and tried it and we fell in love with it. We added it onto the tasting menus and it’s been extremely successful.’’
Among several nonalcoholic beverages, L’Espalier now offers the Aromatic Almond Elixir, which goes well with a Japanese carpaccio of tuna, and an apple cider, quince, and clove blend that has winter written all over it.
For the most part, chefs don’t try to pair these drinks directly with the food, the way they would match a good cabernet with beef stew or a pinot grigio with fish. At Rialto in Harvard Square in Cambridge, chef and owner Jody Adams says she often suggests ‘‘some kind of juice with sparkling water. I like to offer a variety of juices: pomegranate juice, even a cranberry juice. Throw in sparkling water, and maybe a splash of orange juice. I also make my own syrups: ginger lemon syrup, citrusy syrups.’’ Her subtle mix of pineapple and pomegranate juices and soda water could accompany almost anything.
In fact, fewer people want anything alcoholic at lunch, says Radius co-owner Michael Schlow. ‘‘The days of the three-martini lunches are long gone.’’ But alcohol adds substantially to a restaurant’s bottom line. ‘‘So how are restaurants going to keep their revenues up if people are not drinking at lunchtime?’’ Schlow wonders. ‘‘We have started offering a variety of nonalcoholic beverages, starting with intensely fruit-flavored lemonades. Maybe a blackberry-thyme lemonade for lunch instead of a gin martini. You don’t fall asleep in the afternoon.’’
With a dish that includes a little mound of tuna tartare and slices of cucumber, Schlow serves an ice-cold shot of cucumber juice flavored with mint, cilantro, and a Japanese spice mixture. One of his bartenders, Daniel Motsinger, recently served up a lemonade tasting faintly of sage and lavender.
Radius wine steward David Gethmann says requests for nonalcoholic drinks to sip with food have increased in the last few years. He attributes that in part to ‘‘the designated driver thing.’’ In any group of young diners, he says, ‘‘you can usually count on somebody at the table’’ not drinking alcohol.
Darryl Settles, chef and owner of Bob’s Southern Bistro in Boston’s South End, plans a more extensive menu of nonalcoholic drinks soon. Now, he offers an orange-mint julep evocative of his food’s regional roots.
At Straight Wharf in Nantucket, chefs Amanda Lydon and Gabriel Frasca have created a tarragon lemonade, and at Blue Ginger in Wellesley, chef Ming Tsai’s staff makes ginger ale using the pastry department’s ginger syrup and sparkling water.
Not everyone in the food world is convinced all this is necessary. Chris Schlesinger, chef and owner of East Coast Grill and All Star Sandwich Bar, both in Cambridge, says, ‘‘I wouldn’t know where to begin with it. Certainly, we have lots of nonalcoholic beverages, but taking that food and alcohol thing away — there’s something missing, don’t you think?’’
Well, yes there is. But for those who don’t want alcohol with their food, it’s nice to have alternatives. And not just Shirley Temples. 