RACINE, Wis. — It looks like a bar, has drinks like a bar, and has games like darts and pool that you'd find in a bar. However, there is one thing that makes this place very different from all other bars. It's a sober bar or sobar.
Welcome to "Inmoxicated" at 329 Main St, in Racine. It's opening on Dec. 14. All the drinks there are non-alcoholic. You can still get a bloody mary, an old fashioned, your favorite style of beer, or even wine but they are all mocktails.
This isn't a bar meant for kids or one of those 18+ clubs. You still have to be at least 21-years-old to get in.
The owners expect to draw the same sort of customers and foster the same spirit any bar would. The fact that there isn't any booze served at this bar speaks to something else.
“I do drink. I just don’t drink every day. I don’t want a drink every time that I go out, but there’s always that pressure to have a drink if you go to a bar with a group of people," Jeff Gustin, the manager of Inmoxicated, said.
Inmoxicated is helping solve that issue by creating a place that everyone can feel comfortable in.
“We want to make it a normal thing. We want to make people that don’t drink or don’t want to drink that day feel comfortable but not have to sacrifice a nightlife, a good time with friends," Gustin said.
It's hard to tell that this place doesn't sell alcoholic drinks. All the bottles on display look like your standard liquor bottles. Even when you try one of the drinks, you'd never be able to tell you aren't drinking a margarita or tequila sunrise. If you had no idea this place was non-alcoholic, the only way you'd learn is after having your third drink and realizing you are still completely sober. The atmosphere still feels like a bar. You can play darts with friends or put a song on the jukebox.
“What we want to do is bring that bar atmosphere that bar-style life that people know to a non-alcoholic setting," Gustin said.
At the end of the day, it’s just a place for people to hang out.
James Groh at TMJ4 first reported this story.
