As a substance abuse counselor in Austin, Texas, Chris Marshall wanted to help clients develop new habits and new ways of thinking in service of a sober life.
In that context, he’d often suggest a switch to non-alcoholic beverages, yet almost always found himself facing resistance. The conversations, Marshall says, tended to end with some variation on the following statement: “I would stop drinking, but there are no good alternatives, and I would be alone.”
“After a few years of this,” Marshall recalls, “I said, ‘OK, I gotta do something about this.’”
Chris Marshall, Sans Bar founder. Photo by Cassie Alvarado
So began Marshall’s still-unfolding journey that led him in 2017 to launch Sans Bar, Austin’s first non-alcoholic bar and turned him into a leading voice for the idea that — as his website says — “socializing can be vibrant and enjoyable without alcohol.”
It’s an idea that increasing numbers of consumers are embracing, with sales of non-alcoholic (NA) and low-alcohol beverages skyrocketing in the United States and around the world.
The trend has caught the attention of established beverage brands such as Heineken, craft brewers such as Summit Brewing and even entrepreneurs, with new ventures including Athletic Brewing Co. Demand for non-alcohol spirits, wine and other beverages is also on the rise. Visit “Spirited choices: marketing non-alcoholic beverages in a boozy world” from Quad to learn more.
Since opening his unexpected NA venture, Marshall has traveled to cities across the nation to help open NA pop-up bars and established the Sans Bar Academy, a 10-week business incubator aimed at arming entrepreneurs with the skills, knowledge, confidence and connections to succeed.
Quad recently spoke to Marshall about how Sans Bar has grown from a pop-up to an established brick-and-mortar location with regular hours and a loyal clientele — many of whom are seeking to redefine the role of alcohol in their lives.
Q. What was it like starting Sans Bar?
In December 2017, I did my first pop-up here in Austin. It was a tepid response. Six people showed up, mostly my relatives. But two of them were absolute strangers, and I felt like I was onto something. I had some local news coverage for Sans Bar, and people would ask [sarcastically], “So what’s next, a restaurant without food?” Since non-alcoholic beverages were so scarce, a lot of people just did not get it — a dedicated space for non-alcoholic products? But now people have been coming for six years now, and there’s a lot of excitement around the entire category.
Q. Did you have a sense from the beginning that the NA movement was about building community as much as the product?
I really do think that’s what people are looking for. They’re looking for community and also looking for culture. I hear people say that they love being able to go into a space that looks like a wonderful, awesome bar — but it’s non-alcoholic. [They] love being able to do trivia, to do sober karaoke, to connect with other people in a way that they could not when consuming alcohol. We’ve moved off the language of being sober, because we don’t want this to be about abstinence. We’re also reflecting the real trend, which is that the majority of people who are considered ‘non-alcoholic’ are also consuming alcohol. So, in this space, no matter what your relationship with alcohol is, there is the opportunity to make connections.
Q. Why do you think that is?
We’ve made a lot of [assumptions] about alcohol and never really stopped to ask ourselves why. It’s the