Kim Stodel, bar director at three-Michelin-starred Providence a few blocks west of the Paramount lot in Hollywood, steeps charred sweet corn in jasmine green tea on a recent afternoon. “I have a suspicion that adding this burnt aroma will accentuate things, taking it over the edge in the way I’m hoping,” he explains of tweaking this accompaniment to an abalone dish on the seafood restaurant’s tasting menu. It’s part of Stodel’s extensive prep and constant experimentation for his nonalcoholic pairings program.
Providence has been around for two decades, Stodel overseeing drinks for more than half that span. But he’s only been concocting elaborate spirit-free progressions in the past two years. “The NA category is exploding,” Stodel says, “and we’re all still beginners, exploring.”
L.A.’s fine dining realm is at the leading edge of a new national movement in NA pairings thanks to driving, sobriety culture and the dampening effects of GLP-1 products. At Sushi Nakazawa’s lauded original Manhattan location, only 5 percent of the clientele is opting for NA beverages, while it’s 25 percent at its 5-month-old outpost along Robertson Boulevard.
Downtown restaurant Kato, a repeat on the World’s 50 Best list in recent years, was an early and enthusiastic adopter of NA pairings. “You can draw a clear parallel with the advent of serious cocktail programs in fine dining spaces 20 years ago, when those drinks became culinary,” explains Kato’s bar director Austin Hennelly. “Soon we’ll look back at the time right before right now and won’t believe alcohol-free beverages weren’t taken seriously in sophisticated restaurants because this is now what a significant percentage of people want to drink.”
Customers, especially younger generations who on average drink substantially less, are driving the demand. In turn, these fine-dining establishments — which operate on thin margins — are developing their NA programs as meaningful alternative revenue streams. (Their cost is often almost as much as alcoholic programs.) “With small restaurants in particular, when you remove wine, the numbers are very tight,” explains chef Aitor Zabala, who owns West Hollywood’s three-Michelin-starred Somni, where on many evenings up to half the clientele is opting in to NA pairings. “You need to offer more than water.” Some restaurants, including Somni, also offer hybrid menus as a way station for moderate drinkers and the NA-curious alike.
Trade tech advancements are helping those at the vanguard of the new NA movement. “Even in 2023, I was pretty discouraged by what was available,” says Sushi Nakazawa’s beverage director Dean Fuerth, pointing to “dealcoholized wine where the soul had been taken out of it.” Since then, the implementation of vacuum distillation — which separates alcohol and other compounds from wine — has allowed for better preservation of the original character. “A few years ago,” he adds, “it may have felt austere and stripped, and now it tastes like a dead ringer for the real thing.”
Wine has a long history and tradition of formalized pairings in fine dining. Sake and cocktails followed far more recently. Right now, NA is a Wild West, often integrating principles and techniques from the kitchen — the seasonal, farm-to-table ethos; the interest in fermentations, clarifications and infusions.
“It’s an area where we’re seeing quite a lot of innovation,” says Daniel Patterson, chef and owner of Hancock Park’s 5-month-old Jacaranda, where NA now accounts for about 20 percent of pairings. (He earned multiple Michelin stars and James Beard awards for his prior work in San Francisco.) Patterson highlights the house-made teas offered on Jacaranda’s NA pairing menu. “For me, tea is one of those things that requires such skill in the choosing and the roasting — there’s really a strong parallel with wine, in terms of the intent and the gradients of quality and the connoisseurship. It provides an equivalency of quality and excitement to wine.”
The pioneers of NA pairing are enthusiastic about the burgeoning movement, but most excited about what’s next. “The boom began just three or four years ago,” says Somni’s Zabala. “It’s still so young. We don’t know the future. But it will be even better.”
This story appeared in the Oct. 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.