Philly’s bars are embracing zebra-striping, aka switching it up between booze and NA drinks

South Philly resident Olivia Menta and her partner love exploring Philly’s food scene, often hitting up several spots over the course of an evening. But the couple doesn’t want the literal headache that can sometimes come with such excursions.

“We’re people that love to spend long nights in restaurants together, but I just don’t want to consume a lot of alcohol,” Menta, 34, said. So the pair employs a drinking strategy that strikes a compromise between temperance and indulgence, alternating between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.

To kick off an evening, Menta will order a low-alcohol cocktail — perhaps a spritz, or something vermouth or sherry-based — or a glass of sparkling wine. For her next drink, she’ll move to something non-alcoholic, a menu section that’s been growing by leaps and bounds in area bars and restaurants. She’ll switch back and forth as the night goes on, keeping her consumption (and her buzz) in check.

This increasingly popular strategy for moderating one’s intake occasionally goes by a fanciful new nickname: zebra-striping.

“Zebra-striping is the idea of alternating alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages,” explained Max Glenn, wine buyer for Picnic in East Kensington. “It offers a nice pace to a night out, as opposed to binge drinking and feeling worn out from simply being social.”

Zebra-striping is not a commonly used phrase, but the practice — which itself is not new and arguably a sign of good common sense — is encouraged and widespread. “I’m often the one introducing the term to people,” Glenn said. “But nickname or not, it’s happening. Sometimes it’s water, other times it’s switching to a non-alcoholic beer between drinks.”

Zebra-striping is highly customizable — and it has no hard-and-fast rules. “I’ve seen pubs offer to cut a pint of Guinness with 0.0% Guinness, thus making it a more sessionable 2.2% beer,” Glenn said. “Or you can alternate a regular beer with a [nonalcoholic drink] 0.0%, or water. It’s up to you.” (The Guinness idea recently stirred controversy online for what the right ratio of regular beer to NA beer should be, with 60/40 being the most commonly happy medium.)

For Menta, zebra-striping is at its best when the bar or restaurant has put some thought into its non-alcoholic offerings — something that’s happening more and more.

“I get excited when there’s something unusual to try, instead of the typical sparkling water and citrus,” she said. “Emmett [chef Evan Snyder’s Mediterranean restaurant in South Kensington] does this well — they had an NA cocktail on the menu last winter that had roasted eggplant in it … I still think about it.”

Even when the mocktails aren’t as creative as that, Menta sticks to the strategy, something she’s been doing consciously for a year and a half, ever since learning the term from her partner. “Zebra-striping is a way for both of us to explore and experience in a way that is perfectly balanced,” she said.

A growing majority of Philly’s bars and restaurants have bolstered the mocktail and zero-proof options on their menus, listing them alongside martinis, Manhattans, and beer and wine. It’s the natural evolution of a trend that has its roots in a month-long test of willpower.

“Four years ago, everyone was asking for Dry January options,” said Bonnie Garbinski, director of operations for American Sardine Bar and South Philadelphia Taproom. As time went on and the requests became more frequent, Garbinski added a few NA offerings to the regular menu; the selection has grown from there. “We now keep four to six [NA drinks] year-round.”

Sardine Bar sister establishment Second District Brewing has likewise made its menu more NA-friendly. But rather than bringing in outside NA beers and calling it a day, the Bancroft Street brewery experimented with making its own close-to-beer offering, eventually landing on a pineapple- and lime-fortified tea that’s dry-hopped to mimic the mouthfeel and flavor of a hazy IPA. The Second District team plans to keep an iteration of the beer-inspired NA soft drink on the menu, updating the fruit flavors throughout the year.

Bars aren’t the only alcohol-centered businesses integrating NA options. Local breweries have taken note of customers’ zero-proof inclinations: Ardmore’s Tired Hands debuted non-alcoholic IPA N/Alien Church in 2024, and Callowhill’s Love City Brewing introduced its first NA beer, Lo-Key Lager, last year. Additionally, bottle shops all around Philadelphia are carrying NA wines, beers and cocktails. Options are vast, ranging from imported NA spritzes and spirits to emerging local NA brands, such as Cult of Trees apertifs.

The ever-increasing selection of NA products has allowed for booze-free bottle shops and bars, several of which have opened in the Philly region in recent years. While these spaces can be havens for teetotalers, they also attract customers who are curbing their alcohol consumption.

Nikki Graziano owns Fishtown’s Bar Palmina, a purely non-alcoholic space that’s been open nearly two years, with a focus on craft cocktails. Graziano said while the zebra-striping language isn’t exactly popular among her guests — “people are aware of the term, but (forgive me) in a ‘stop trying to make fetch happen’ type of way,” she said — the concept is a familiar one. About half of her customers, including several Palmina regulars, drink alcohol in other settings, she said.

“My customers are more interested in a bigger, larger lifestyle change,” Graziano said. “I think that [overall] people are just more conscious of how much they’re drinking, why, and how often.”

For Menta, the benefits of zebra-striping are obvious. “I want to feel balanced in my mind and body. Having a full dinner with wine and cocktails doesn’t always serve that,” she said. “I’m a curious person and want to try as much of the menu as possible … This is the best way to meet both of my values.

“I don’t even think about it all that much anymore,” she said. “It’s just what I do“