GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — For the beer drinkers in Grand Rapids, there’s no shortage of places to grab a local brew. Many of the microbreweries will likely offer green beer, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. But there’s also a growing culture of people who are choosing to live a booze-free lifestyle. Some do it for health reasons. Others do it to save money. Regardless of the reason, many of these people still enjoy the occasional zero-proof cocktail, which refers to a mixed drink that has everything except the alcohol.
Alt City Beverage Company, located in the Grand Rapids Downtown Market, has a nice selection of zero-proof cocktails, and the menu continues to grow.
“It's a place to come to get fun non-alcoholic beverages,” Chad Clark, co-owner of Alt City, said. “The concept was born out of my brother Paul, who is also my business partner. He had quit drinking. He's been sober for going on 6 years now, and he wanted some other opportunities when he was out and about with his family at bars and restaurants.”
“What I saw was a need for better non-alcoholic options in the city of Grand Rapids,” said Paul Clark, co-owner of Alt City. “We actually came up with the name Alt City as kind of a play on the fact that Grand Rapids bills itself as Beer City. So, it's kind of tongue-in-cheek, a wink and a nod to Beer City, being the alternative to that.”
The Alt City menu currently includes six different zero-proof cocktails, plus a variety of smoothies, juices, and caffeinated beverages. And nearly everything is vegan.
“We take our craft and our beverages very seriously, but we don't take ourselves too seriously,” Paul said. “The fact that there's a joke ingrained in the name of the company is very fitting for how the company began, and Chad and I personally.”
If you’re looking for a green drink to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, these guys have you covered.
“Our green apple celery soda is very popular,” Paul said. “It’s a craft soda that we make from scratch. We start by actually juicing fresh celery and fresh green apples, then turn it into a really nice soda that we actually have on tap. My personal favorite is our green tea that we also have on tap. It's a blend of organic sencha and matcha cold brewed. It exceeds a lot of people's expectations with what they think about iced green tea, I think. It has a really nice lemon elderflower syrup that we pair with it. It can't be beat on a spring day.”
Alt City not only sells booze-free mixed drinks. It’s also one of only two places in West Michigan that sells Ritual, a line of zero-proof sprits that includes whiskey, tequila, and gin.
“How Ritual came onto my radar, I don't exactly know,” Paul said. “Probably a targeted ad to be totally honest with you, but I looked into the company a little bit more, read some reviews, thought ‘this stuff sounds pretty cool.’ I shipped myself a bottle of each of their spirits, and when they arrived, we busted them open and sampled them.”
He said they immediately knew they would use the spirits to make mixed drinks, in addition to selling the bottles on a regular basis.
“We got those shortly before Christmas, and they really just kind of took off from there,” Paul said. “We're starting to see people who have finished their first bottle and are back for more. They've been really well received.”
Alt City Beverage Company also uses and distributes local products.
“We utilize Littlefoot for our espresso,” Chad said. “They’re are an awesome little company out of Grandville. Great people. We also sell their retail offerings here. Then we have RoosRoast out of Ann Arbor. And we just brought on Fortunate Coffee Company, which is out of Traverse City.”
Alt City opened in August of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. The brothers say business has been good, despite the everchanging state mandated COVID restrictions, and the future looks promising for this unique company.
“We have a mobile catering unit that we're having built,” Chad said. “So, when things kind of get back to normal a little bit, you will see us out and about in the city doing different public events.”
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