A review of Madison's N/A scene and a companion guide for Blind Shot Social Club's N/A Menu
My boyfriend and I tried every drink on the main menu at Blind Shot--and we're here to tell you which ones are best while I tell you why Blind Shot is my favorite spot in Madison.
Part 1: A review of Madison’s N/A scene
Drinks in Madison are basic AF. Standing against complex alcoholic programs in the same bars, it feels phoned in. But to me, it mostly feels like Madison isn’t living up to its potential.
Madison is a drinking city—and I think that Madison should have some of the best N/A programs in the country because it has some of the best bar programs in the country.
Truth is, Madison’s N/A drinking scene is bad.
I call the scene in Madison oops all juice, because almost every cocktail tastes like juice and nothing else.
If it’s not juice, it’s so sweet that it borders on undrinkable. There’s nary a bitter or herby cocktail in sight and very few that make me think, “Now that’s a damn drink.” And I went ev-er-y-where.
Don’t want to read my takedown of Madison’s scene, just want recommendations? Scroll down to where TL;DR is in big letters.
The first time I went to Madison, I looked at every single place mentioned on a best of list, ever.
Table Wine is often on the best of lists but had literally one bad N/A option when I went. Sardine has amazing alcoholic drinks like a Brown Butter Old Fashioned and calls it in on things like shrubs for their N/A menu. Hodge Podge makes it on best of lists, but I think it’s just because writers see coffee and think, “Sober people love that,” because their N/A cocktails are not balanced.
I know you love it—I love it too! But Leopold’s has one N/A cocktail, which doesn’t cut it for the best of lists this place frequently is listed on (imagine a best of list for beer with one beer option—coffee isn’t an N/A cocktail).
Plainspoke sometimes comes up on these best of lists with just a tonic, limeade, and root beer, which again in 2025, doesn’t cut it for “best.” Eno Vino has one decent wine on their menu but everything else is just fruit juice. Cafe Hollander isn’t necessarily juice but is just a menu full of purees. (Points for standing out with the purees, though).
Settle Down Madison is just oops all juice (I love the food here and the celery lemonade, but that’s lemonade, not an N/A cocktail). This is one place I really believe can do it if they try. Lucille shows intention with their menu (and also has promise!), but the drinks are too sweet.
The drink I had at Muskellounge was solid, but when I went, it was one of three options (the other two being cans) and it was essentially ginger beer. And look, Untitled Art, I know it’s a local darling, but it’s not top tier N/A beer.
Cordial’s drinks are all too sweet or too sour to finish. Off Broadway is just straight sour. Buck and Honeys uses ginger beer or kombucha as a crutch. Many of the breweries have one or two solid N/A beer options, which is fine, but you can get those anywhere.
And it doesn’t matter how good the drinks are at I/O because a slogan of “drinkers with a gaming problem” is not the spot I’m sending any sober person to (the drinks still aren’t good, though).
After drinking at all of these places in a weekend flurry (yes, all of them), I left Madison with a headache and canker sores.
Still, I came back and went to more, mostly focusing my second trip on places people recommended in forums, Facebook groups, or on Reddit. This mostly led me to places without official N/A menus—or whose best drinks are off menu.
People say Bar Corallini has good N/A drinks but not having an N/A menu is a clear directive not to come in if you are sober (and the drinks were just okay). Same with The Botanist Social.
Robin Room’s official N/A menu list is just juice but when you order off menu, it’s solid. The bartenders are obviously very annoyed by that request so I wouldn’t ask for that again even though the internet says this is one of the best ways to get a good N/A drink in Madison (it’s true, you’re just going to face down a very grouchy bartender, which is fair, except that they sort of bill themselves as a place you can do that in).
My favorite restaurant in the whole country, Mint Mark, has some decent N/A wines but their N/A cocktails are too sweet (the best is the Michelada which you have to order off menu and at brunch).
Gib’s will happily whip good drinks up for you, asking you what on their menu sounds good and making an approximation, but again, it’s not on the menu. Same with Tex Tubbs, who gave me a great off menu margarita.
You can go to all of these places and get a good drink, you just have to know how to order and the truth is most people don’t feel confident enough to ask for an off menu drink. But also off menu drinks mean that you aren’t prioritizing sober people—and that is totally fine, but it’s not where I’m sending anyone who is newly sober and I’m not putting that on a best of list used by sober people. You know?
Unfortunately, two places in Madison regularly listed on best of lists served me or someone next to me alcohol.
Ahan and Merchant are no fly zones for me, not just because of the fact they served me (Ahan) or a pregnant guest next to me (Merchant) alcohol, but because of how both of those restaurants handled it.
Ahan told me privately in a DM in May that they would change their menu so that their N/A drinks had different names than their alcoholic versions—they haven’t, which they didn’t have to lie to me, that’s silly! And Merchant was insistent that a pregnant woman ordered a whole ass alcoholic drink, but I heard her. She didn’t.
It doesn’t matter if those menus are good, because a bar that serves you alcohol isn’t safe for alcoholics or people who can’t drink alcohol, which at its heart, that’s who N/A menus are for. Anyway, you can click the pink line above for more of my thoughts on why serving alcohol to sober people is capital B Bad, because it seems like lots of places think it’s just going to happen, which I hope no restaurant says that about shellfish allergies.
I don’t know if people in Madison know how bad their N/A scene is.
I honestly don’t even think bartenders and owners know they are behind not just in their N/A cocktails but in their wine, their beer, and their canned cocktails lists. If you just look at your local city, you might know that your lists look like other place’s lists 3-4 years ago.
The N/A scene in Madison is so bad that someone on Reddit joked that their favorite N/A drink in Madison is a Baja Blast.
It’s so bad that best of lists in Madison literally recommend you go places with soda which is something you never see in other cities.
Here’s an example from my favorite N/A menu in my city (Herbst) and here’s a menu to my favorite N/A spot in Chicago (Bar Kumiko) to show you what thoughtful N/A menus look like in other cities.
It shouldn’t be that bad though—if it mirrored your cocktail programs, it really and honestly should be the best.
This piece is as much a shout out to Blind Shot’s menu as it is a challenge for other bars and restaurants to step it up this Dry January and call in all the same tricks they use in their beautiful cocktail programs on their N/A ones. Because right now? Most of your menus don’t cut it.
TL;DR recommendations start here.
The next time I went to Madison, I looked for deep cuts outside of Taco Bell. I found a few.
State Line Distillery has one good drink, the Astral Projection.
Same with Little Palace, their Some Like it Hot Tom Kha slaps.
At Lola’s, the Spin Class is a rock star.
Sometimes the drinks at Imaginary Factory are a hit and sometimes the entire menu is citrus. But again, you have to ask about mocktails as they are off menu (their Dill With It was so good, I got two).
None of these are on the best of lists, but I would 100% send sober people here.
Still, one great drink and a couple good ones doesn’t come close to the best place I found, with a giant menu—most of them very good.
I kept going back to Blind Shot Social Club. Over and over and over.
When I first started going, I would begrudgingly post on my Instagram, imploring my followers to send me anywhere other than a golf bar for good N/A drinks.
People told me to embrace the vibes, lean in, own that this was the best place, and champion it. Since going, I’ve become so fond of this place—and the people who work here.
It’s full of normal people by day, many of them drinking N/A drinks and eating snacks. Most people who are golfing are playing mini golf. The staff are all super friendly. The bar is stockeddddd. They have an N/A bottle shop in house. And while lots of people in Madison complain about the price, it’s under the price of national cocktail bars of the same caliber for bigger drinks (you’re just used to seeing a lot of ice at other bars you think are giving you “bigger drinks,” sorry guys).
They’re blasting eighties music and spitting fire drinks with cute color changing lights and super clean bathrooms—and the food is, for the most part, solid.
It’s the only place I regularly order N/A drinks in Madison—and it’s the only place I can in good conscience tell you to go to in Dry January
Part 2: Companion Guide: Blind Shot Social Club's N/A Menu
My boyfriend (Greg) and I worked through the entire N/A menu at Blind Shot, but we couldn’t get to the massive brunch menu. Maybe one day, we will.
You can get N/A Pabst here for $3, a Phony Negroni for $7, and lots of N/A wines for a steal. While I’ve had most of those drinks, that’s a download for another time. For now, we’re focusing on cocktails.
For this piece, I’m categorizing drinks as Botanical, Sweet, Citrus, Classic, and Straight Up Tastes Like Booze. I also tell you which are in my top three and my boyfriend’s top three below the cocktail name and we give you pairing recommendations!
Botanical
Golden ticket kinda day
This drink is spirit forward which is rare for an N/A cocktail. It has notes of coffee but the bitters are the star here. It’s the kind of drink you might like if you were an amaro drinker back in the day. It’s mellow and fernet-y with a smooth finish. I genuinely love this drink and I’d order it with their black and blue salad or after dinner.
Planes, trains, and automobiles
This is a top three drink for both Greg and Kirstie.
This is one of my favorite drinks with lots of good aperitif vibes, a good amount of fig, and a splash of orange. This is an enjoyable sipper with a good amount of balance and lots of floral notes. My boyfriend suggests pairing it with the duck empanadas as the fig in this drink will match with the plum in the sauce but I think you can order it with just about anything.
Kicked out of sunset manor
The amount of citrus listed in the menu components of this drink are deceiving. My boyfriend calls it botanical. I call it savory. I think this is a love it or hate it kind of drink. Me personally? I love it. It’s different from the rest of the line up with a taste that is slightly like Worcestershire sauce or a mole cocktail or barbecue sauce. It feels like a drink I’d want to drink at a campfire or after a long, cold Madison winter day. We’d order it with the pulled pork or the bison burger and a beer on the side like a fake “beer and a bump.”
Sweet
Pink cloud
This drink tastes like melted candy and normally I’m not into that kind of thing, but here it’s balanced against the gin. It’s served with a sour watermelon candy on top and served straight up. It’s the kind of drink you’d be into if you liked party shots. It’s bubble gum pink and perfect for summer. It looks just like a cosmo, so you can fit right in with the girls while brunching. Just don’t order it if you don’t like sweet things. My boyfriend said it’s like when you let a child mix their own Kool Aid so order it with the fancy pigs in a blanket for peak girlhood vibes.
Draw me like one of your French girls
This is one of Greg’s top three drinks.
When you take a sip of this drink, you immediately get a hit of lychee. Light and bubbly, this is easy drinking and not overly sweet. It leans on N/A rosé vibes or reminds me of a good brunch rosé drinks. It’s a really good introduction to n/a cocktails for someone not used to the flavor of n/a spirits. The seasonal grilled cheese right now has a blackberry jam and goat cheese which would pair well with this drink, because who doesn’t love goat cheese and rosé?
Oh hi mark
I ordered this drink in homage to my favorite bartender, Mark at Myriel in St. Paul. I know it’s not named after him, but I like to pretend it is. It has a good punch of cherry that’s mellowed out by the N/A mezcal. It comes with a lime on the side if you want to take this drink from sweet to a little more citrus leaning (this is how we preferred it), just make sure to stir it in. This drink feels like the previous drink’s grown up sister and I’d get it after ordering that one for a nice progression. Pair this with the peanut butter burger for grown up peanut butter and jelly vibes.
Relaxed Triangle of sadness
The leading note in this drink is water downed canned pineapple juice with not much else. It’s aptly named as it truly is sad. You can (and should) skip it.
Citrus
Energy vampire
Most N/A menus in Madison are plagued with citrus but on this menu, there’s just one citrus forward drink, which is how it should be! Tons of lemon and hints of basil, this is a grown up lemonade. If you like drinks that pack a slightly sour punch, this is your go to. If you are into the sour drinks at other Madison bars, you’ll probably like this one. I’d get it with the street corn dip as this drink leans heavily on the lime.
Classics
The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can't Read
This drink is like a subtle Manhattan devoid of the sweetness plaguing most N/A drinks in Madison. Squirt is a fun addition, but it’s not overpowering. It’s a note that hits at the end of the drink and reminded me of childhood. This drink leans heavily into the spirit and is probably Blind Shot’s most complex drink. If I’m drinking it, I ask them to swap out the whiskey from Ritual to Spiritless Kentucky for a bit more bite, but that’s personal preferenace. Pair this with their harvest beet salad and stretch out on the patio while you pass an afternoon listening to other people hit golf balls.
The Clio
This drink is supposed to be a martini but it tastes like juniper and very little else. If you were a martini drinker, maybe it will hit the spot (it didn’t for us). Just ask for it dirty. Not craving a martini or a mouth full of juniper? Skip it.
Elevation! Altitude!
This is one of Kirstie’s top three drinks.
This is my favorite drink on the menu. It feels like a take on one of my favorite drinks: a black Manhattan. Just instead of whiskey and Amaro, you get ghia and amaro. It’s rich and deep, not too sweet, and would pair well with any dessert (or pancakes). It’s a classic after dinner drink, so you can order it as a nightcap too (they have two sippers on the menu that also function like nightcaps—both are good). This drink is so good, I recreated it at home with my own bar.
Straight up tastes like booze
e pluribus unum
This is one of Kirstie and Greg’s top three drinks.
The first time I got this drink, I sent it back, because as my boyfriend said, “It straight up tastes like booze.” The reason for that is likely the Spiritless Kentucky 74, which lots of sober people say is too close to the real thing to touch (personally, I love it). A well executed mix of N/A spirits is the base of this drink along with some orange notes, with a hit of rosemary that’s just barely there. If you wanted to, you could ask them to top it off with Coca Cola for a fun rum and coke imitation. To lean into the funkiness of the drink, get the peanut butter burger. The go to side at Blind Shot is always the onion rings.
This is a new series for me—and I can’t wait to give you more N/A cocktail menu companion guides, in Madison and elsewhere.
Plan to use this guide? This piece was funded entirely by my subscribers. ✨✨.
It takes about 12 reader subscriptions for me to cover one restaurant review but to cover drinks for one menu, it takes just 2-3 subscribers. Want more content like this? Become a paid subscriber!
Special thank you to my boyfriend Greg who not only let me take notes, but who participated in writing them with me live at the bar. Most of the pairing recommendations you see came from him, so say, “Thanks Greg!” to yourself. He’s a true champ.
