'We wanted to offer a different kind of experience': Cork’s first zero alcohol bar set to open 

A new bar concept has come to Cork city where the drinks are free – free from alcohol, that is!

Scheduled to open this Thursday (October 23), in time for the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival, Saor will be based at the Marina Market on Cork’s docklands.

Headed up by Steve Guiney, also co-founder of the city-based Original 7 craft brewery, the bar promises to provide all the craic of the usual pub experience but without any of the alcohol.

Tom Coughlan, founder of Urban Green Private – the company behind Marina Market - had mooted the idea of a bar there some time ago to Steve.

“We’ve been talking about it for some time,” says Steve, “but Tom has always been keen on keeping Marina Market a family-friendly space, and that kept putting the heebie-jeebies on the idea of a conventional bar.”

Notwithstanding, Steve says he felt the Marina Market deserved to have some kind of bar concept that could offer something different to regular fizzy drinks but without the booze.

“As soon as Tom said about opening a zero alcohol bar, it really spoke to me. The market should have a bar that can elevate the liquid experience for everyone there, whether that’s an alcohol replacement, an alcohol-free cocktail, or just something completely different to what else is on offer at other stalls,” says Steve.

“There has been a massive demographic change in recent years in relation to how people want to socialise, and we wanted to offer a different kind of drinking experience”

Data doesn’t lie. Attitudes to alcohol among Millennials and Gen Z show a decline. This is a generation that is more in tune with health and wellness than any before it.

“It’s not that they don’t want to drink,” says Steve, “but there is a global trend towards viewing alcohol more as a sophisticated means of socialising rather than a means to forget your troubles!”

Not just in Cork, but around the country, there is an explosion is the number of craft breweries figuring out how to offer a 0% option, alongside a craft soda industry that is experiencing rapid growth, especially with pro-biotic drinks like kefir, kombucha and living sodas.

Saor will tap into all of that and celebrate the craft 0% drinks culture in Cork and from around Ireland too.

Dundalk soft drop Fierce Mild, the aptly named Never Drinking Again from Whiplash brewery in Dublin, as will Nohoval-based Stonewall Cider’s Non-Alcoholic Cider by the bottle will be on offer. An eclectic selection of 0% wines and prosecco will be joined by refreshing canned booches and live craft sodas from Galway-based All About Kombucha.

Closer to home, Midleton-based BKultured water kefir and Ireland’s only rainwater-based kefir and booch from the creative minds in Cork’s My Goodness will be pouring too.

If that wasn’t enough, Saor is teaming up with the talented mixologist crew from Monk Cocktail Bar for a specially created and seasonally changing cocktail menu to make Saor a cocktail-forward venue.

“We’ll be running the same cocktail ethos as Monk with a menu that will switch up four times a year to reflect the changing seasons, and the kinds of flavours and cocktail experiences people want at different times of the year,” says Steve.

“The menu will evolve to showcase drinks we feel have become our signature serves as we figure out the cocktails people keep coming back for, and we can keep things fresh with seasonal flavours and ingredients to make things interesting for us and our customers.”

Saor will be located right in the heart of the Marina Market, at the central halfway point of the main concourse, and will operate seven days a week from midday to 8pm.

“We want the bar to have that community aspect to it. People can go and grab their bite to eat at one of the great food outlets in the market and then come and sit at the bar to enjoy their drinks in a really social setting.

“It’ll be everything we love about a traditional bar: the conviviality, enjoying your pint, a bit of grub and a chin-wag with everyone – just without the alcohol.

“There is an aspect of being experimental here. Saor will be the first zero alcohol bar in Cork, and being agile, listening to what people want, and being reactive to how the market is trending is going to be key to it being a success.

“Our ears are open; we’re 100% up for considering requests for what people want to have here, and within the zero alcohol sphere there’s plenty of scope.”

While the opening is scheduled to coincide with another mighty Cork Jazz weekend, it’s also catching the tail end of Sober October.

“Sober October, Dry January, Sober Curious, Sober Socialising – we do plan on linking in with all those types of events as well,” says Steve.

“There’s a gap in the market currently for those who are sober curious that is beyond the coffee shop – a third space aside from bars, where people can meet and have conviviality, but don’t have to worry about the alcohol part.”

Times are a-changing, and the reality is while people still want the craic agus ceol on a night out, the feeling of overindulgence and the dreaded fear isn’t worth the blurred memories.

“Come to us because there’s fantastic Irish producers making zero alcohol drinks that will elevate your Marina Market experience, so you can soar with Saor!”