New Sober Bar in Chicago Will Serve Everything Except Alcohol

Opening a bar that refuses to serve alcohol to patrons sounds more like a mean practical joke than a successful business endeavor, but the founders of Chicago bar, The Other Side, believe that alcohol isn’t crucial to the whole barhopping experience. The substance-free bar is the brainchild of New Directions Recovery Service, a nonprofit organization geared towards treating addiction. New Directions president Chris Reed had the idea for a booze-free bar after realizing that he could “only go to the movie theater and bowling alley so many times” and that there were very few social spaces for young sober people

The Other Side boasts couches, pool tables, video games, and a space for live music — pretty much everything a normal bar would have, except there’s no one puking in the bathrooms and the strongest thing they have on tap is Red Bull. Shoot.

H/T + PicThx Eater