If bootleggers famously cooked up speakeasy hooch in tubs, where might non-alcoholic cocktails be mixed a century later?
Shelley Elkovich and her husband, Jeff, found a former vanilla extract factory on Rochester’s northwest side this year for their business, For Bitter For Worse. It helps that the building has possible ties to Prohibition-era booze.
“It dates back to the 1800s when it had a very shady reputation,” Elkovich said, “first [with] whiskey that was being sold as patent medicine, and then through Prohibition. There’s a big vault that indicates that there was a lot of, you know, ‘vanilla cash.’”
The founders recently relocated their personal and professional lives from Portland, Oregon, partly to be closer to their daughter in New York City and partly thanks to the $250,000 For Bitter For Worse received from the Grow-NY investment competition in 2024. The new chapter, via the turnkey vanilla factory, affords the company four times the production capacity of its former operation, allowing its fruity, fizzy fare to proliferate on the East Coast.
The timing seems right. Though beer, wine and spirits together generate nearly $70 billion in tax revenue annually, the non-alcoholic market is steadily rising; it’s expected to top $1 billion by the end of 2025, according to the global research firm NIQ. In the Rochester area, sober-friendly spaces and retail shops continue to open and remain in business, mirroring trends that see a decrease in alcohol consumption in the United States.
In fact, a recent Gallup poll found that just 54% of American adults self-identified as drinkers, a new all-time low.
But those numbers don’t tell the entire story. NIQ’s data reveals that 92% of those who purchase non-alcoholic drinks also purchase booze, and the term “zebra striping” — the practice of alternating between alcoholic and NA drinks — has entered the lexicon.
This is in line with what Elkovich said helps drive the success of For Bitter For Worse.
“One of the things that we know is that this trend is not a fad. It’s a lifestyle change that’s here to stay, and that has to do with moderation,” she said. “More people are moderating their alcohol consumption and have steadily been decreasing their consumption since before COVID, even though there was a spike during COVID.”
With more moderation comes more moderation-friendly third spaces, including local stores like AltBar, For Bitter For Worse’s very first Rochester account.
AltBar began in 2021 as a series of pop-ups featuring NA beer and wine and zero-proof spirits and opened a brick-and-mortar bottle shop on East Main Street in June 2024. The full bar followed in October.
Co-founder Bob Hartman said AltBar’s successful first year has proven that there is a need for places where alcohol is not at “the center of the experience.”
“We’ve had a good year, and not just from a business perspective,” Hartman said. “I keep calling it the ROI of joy. Just something about having people come in and have a good adult beverage that doesn’t have alcohol in it and have a look of joy on their face, or relief, or gratitude, where they didn’t think that that was going to be possible for them.”
Hartman began AltBar with his wife, Meg; the pair have had the same staff since the shop opened. That team also helped tend bar at For Bitter For Worse’s grand opening in October.
AltBar is not a music venue, but the space has hosted open mic nights and acoustic shows as well as craft nights and book clubs. Hartman said he views the opening of new NA-friendly spaces in the area as a rising tide with the potential to lift all boats.
“I can foresee a future where there’s a half a dozen spaces in Rochester that are totally sober,” Hartman said, “as people continue to experiment with moderation, or drinking less, or zebra striping.”
The newest of those spaces is the restaurant and music venue formerly known as Flour City Station on East Avenue. In September, its owners announced the immediate pivot to an all-ages NA space, with plans to become “Rochester’s first non-alcoholic music cafe, functional beverage bar, full dining experience, hemp shop and local merch/art hub.”
The plan is to operate under the new name FLOWR, with a grand opening slated for early 2026.
Down the line, it might even be a place to sip For Bitter For Worse. Right now, Elkovich said her company’s NA cocktails — vegan, gluten-free and containing no “lab-derived” ingredients — can be found in retail shops, bars and restaurants throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as at West Coast music festivals like Coachella and Bumbershoot.
Given the company’s move, a growing number of the locations will soon be in Rochester.
“We’re a national brand that also wants to have strong community ties,” Elkovich said. “That goes from supporting local nonprofits to sourcing ingredients from local farmers through hospitality venues and arts performances and music studios.”
