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Doing Glastonbury sober is a challenge most music-festival fans would decline.
But it was just that experience that inspired Trevor O’Shea to launch his first dry pub in a chain of entertainment outlets in Dublin last January.
Taken aback by the lack of options for non-drinkers, he set himself an ambitious task in a country renowned for its drinking culture.
“I went to Glastonbury last year and I wasn’t drinking at the time and the options at Glastonbury were shocking,” he says. “All you could get was Erdinger non-alcoholic beer, Red Bull, Coca-Cola, coffee and maybe juices. It was fine on day one, but on day four you’re done with it.
“So I was flying home and I was thinking of changing that bar at the time and I thought I love a challenge and there’s no bigger challenge to have a no-alcohol bar,” said O’Shea whose runs the Bodytonicmusic company.
Thus Board (styled as B0%ard), on Clanbrassil Street, was born, offering a vast array of non-alcoholic options ranging from a draught selection of Estrella, Heineken and Guinness 0.0, the bar’s bestseller, to zero-alcohol spirits including gins and vodkas, mocktails, alcohol-free wines and a range of IPA with suitably unconventional names such as Weird Weather and Drink in the Sun.
“What we have noticed with Board’s was that the market was far more diverse than just people who might have had alcohol problems,” says O’Shea. “There is a cultural shift. Young people don’t really drink a huge amount.
“They socialise on apps, they go on Tinder and meet people for coffee and don’t go out in groups in pubs like we used to,” says the 45-year-old. So designing a venue that combined the atmosphere of the pub with drinking options including dozens of non-alcohol drinks, pizza and games seemed the next thing for O’Shea.
A report from Drinks Ireland this year found that sales of non-alcohol beer rose by 18% in 2023. It also found that per capita drinking in Ireland was now lower than the UK and Germany. Sales of draught Guinness 0.0 in Ireland alone have grown 50% in 2023.
A second report by the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland found alcohol consumption in the country is down by almost one-third over the past two decades.
Almost a year in, O’Shea has now reintroduced alcoholic options, and he thinks the future of the non-alcohol sector lies in those bars leaning into the non-alcoholic market but not eschewing alcohol altogether.
“Is the future non-alcoholic bars, or is it a bar with a really good non-alcoholic drinks menu,” he ponders citing the arrival of vegan options on mainstream menus killing the market for pioneering vegan restaurants.
Sam Tiernan, 25, who stopped drinking 22 months ago, is one of his regular customers and has been going to Board for the past eight months for chess nights on Mondays.
Supping a hot chocolate while waiting for an opponent to become free, Sam says he likes Board because he is “less interested in going to places where the sole purpose is alcohol”. He can turn up on his own, meet people and have fun.
Across the road in a traditional boozer, Ken Jenkins, 62, who grew up in the area, remembers Board in its previous guises as The Glimmerman and Francis McKenna’s.
“I think it’s great because kids growing up now don’t want to drink. Their lifestyle is different, they are more into their gym and driving their cars,” he says. “The culture has changed from my generation when people would go out to get slaughtered. Those days are over. Thank God.”
Upstairs, Mikhail Lagura, 27, is biding his time, waiting for another chess player to arrive. It’s his second time in the pub and he’s supping tap water.
“I wanted to see what it was like to socialise in a place where you can fun without drinking alcohol,” he said. “Yes, we go to the gym, but you wouldn’t invite your mates for a night out there.”
Another solo drop-in is Matei Garcia, 40, a Spaniard who works in banking and has made the seven-mile journey across town from a business park.
“I’ve been here about 10 times,” he says, drinking his matcha latte. “I really enjoy this. I would say I’m mediocre at chess but you learn from people. The Go community also come here.”
Their experience chimes with two Irish entrepreneurs who run trampoline parks and are now set to launch a “competitive socialising” venue for adults at a Dublin racecourse, which will offer a night out centring on games such as shuffleboard, mini-golf and memory-based tech games.
“The days of people going into a bar and drinking 10 to 15 pints is a thing of the past; they want more of an experience,” Dan Begley told the Business Post this month.
