Nonalcoholic beverages are all the rage. Here’s where to find them in L.A.

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Saturday, Jan. 6. Here’s what you need to know to start your weekend:

• Where to find nonalcoholic beverages in L.A.
• A new trove of Epstein documents has been released
• The 17 movies we’re most excited about in 2024
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper

Where to find nonalcoholic beverages in L.A.

Is alcohol going out of style? It depends on who you ask.

A Gallup poll conducted last year showed that respondents ages 18-34 are drinking less, while respondents older than 55 are drinking more.

Whatever the trends show, one thing is undeniable: Nonalcoholic beverages are more popular than ever. Especially in Los Angeles.

Our Food team explored this explosion in nonalcoholic beverages and found entire nonalcoholic cocktail bars, nonalcoholic beer that finally tastes like … well, beer, and at-home recipes you’ll have to try.

And now, just in time for New Year’s resolutions, Dry January or whatever, we can share all the options with you.

Nonalcoholic cocktails are everywhere now. L.A. is leading the charge.

As the demand for no- and low-alcohol options grows — the industry surpassed $11 billion in market value in 2022, up from $9 billion in 2018 — menus for no-alcohol cocktails are becoming more widely available.

Some of the city’s most exciting NA programs are at bars such as Stay Zero Proof in Chinatown, which opened on New Year’s Eve. It is L.A.’s first standalone alcohol-free bar, and it specializes in drinks that combine fresh juices and bitters.

Here are 6 other bars and restaurants with NA programs

Nonalcoholic IPAs finally taste good.

For a long time, there weren’t many nonalcoholic beer options in this country. But that’s not the case today. There are so many nonalcoholic beers, it’s hard to even know where to start, my colleague Lucas Kwan Peterson writes.

He tried 19 nonalcoholic IPAs. Some of the ones he loved included a beer from Northern California brand Best Day Brewing. With its pleasant bite, it might fool you into thinking it contains alcohol (although nonalcoholic beer in the U.S. actually does contain a small amount of alcohol, typically less than 0.5% by volume).

One of his least favorites: Milkshake IPA from Surreal Brewing. Its sweet odor and vanilla flavor are fun but don’t make up for its lack of bite and bitterness.

Here are 17 other nonalcoholic IPAs to try

Danny Trejo created nonalcoholic cocktails anybody can make at home.

With the help of actor and restaurateur Danny Trejo, you can make some nonalcoholic cocktails from his new cookbook, “Trejo’s Cantina,” in your kitchen at home.

A chapter on nonalcoholic drinks includes aguas frescas and other booze-free cocktails made with fruit, spices, herbs and infused syrups and tea.

Red Alert, Trejo’s favorite alcohol-free cocktail recipe from the book, is made with charred red pepper, fresh strawberries and a hit of smokiness from ancho simple syrup. Just don’t call it a mocktail.

The week’s biggest stories

The documents are part of a 2015 defamation lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre, above, one of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, against Ghislaine Maxwell, his convicted associate and longtime girlfriend.

(Bebeto Matthews / Associated Press)

Crime and courts

• A new trove of Epstein documents has been released. Here’s what they show.
• Jimmy Kimmel tells Aaron Rodgers he’ll see him in court if he keeps up “reckless” Jeffrey Epstein claims.
• Disgraced former lawyer Tom Girardi was declared competent to stand trial.
• Ruben’s Bakery survived the pandemic and the L.A. riots only to be ransacked during a street takeover.

Politics

• Hundreds of new laws took effect in California on Jan. 1. Here are some that could affect you at home, at work, at school and on the road.
• Who would lend millions to Hunter Biden? Meet the Hollywood lawyer who has.
• A Los Angeles man was denied a green card over his tattoos. The Supreme Court might take up his case.
• These four questions will decide who wins Biden vs. Trump — Part II.

Health and science

• A potent antibiotic has emerged in the battle against deadly, drug-resistant superbugs.
• Sick with COVID and the flu: Double infections hit California hard.
• The U.S. is facing the biggest COVID wave since Omicron. Why are we still playing make-believe?

Climate and environment

• Mountains of holiday food and packing waste are clogging landfills. Is there a better way?
• Native tribes are getting a slice of their land back — under the condition that they preserve it.
• Wind gusts blow through Southern California, with colder temperatures coming this weekend.
• In a remote corner of California, roaming dog packs leave a trail of blood and terror.

More big stories

• Space shuttle Endeavour’s giant orange external tank begins its final journey.
• UC Berkeley makes dead-of-night push to wall off storied People’s Park as the campus moves to convert the historic site to student housing.
• UCLA will transform dead Westside mall into major science innovation center.

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Column One

Column One is The Times’ home for narrative and longform journalism. Here’s a great piece from this week:

(Photo illustration by Jim Cooke / Los Angeles Times; photos via Matt Laslo, Norma Torres, Andrew Harnik / AP and Jose Luis Magana / AP)

‘How are we going to defend ourselves?’ Inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection. Three years ago, Times reporter Sarah D. Wire wrote about her experience inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, typing it out on a cellphone from the House safe room. She was one of three reporters to make it inside. Now, with the aid of time and surveillance footage recently made available by the House, Wire provides a more expansive view of what it was like inside the Capitol that day.

More great reads

• Queen Mary, once a sinking white elephant, shows signs of remarkable revival.
• How the Golden Globes became too big to fail.
• A study’s surprise finding: Most workers want to be in the office more often.
• The 17 movies we’re most excited about in 2024.
• Goodbye to Sweet Lady Jane and the famous triple berry cake.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your weekend

Going out

• 🐸 🚲🍺Whether you’re sipping a custom flight at Frogtown Brewery, refilling your bike tires for free at Spoke or perusing pop-up art exhibits at the Frogtown Artwalk, a sense of connection will stay with you long after you leave L.A.’s Elysian Valley (a.k.a. Frogtown).
• 🍕14 of the most affordable picks from the 101 Best Restaurants in L.A. list.
• 🍻In a sea of nonalcoholic IPAs, we tried 19 of them. Here’s how they rank.

Staying in

• 📖 A scholar’s inspiration for a book on racial injustice: Her brother’s life sentence.
• 📺 How ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ — now streaming on Apple TV+ — honored Godzilla’s Japanese roots.
• 🍸 Here’s a recipe for NA-Spresso Martini.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

(Matt Williams / For The Times)

40 and freshly sober, I wanted to experience love. But was she the one? My broken engagement crushed my hope. Could a solo birthday pilgrimage to the Mt. Wilson Observatory be the adventure I needed to restore my wounded heart?

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Elvia Limón, multiplatform editor
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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