Austin Sober Bar Pop-Up Opens New Location in Downtown

A new booze-free bar is coming to downtown Austin this week, courtesy of a local sober bar pop-up. Sans Bar will serve spiritless cocktails within fitness company Swift Fit Events’s new permanent space. The Texas Wellness Oasis will open at 918 Congress Avenue, Suite 100, starting on Friday, March 31.

According to Sans Bar’s founder and owner, Chris Marshall, the featured nonalcoholic beverages will include the Follow the Fox, with mango, habanero, and Amethyst lemon-cucumber-serrano; the Sage and Sound, a cocktail with Ceder’s nonalcoholic gin, sage, aromatic bitters, and tonic; and the 918, a plant-based nonalcoholic alternative spirit called Tenneyson, topped with lime, and ginger beer. Sans Bar’s hours will be from 6 to 11 p.m. on Fridays.

Marshall, an addiction counselor, founded Sans Bar as a pop-up in 2017. He would later turn it into a permanent location at 1818 East 12th Street in East Austin in 2019. The bar, open on Friday nights, charges a $15 cover for unlimited snacks and drinks and acts as a space for sober adults to congregate and socialize. Marshall has taken his Sans Bar pop-ups all over the country, to cities like Los Angeles, Portland, Kansas City, and New York City, and hopes to turn Sans Bar into a nationwide movement, with branded drinks in stores and more permanent fixtures across the U.S. Marshall tells Eater Austin that he hopes to expand the days of operation at the East Austin bar to Thursday through Saturday in July.

Founded by Lee Ackerley, Swift Fit is a wellness company that hosts events that include yoga, meditation, sound baths, strength and conditioning training, crystal workshops, classes on making essential oils. Texas Wellness Oasis will serve as a space available for corporate or group rental, with free sound baths on Fridays.