Taking the edge off without drinking

I often find I have to repeat myself in a bar when requesting a drink, says Andrew Bonallack. Photo / File

I APPLAUD the idea of a no-alcohol nightclub, with the opening of the first of its kind on K Road in Auckland. It comes after being stopped at a checkpoint in Greytown on Wednesday night for a random breath test.

The margins for drinking are so chancy I imagine many aren't taking the chance at all, which has been hard on pubs and bars with a downturn in customers. It's one of the factors in the drop in fortunes for the Masterton Cosmopolitan Club.

The Kiwi culture is not really about drinking to enjoy social events and good company, which is more of a European model. It's about drinking to get drunk, to get wasted, to revel in the freedoms and loss of inhibitions afforded from being intoxicated. In that sense, there's little that distinguishes it from drug taking.

Yet I would like to think there is a sector of the population that would genuinely enjoy a social night out in a non-alcoholic bar.

As a non-drinker, I can tell you I never really got into binges, but I miss the social aspects of drinking. You always feel out of kilter with your surroundings because you are, most definitely, not the norm.

I often find I have to repeat myself in a bar when requesting a drink, because it's not the pattern of speech the bar guy is expecting to hear. And patterns are comforting and familiar, like holding a wine glass, even if it's grape juice.

All this faff can be avoided with a non-alcoholic bar. If there was one in Wellington, I'd go to it, if only to enjoy the camaraderie and warmth of an evening out with drinks. I don't for a minute believe such a venue is possible, economically or culturally, in Wairarapa, but it is encouraging to hear this being an emerging trend overseas in London and New York.

New Zealand has a drinking culture, but tolerance is at its lowest ever. It would be nice to think we can "take the edge off" on a night out without letting alcohol take over.