The best bars are about more than just the drinks. From bougie craft cocktail bars to old-school dive bars, there has to be something special to set a watering hole apart. Ambiance is an important factor, blending style and surroundings to create a comfortable space. Staff and service are key; the best bartenders serve a personal experience no matter what they’re mixing. Regulars add life and a sense of welcoming community. And then there are those drinks. The best are crafted with artistry and expertise. Gratitude has all that. What it does not have is the alcohol.
Since opening in summer 2024, Gratitude is the most comprehensive zero-proof bar in Colorado, to our knowledge. Denver’s first alcohol-free bar, Awake, opened in 2021 but closed in 2022, temporarily at first, then permanently. Kava bars in the Springs and across Colorado serve variations of the calming, nonalcoholic beverage popular in Pacific Island cultures. But Gratitude’s menu includes kava, zero-proof cocktails and hybrid kava cocktails, as well as nonalcoholic beer, wine and other nonalcoholic drinks. What’s more impressive though is the community Gratitude has created.
“We’re just a bar — without alcohol,” says co-owner Michele Garrett. “It’s nice. Gratitude has all the excitement of a normal bar, but without the messiness or drunken drama of an alcohol bar. So it’s a lot more easygoing and positive, but still fun.”
Case in point, Gratitude just hosted a kava pong tournament, complete with a DJ and stadium seating in the Sluice building’s common space. And Garret says their recent New Year’s Eve party was packed out.
“People think that when you get sober or stop drinking, the world ends, it’s boring,” she says. “I’m looking at all these people, and everyone’s having a blast. It’s still fun. I think the community needs more of that.”
History Behind the Bar
Gratitude is the bar Garrett says she wishes she had when she was getting sober. In many ways, Gratitude is the space she and co-owner Rob Templin thought they would have to leave behind when they began their recovery journeys. He quit drinking cold-turkey nine years ago. She went through the Alcoholics Anonymous program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their different paths eventually led to working at a local kava bar where they met.
In 2023 they decided to open their own bar with a full range of nonalcoholic drinks, and they signed a lease at the Sluice in Old Colorado City. The Sluice opened that year as a reimagined mixed-use building that is home to Story Coffee, Surface Gallery, Echo Architecture and many artists and creative professionals. Most of the building was renovated. Gratitude’s space had not been updated yet, leaving Garrett and Templin a blank slate in a historical space.
With the help of a general contractor, the new business owners took a DIY approach as much as possible, and the build-out took a year. Behind Gratitude’s bar is the oldest known wall in El Paso County. It was built in 1859 with stone quarried in nearby Red Rock Canyon. The building was originally a general store. Through the years it served as home to the Unser family of automobile racing fame, a truck company, lumber company, printing business and a longtime Army surplus store.
Garrett took a deep dive into the building’s history, even reconnecting with the great-great-niece of the original builder. She and Templin took an even deeper dive into exposing and repairing the original stonework. The process involved removing 160-year-old plaster in small pieces by hand.“Back in the day, the barbers would give the hair to the masons, and they would mix it into the plaster to thicken it up,” Garrett says. “So every few feet we’d find like baby’s first haircut, just a chunk of human hair sticking out.”
“We never found any finger bones or $100 bills rolled up that somebody shoved into the wall,” Templin adds, sounding disappointed about both.
In the basement, Garrett shows me the sealed off entrance to a tunnel headed west toward the current Paravicini’s Italian Bistro across 28th Street. According to the Old Colorado History Society, several tunnels originally connected the building to a brewery and to the builder Charles Stockbridge’s home. But tunnels throughout Old Colorado City’s Gold Rush and Prohibition history were notoriously used to provide clandestine passage from the dry, “respectable” north side of Colorado Avenue to the bars and brothels on its south side.
Gratitude is on the north side of the street. “It’s kind of cool that 166 years later, it’s still a dry space,” Garrett says.
More Than Mocktails
When it comes to the menu, Templin is the kava expert and Garrett is the herbalist and apothecary who is constantly experimenting and blending botanicals, tinctures and oxymels (honey, vinegar and herb mixtures). As of now, Gratitude doesn’t use any of the nonalcoholic spirits on the market, preferring instead to mix their own.
“I use a lot of herbs and spices to mimic flavors,” Garrett says. “We have a gin simple that has juniper, coriander, cardamom, angelica and orange peel, and it has that same kind of flavor profile to it without having to use any spirits.”
I’m especially impressed with Garrett’s play on a mezcal margarita. Agave and lime juice form the base instead of tequila, and lapsang souchong, a smoked black tea, adds a mezcal feel and satisfying complexity.
Garrett prefers the terms temperance drinks or nonalcoholic cocktails over mocktails. Yes, they provide alternatives to alcohol, but these are beverages meant to stand on their own.
Open Minds and Open Arms
Walking into Gratitude, you’d be forgiven for assuming its a hip, craft cocktail bar. Many do. “People come in, and they’ll either immediately turn around because they’re like, Oh, you don’t have alcohol, or they’ll try something and end up staying for multiple rounds,” Garrett says.
But more and more people are seeking it out specifically for its nonalcoholic drinks. “We’ve had a stellar January, with tons of new faces and people who are excited to try it,” Garrett says.
Call it a Dry January uptick or word-of-mouth momentum, but Garrett and Templin say they see a wide range of sober or sober-curious customers that have included mom’s groups, dad’s groups, pregnant women, book clubs and families celebrating special occasions with loved ones in recovery from addiction. On my recent visit, a series of regulars come and go at the bar, and a father and young daughter enjoy a Happy to Be Here, the menu’s color-changing lemonade.
“We had a 21st birthday in here about a week ago,” Templin says. “An actual 21st birthday, and they chose to come here.”
Another couple recently came in with a confession. “They’re like, ‘A few weeks ago we drove by and saw what you were and were laughing at you guys,’” Garrett says. “Then we come home to find out she’s pregnant and Googled where can she go drinking? I’m sorry I laughed at you.”
The response has been wider than the new business owners expected. “All of our friend group is pretty much a sober community, so we knew going into this that we wanted to provide a place for people who no longer drink,” Garrett says. “We have been pleasantly surprised about how many people just choose not to drink.”
Whatever brings people in, Gratitude offers an alcohol-free space and a community as deep as they want to go.
“Staying sober is about constantly talking about it and living it and having a supportive community, so that’s what this place is,” Garrett says. “We have people that come in and say, ‘Man, I really feel like drinking, but I came here.’ I’ll tell them, ‘I’m glad you’re here. Why don’t we have a [kava] shell together. Do you want to talk about it?”
Some do. Some don’t. Either way, Garrett and Templin are definitely bartenders with a personal touch.
“Rob and I are very open about our addictions and struggles,” Garrett says. “You never know who’s listening at this bar, and you never know who’s struggling. You treat each person with kindness. We just want to help people, and the only way we know how is to be honest with ourselves and honest with our community and provide a space that people can hopefully feel the same way. The community, the people are what make everyday worth it.”
It’s that outlook that makes Gratitude a great bar, no matter that there’s no alcohol in the glass.
Find all the details about Gratitude at gratitudecos.com.
Looking for more nonalcoholic drinks in Colorado Springs?
Check out Drink Zero Proof: Where To Find the Best Mocktails from our archives.
