Black Entrepreneurs Are Leading New Orleans’s Sober Bar Movement | Eater New Orleans

"I learned that Dream House Lounge, which opened July 3 at 401 Baronne Street and was founded by David Wallace, is styled as an oxygen bar and wellness lounge and positioned as a safe haven particularly for Black and brown people rather than strictly a sober bar. It has three main offerings—an oxygen bar; "conscious cocktails" (beer, wine, and spirits that are non-alcoholic or alcohol-removed); and a bottle shop selling those menu items and other nonalcoholic bottles—and Wallace worked with mixologist Jessica Robinson of Justini Cocktails on the menu. Standouts include the Dream 75 (a riff on a French 75 made with zero-proof Ritual gin and a Tost sparkling beverage) and the Whiskey Dreams (a whiskey-sour riff made with Monday zero-proof whiskey, lemon mix, and a dried blood orange slice dipped in white chocolate), drinks customers say smell and feel like regular cocktails. The menu and bottle shop spotlight Black-owned brands such as Mocktail Club, Brooklyn Brewed Sorrel, and local Yoro, and the space—painted with Black-owned Clare paint, filled with plants from Crazy Plant Bae, and furnished with round and half-round seating—was intentionally designed to nurture dialogue, presence, and events like meditation classes, poetry and DJ nights, and chef pop-ups so people can tend to their souls." - Clair Lorell