Walking into a bar when you’re not drinking has traditionally been like being a vegetarian in a steak house. You’d watch everyone enjoy innovative and complex drinks while you sipped a virgin mojito, the equivalent of a main course of steamed vegetables.

But as more drinkers are seeking booze-free drinks, mocktail quality has surged in the Bay Area. No longer confined to “dry” January, lately drinkers have been coming in to bars like Duke’s Spirited Cocktails in Healdsburg year-round for nonalcoholic options, like the Green Business ($5), with cucumber, lime, cardamom and house tonic water. At San Francisco bars, like Last Rites, there’s been an uptick in mocktail orders on school nights, especially Sundays and Mondays.

We are in the midst of a cultural shift. The growing emphasis on wellness and the popularity of alcohol-restrictive diets like Whole 30 is making abstinence less taboo. Fifty-two percent of Americans are trying to reduce their alcohol intake, according to a new study by market analyst IWSR. U.S. alcohol consumption fell by 0.8 percent in 2018, the third consecutive year of decline. There are any number of reasons why you might hop on the wagon, from medication to sleep issues to budgets (drinking is expensive), to simply taking a little break after a Bacchanalian streak.

Rather than viewing this change as something that’s bad for business, Bay Area bartenders are accepting the challenge to take mocktails as seriously as their high-proof creations.

Michael Kudra, lead bartender at Quince, has seen more interest year-over-year in the restaurant’s $75 nonalcoholic drink pairing. The added challenge of pairing these drinks with Quince’s tasting menu has resulted in a set of complex and layered drinks that rival their boozier counterparts.

To accompany a roast duck course, for instance, Kudra dissects the components of an old-fashioned. He dehydrates tree branches from Quince’s farm in Bolinas, chars them, then turns them into a syrup with other botanicals, caramelized sugar, caramelized citrus and Chinotto (the Italian bitter soda flavored with myrtle-leaved orange). Served with a single large ice cube, the mocktail is spiced, bitter and woodsy, with vanilla and bright orange flavors. It is more like a sibling to the old-fashioned than an impersonator.

“Some would be like, ‘Oh, just cut out the booze and do every other element,’” Kudra says. “It’s not that simple.” And when you’re charging $75 for a beverage pairing with a $295 dinner menu, the mocktails need to be exceptional. An iced tea or lemonade just won’t do.

The nonalcoholic cocktails at Quince help the restaurant take its hospitality to the next level. They allow everyone at the table to feel included in a special experience, regardless of their personal restrictions around alcohol. It’s not only about pairing different flavors together — it’s about the ceremony of holding something in your hand. That helps nondrinkers from feeling like they’re sitting at the kids’ table.

Take, for example, Kudra’s “buckwheat Champagne.” Buckwheat tea is very lightly sweetened and carbonated, then topped with a small layer of whipped lemon air. While a Champagne fan wouldn’t mistake it for sparkling wine on the palate, the drink could pass for it visually, and has tight bubbles and a satisfying richness and mouthfeel. But most important, served in a flute, it feels elegant, distinctive and fully realized.

When bartenders make cocktails, they usually start with the base spirit, then go from there. But mocktails do not always have an obvious anchor.

“It’s always different when you don’t have that alcohol to work from,” says Kudra. Mostly, he uses seasonal produce and botanicals, which are always coming into the restaurant’s kitchen, as his starting point. “It’s the same thing as cooking,” he says. “You just do different flavor combinations and have fun with it.”

Instead of trying to replicate the flavors of rums, Last Rites general manager Susan Eggett approaches nonalcoholic cocktails by focusing on the bar’s arsenal of tiki-style syrups and juices.

“Without a spirit base to partner with, the things to consider become: How can I extend that flavor combination into a full mocktail? And how can I make sure there is still good texture in the drink?” Eggett says. Alcohol contributes mouthfeel, not just flavor. A drink without alcohol can taste flat, with no mid-palate or substance.

Eggett develops texture in her drinks by using teas, effervescent elements and syrups like Don’s Mix (a mixture of grapefruit juice and cinnamon syrup). In the Golden Idol ($8), a riff on the traditional Painkiller, a turmeric syrup combines with pineapple, orange, lemon and coconut for a frothy, bright, tropical concoction. It’s so tasty that you won’t miss the rum.

“I think a no-ABV cocktail should still convey the same experience of drinking a cocktail,” says Dzu Nguyen, bar manager at Horsefeather. “That is, a guest should glean the same experience of watching the cocktail being built and being served as if they were enjoying a drink with a spirit.” Visual and flavor complexities are equally important, he says.

A recent unnamed mocktail ($6) at Horsefeather, served long in a Collins glass, mixed a house-made mace-honey syrup with salted strawberry compote, grapefruit, lime and ginger beer. A bitterness and honeyed richness give the drink a physique you’d expect from a real cocktail.

Nguyen also looks to savory and umami elements, so that he doesn’t have to rely too heavily on acidity, sweetness or carbonation. He likes tomato water, for example, while Japanese bean pastes like anko (red bean paste) and shiro-an (white bean paste) add texture and sweetness.

Tasting my way through many mocktails, I never missed the alcohol, but I became a lot more aware of the sugar in these drinks. Despite the zero ABV, I found my capacity for enjoyment topped out at three, just like with cocktails. I was never able to parse out if that limit was due to some instinctual drink fail-safe, or palate fatigue — or simply satiation. With or without alcohol, the desire for salty and greasy food afterwards was a constant.

But I kept coming back to one question: Can the full drinking experience exist without liquor? Cocktails are social, after all, and they enable conversation. Tea and coffee can create social experiences too — maybe not as candidly, but just as loudly. But some of us might be too shy to dance or talk to strangers without a little liquid courage.

Customers might not be rushing into bars and running up a tab slamming three mocktails after a long week. But whether or not you’ve sworn off drinking, it’s nice to have the option to hang out with friends at a bar and have an interesting, delicious, alcohol-free drink — to be able to abstain and still feel like an adult. We all need a break sometimes.

Lou Bustamante is a Bay Area writer and author of “The Complete Cocktail Manual.” Email: food@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thevillagedrunk

Recipe: Short Round

Makes 1 drink

This mocktail from Last Rites bartender Susan Eggett is named after Indiana Jones’ favorite pickpocket and companion.

Ingredients

1 ounce fresh lime juice

1 ounce fresh pressed celery juice

1 ounce fresh pressed pineapple juice

1 ounce cream of coconut (sweetened coconut cream, like Coco Lopez)

½ ounce ginger syrup (see Note)

½ ounce bitter lemon soda, to top

Mint sprig, to garnish (optional)

Instructions: Combine all ingredients, except garnish and bitter lemon soda, in a shaker. Add ice, shake hard 8-10 seconds, and strain into a double old-fashioned glass with fresh ice. Top with the bitter lemon soda and add garnish.

Note: To make the ginger syrup, combine equal parts fresh ginger juice with simple syrup (1:1 parts sugar and water).