I have a peculiar form of delayed hypochondria. As a 30-something, I’ll happily sip two cocktails (an amount of alcohol that seemed the equivalent of a drink “fun-sized serving” in my early 20s), then spend the night sleeping poorly due to the alcohol, followed by anxiety-induced Google searches like “Which organs are most affected by alcohol?” and “What are the symptoms of cirrhosis?” I may be extreme in my teeter totter between living on the edge and being trapped in a deep pit of fear about my health, but a growing number of people are finding their own reasons to reconsider their relationship with booze.
In the past few years, the medical world has amplified its warnings about the risks of drinking (even moderately), culminating recently with the Surgeon General recommending that alcoholic beverages have warning labels about the risk of cancer, much like the ones on cigarettes—last ditch reminders before you crack open a beer: “There’s no way this is a good decision.” Many persist in imbibing, perhaps believing that in moderation the benefits (taste and inebriation?) may outweigh the risk (death?), but a growing number are now dabbling with sobriety, especially during Dry January. Perhaps surprisingly, Peculier Pub has managed to be a safe haven for all, from beer snobs to college bros, and even the sober.
Standing alongside a row of grimy bars on Greenwich Village’s Bleecker Street, Peculier Pub is a bit of an institution. One might expect Budweiser and little else at a slightly subterranean pub located so close to NYU, but instead, Peculier Pub, which opened in 1981, proudly stocks a shockingly wide variety of beers from around the world—hundreds of different types of beer, including 27 on draft. Many of them are international beers (from Barbados to Sweden), and a Rare Finds page on the menu includes harder to find Pale Ales, sours, stouts, and more. According to their website, Peculier Pub’s owner hoped to “broaden the beer drinking experience of [their] customers.” The bar’s popular drinking challenge highlights this desire to spread pleasure through the world’s beers. Visitors can request a business card-size stamp card that corresponds to one of three difficulty levels. Each level requires patrons to try multiple types of beers in order to get the necessary stamps. After you’ve filled all three cards, you can have your name placed on a plaque and added to the bar’s Hall of Fame.
A safe place for sobriety
Despite the Hall of Fame and walls mosaiced in bottle caps, teetotalers can feel just as welcome. This starts with the bartenders. Every time I visited in January, I was served by kind young women—all of whom wore hoop earrings, and none of whom were ever judgmental about my 0% ABV selections. This isn’t always the case in bars, as some bartenders don’t appreciate non-alcoholic drink orders (which usually mean fewer tips); one bar near my apartment has even started using its sidewalk chalkboard to make disdainful jokes about Dry January.
Riding the sobriety wave, many cocktail bars now offer fancy mocktails. But who can enjoy the equivalent of a zhuzhed up lemonade with a $16 price tag? Peculier Pub, on the other hand, offers a few less common alternatives that better mimic your spirit of choice (e.g., Guinness Zero, Lussory 0.0% wine, and Avec mixers). Plus, a couple of water tanks located around remind everyone they can always hydrate more, no matter what other drink they’ve ordered. Sometimes though, water is not enough. In these cases, sobriety can be improved with a little snack (or a full meal). Mozzarella sticks, burgers, multiple types of french fries, corn dogs, dumplings, bowls of chili, carrots and celery: this list only begins to name the Pub’s pubby fare.
Like the types of food served, the bar itself is nothing fancy. A visiting Londoner who happened in for a pint described the place quite well for me: dark, with white ceilings that reminded him of stamped clotted cream (he was really leaning into being British), pew-like booths dappled throughout the large space, a rounded wooden bar that doesn’t quite allow you to lean comfortably, and a “torso mirror” (placed at a slant above the bar, so you see little else besides your torso).
Just before the Londoner arrived, a man came up to the bar, returned two tall cans and ordered two more. I confirmed that they were non-alcoholic. “Best we could do,” he said with a sheepish grin. Many patrons, including regulars have been trying Dry January or non alcoholic alternatives. Judy, one of the bartenders, who has worked at the Pub for 10 years, and is as knowledgeable as she is personable, acknowledged the trend towards sobriety: “A lot more people are doing Dry January, but even before this month we had an upswing in non-alcoholic orders. I don’t know when it started, but throughout 2024, nonalcoholic beers have become a lot more popular.” On another evening, a couple sitting next to me were enjoying a hot cup of tea and a ginger beer. When asked about their thoughts on drinking and dry January, they both agreed that now, at 32 and 36, they were both increasingly aware of alcohol’s negative impacts like how friends who drank heavily looked much older or how easy it was to slowly drink more over time without recognizing it.
This couple encapsulated two of the three groups you’ll find at Peculier Pub: groups and regulars. They first became familiar with the bar through Couchsurfing meet-ups. Groups often settled on the Pub for meet-ups, perhaps because of the somewhat large space and plentiful seating. Reddit community members also meet up at the bar, as do smaller friend groups who have selected this as a go-to spot.
Now, the couple have become regulars, stopping in, even on evenings when there isn’t a Couchsurfing meet-up. They aren’t alone. During my visits, the bartenders seemed to know at least a quarter to half the patrons. From a young woman stopping in for pre-dinner reading at the bar to a retired couple coming in for their weekly dinner and drink, people settle in as regulars at Peculier Bar and never look back. As for the third group of patrons, those are the college kids. But fear not, they don’t come out until quite late.
Peculier Pub began with the hope of offering patrons new types of beers to try and enjoy. Quietly, its offering of non-alcoholic beverages has grown, while its plentiful food menu and considerable seating and space have remained constant. No one, not even the bar’s many regulars, could name what was so special about Peculier Pub when asked. Instead, what sets it apart is that it somehow manages to cater to everyone without much effort at all.
