To help Berliners navigate Sober October, the Null Prozent pop-up will serve alcohol-free beer, wine, aperitif and even vodka for the rest of the month. Photo: Supplied
Us Berliners love our Spätis. This summer especially, people have ditched the tap beer in favour of an 80-cent Sterni in a nearby park. But what if you’re not down to wake up with a hangover? Now there’s a Späti just for you!
Introducing Berlin’s first alcohol-free Späti, Null Prozent, which officially opened last week at Kreuzberg's Hallesches Haus. For now, it’s only a pop-up store, honouring the next four weeks of Sober October. Unlike other Spätis that only offer soft drinks and water as their alcohol-free options, the complete selection at Null Prozent is alcohol-free: beer, wine, aperitif, even vodka! Head into the refurbished warehouse space and peruse the metal racks and crates of products from more than 50 different partner brands, including Stryyk, Kolonne Null, and Ish Spirits. Beware: depending on the brand, this Späti can get pricy. (A sparkling rosé could cost you up to €14.) By the mini-bar outside, you can grab a seat in the courtyard and have a drink – try their refreshing G&T, but maybe steer clear of the shots of weirdly nutty-tasting alcohol-free vodka.
Null Prozent is the brainchild of Katja Kauf and Isabella Steiner, the founders of Nüchtern Berlin, an online platform that promotes mindful drinking. “It’s not about saying alcohol is bad or poisonous, we’re just asking what kind of alternatives exist,” Steiner explains, while also stressing that she herself enjoys the odd boozy night. “But you just can’t drink every day of the week.”
Sobriety is becoming increasingly popular, especially among millennials, whose often healthy lifestyles are at odds with excessive drinking. Null Prozent offers you a guilt-free way to have a drink every night if you want.
The Späti may only be here for a month, but, depending on the success of the pop-up, Steiner and Kauf may try to make it permanent. So the next time you ask yourself, “what do I drink when I’m not drinking?”, fear not, you have plenty of options here.
Null Prozent | Open until Oct 25, Kreuzberg, Tempelhofer Ufer 1, 10961 Berlin, Wed-Sun 10-20.