Say yes to Bendición Dry Bar

At this point in the month, our best intentions around New Year’s resolutions can seem a little less sparkly than they did at 12:01 AM on New Year’s Day. Is your Dry January turning into a real struggle? It can be difficult to change entrenched patterns in our lives and move through to a new way of being.

In the midwest, in winter, it’s hard to find a friendly community as an adult without alcohol. Most of our social lives revolve around alcohol-centered spaces. Think about it: You want to catch up with a friend? You head to a bar to grab a drink and chat. You want to see live music or a play? There’s always a beer or a glass of wine in the lobby or at the bar. Even weekend daytime meals can become mimosa-soaked affairs.

To combat this, Cristina Torres, the owner of Bendición Dry Bar, is forging a new path among the sober and sober curious. Torres went looking for a like-minded community when she got sober in 2020 because so many of her social interactions and friend time revolved around alcohol-centered spaces. She was faced with deciding between spending time with friends in those spaces and feeling like she wanted to drink, or not hanging out with friends at all.

“When I first got sober, I realized I had nowhere to really go. I found myself sitting on one of the benches by the eagle statue in Logan Square in mid-February at like 8 at night. I was like, ‘I don’t want to go home, but I also don’t want to go to a bar because I know I’m going to drink. I can’t go to a café, because most of them close at 4 or 5. There’s not another space for people like me,’” Torres recounted.

“Bendición was born out of a need for an alternative to the usual Chicago nightlife options currently available,” she continued. “On a cold February night, walking home from the bar crying at 2 AM, I knew there had to be something better for us—somewhere we didn’t feel excluded for not drinking, somewhere it didn’t feel awkward asking for a mocktail, somewhere we didn’t feel alone.”

Torres turned to Instagram and found a growing group of like-minded sober and sober curious folks in Chicago and across the country. She also started playing around with making zero-proof cocktails and creating sober options on menus in partnership with local bars like The Native, where she was a regular when she was still drinking.

“At The Native, I asked if for dry January in 2021 they would be interested in me providing recipes and products for nonalcoholic cocktails for their bartenders to make. We didn’t end up doing it until February that year, but it was successful, and they saw a big boost in their sales and people coming out just for that. It was such a hit that they added zero-proof cocktails to their regular menu,” Torres explained.

From there, she launched Bendición with a successful $15,000 GoFundMe and started doing pop-up sober events at spaces on the west side. She eventually partnered with The Succulent City, a plant shop, moving into the back of their storefront at 2540 W. Division in Humboldt Park. She then started the work of creating both Bendición, her zero-proof bottle shop, and a vibrant sober community. Over the last year, she has turned Bedición’s half of the space into a cozy and inviting spot where the sober and sober curious can come and sample zero-proof libations from her shop. They also have regular programming of fun social events like the Blessed variety show, Dungeons and Dragons night, and queer and BIPOC sober socials. Torres also wants to encourage people to just come and hang out.

“It’s super easy for people who have stopped drinking or are in recovery to self-isolate and feel like they’re by themselves. When they get sober, people lose friends because they’re not going out drinking anymore. I wanted to make a space where people know that they’re not alone.”

Besides her own sobriety, Torres has a very personal reason for creating this sober community, “In December of 2021, one of my really good friends—James—passed away after he was hit by a drunk driver. In our friend group, he was somebody who never said ‘no.’ When he set his mind to something, he did it. So to honor his memory, I’ve been working on saying ‘yes’ to things in my life. When he passed, the idea for the bar had kind of started and I was like, ‘OK, this is super scary and something I never, ever thought that I could do, so let’s see how far I can take it.’ That’s what James would have wanted.”

Bendición Dry Bar & Non-Alcoholic Bottle Shop2540 W. Divisionbendicionbar.com

While the dry bar doesn’t have regular nonalcoholic bar service yet, they host a busy schedule of events and have ample space for hangouts and private events. The shop part of the space features one of the largest selections of zero-proof beverages in the city and is constantly adding new products. While they don’t have CBD or marijuana-based beverages yet, they are working on adding them soon for the “California sober” set. Anyone who is interested in trying zero-proof beverages or wants to find a sober social community is welcome. 

In addition to her own space, Torres recommends the Chicago Sober Society and their (seasonally updated) Chicago Non-Alcoholic Beverage Guide as resources for finding zero-proof beer and cocktails on menus throughout the city and suburbs.

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