It’s almost Shark Week, which means Outback Stakehouse is readying the return of last year’s viral Aussie Jawssie, a raspberry-flavored vodka lemonade cocktail, laced with ocean-themed Blue Curacao and garnished with a plastic shark toy. There’s also a zero-proof version, Sharky Temple, but like the restaurant chain’s other non-alc cocktails, it won’t involve a substitute spirit.
“We have not moved into that realm yet, even at our polished casual [chain] Bonefish Grill,” said Becky Boyd, senior director of food and beverage innovation for Outback Steakhouse. “We’ve had so much success without it and we don’t really hear from our guests that they’re wanting that too.”
Adult non-alc (ANA) off-premise sales are up $176 million versus a year ago (+27.2%) according to NIQ, making it a category on fire compared to its full-proof counterparts. But ANA still only represents 0.7% of total off-premise bev-alc sales, with beer and wine leading, according to NIQ. Non-alc spirit sales are growing, although the adaptation of NA spirits and cocktail menus is still a challenge on-premise.
Diageo’s investment in a portfolio of one-to-one spirit analogs, Ritual and Seedlip, should help push the needle forward — and some casual to mid-range restaurant chains are already on board. Yard House, owned by Darden, the multi-brand restaurant empire behind The Olive Garden, has a few Seedlip cocktails on the menu, for instance.
Last year, just in time for Dry January, Ritual Zero Proof hit menus nationwide at restaurant chain Uno Pizzeria & Grill. Climbing sales of zero-proof products fueled the move and “symbolizes the evolution of our offerings alongside the zero-proof movement,” Chris Dellamarggio, Uno Pizzeria director of marketing, told BevNET at the time. Ritual’s alternatives give the company the flexibility to craft new NA cocktails from existing fan favorites and the freedom to explore new and creative drinks options moving forward, rather than being tied to canned options, he added.
But if restaurant chains are a harbinger of a trend hitting the mainstream, it’s worth exploring why some are still opting out. After the Aussie Jawssie went viral on TikTok, Boyd’s team got to work on fulfilling the demand for a zero-proof alternative that would satisfy all non-booze drinkers.
“We talk a lot about the one-for-one replacement for adults that are opting out of alcohol, and we definitely have guests that are doing that,” she said. “But there’s also the younger generation who can’t opt into alcohol even if they wanted to.”
If Outback Steakhouse can keep its adult and below legal drinking age guests happy with the same alternative, there doesn’t seem to be much motivation to add a replacement vodka to the budget. Still Boyd’s team is putting more attention on its non-alc menu overall, including adding “a limited amount” of non-alc beer – that tracks with non-alc beer’s dominance of the category. Guest demand isn’t there for non-alc wine yet, she said.
“Nothing is off the table, as far as us exploring it,” Boyd added. “And we’re listening to our guests, so what they’re telling us that they want, we’re all ears.”
For now, there are a few mocktail core offerings on menus, but the seasonal additions are where the chain is finding success – if a cocktail can deliver enough hype, a mocktail will follow. The croc-tail begot the Mock Croc, for instance.
“Since we launched the Sharky Temple a year ago, we’ve been committed to when we are developing a cocktail, we are keeping the mocktail version of it in mind that has to taste as good and at parity with what the cocktail tastes like,” Boyd said.
While the Sharky Temple is technically a sprite doused with grenadine, when the grenadine pours out of a plastic shark, it’s likely that the company’s “mocktail” development is about seeing a drink for more than the sum of its parts.