The boozer with no booze: Dublin pub launches Sober Sundays

A variety of interesting drinks to sip, a movie to watch, and songs to sing along to ... Sober Sundays at the MVP pub on Clanbrassil Street in Dublin 8, has everything you might need for an end of weekend chill ... except alcohol.

MVP, part of Trevor O’Shea’s Bodytonic pub group, launches the initiative on November 11th, with a full day dedicated to ways to meet up, have a good time, eat and drink well, without actually, well, you know, drinking.

Normally, the pub has an eclectic drinks menu, including an extensive alcohol-free and low-alcohol offering, but on Sunday it is putting the booze behind bars and fully embracing the theme for the day. Brewtonic, the brewing arm of Bodytonic, will launch a non-alcoholic beer club on the day.

"We wanted to have a bit of craic and learn more about non-alcoholic drinks in a fun space, so Sober Sundays was born. For now, MVP is its home but we'll see how it goes, and we might roll it out in the other bars, too. We're trying hard to make sure there are tasty and fun drinks on offer in Bodytonic bars if you're not boozing," says Bodytonic's Ellen Fitzpatrick, who is running the event.

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Reggae Yoga opens the day’s activity at noon, followed at 2pm by tastings of non-alcoholic drinks from King of Kefir, Synerchi, Silk Tree Botanics and Seedlip. King of Kefir and Synerchi will be offering fermented drinks, while Silk Tree Botanics and Seedlip both make non-alcoholic spirits: gin without the sin, if you will.

If you like what you taste, stay around for a kombucha demonstration at 3pm.

Mindful Drinking at 4pm will offer a chance to consider that approach, while staring into a glass of something appropriate. And at 7pm you can put your ability to belt out an anthem or two, and be social without alcohol, at Aoife McElwain’s Sing Along Sober.

Only the yoga (€16, email justbreathedublin to book), and the Sing Along Sober (€6, book tickets here), carry an admission charge, the rest are free of charge as well as alcohol-free.

Grálinn, the street food and festival catering partnership of Dee Kelly and Matteo Griscti, has taken its truck off the road for the winter and opened a residency at MVP. They will be making food to match the non-alcoholic drinks, in the form of "small bites boards".