OLD COLORADO CITY — It runs like a full-functioning bar, just without the alcohol.
That's how Michele Garrett describes Gratitude Zero Proof Bar, which she opened with her business partner, Rob Templin, this summer in Old Colorado City on West Colorado Avenue. It's the first zero-proof bar in Colorado Springs, serving mocktails and kava.
"There is so many people, either in recovery or sober-curious or like the younger generation, who's just not drinking as much, they're looking for that place to go," said Garrett. "We want that watering hole, that place where it brings us all together at the end of the day."
On Tuesday night, the co-owners geared up for their first-ever New Year's Eve celebration. Garrett said it's important people in recovery can still celebrate the holidays together, instead of feeling isolated.
"Especially when everyone else around you is drinking," she said. "It's breaking that idea that you have to have alcohol to have fun and to dance."
The two co-owners are former bartenders, each on their own sobriety journey. Garrett said she decided to go through an Alcoholics Anonymous class during the pandemic and is now four and a half years sober. She said the two decided to open the dry bar to fill a need in Colorado Springs.
"We kind of joked about it for a good year, and then finally, one day, we're like, you know what, let's do it, like our community deserves it. We need to have a place. We deserve to have a place where we can go get anything on the menu and, like, hang out with other like-minded people," said Garrett.
Morgan Deegan and Nathaniel Pena stopped by the dry bar on New Year's Eve. The two have a combined five years of sobriety together.
"To just have some cocktails that feel fun and exciting and, you know, empowering, and have friends around that makes a big difference for people in sobriety, because you can't really do sobriety alone," said Deegan.
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Highway 96 closed in Custer County Sunday night after rock slide
A rock slide forced the closure of a Colorado highway in Custer County Sunday night.
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