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A former alcohol and drug counselor opened a sober bar and launched a new concept. Now Chris Marshall takes his sober bar academy across the country. Read on for more about how he’s offering a non-alcoholic alternative for entertainment.
Hundreds gather at a rented venue on a Saturday night in Old Town. This neighborhood is a shabby part of Portland, plagued with drugs and homelessness. But the crowd inside is united by sobriety, chatting, and drinking complicated mocktails whipped up by two sober bartenders. It’s a pop-up of Sans Bar, the Austin-based sober bar that’s been on tour around the US and Canada this year. Between this tour, an online academy, and his growing sober bar empire, owner Chris Marshall wants to make these kinds of celebratory alcohol-free get-togethers a normal part of nightlife in the US and beyond.
Sans Bar Portland pop-up. Photo by Teresa Bergen.
Origins of Sans Bar
Marshall was a licensed alcohol and drug counselor for eight years. He loved the work but couldn’t save all his clients. “A lot of people considering changing their relationship with alcohol could recognize that there was a problem but just could not give it up when it came to the social aspect. Because to give up alcohol in this society is to be cast out from social circles.”
In 2017, a series of his clients died, including one of his favorites; a professional woman in her mid-thirties. “Our last conversation in our office was, ‘Chris, I know I need to stop drinking. I know I’m supposed to give it up for legal trouble I’m in. But I just know I’m missing out on so much when I don’t drink.’” That was on a Friday. On Monday, Marshall got the news she had died in a car accident over the weekend.
He loved his work as a counselor, with its difficult conversations and breakthroughs. “But at the end of the day, I knew that the help needed was not between the hours of eight to five. The hours that people needed help were on a Friday night, on a Saturday night, when they were all alone. When they have friends who are going out. And there’s no place that they can say, ‘Hey, let’s go here and spend the night sober.’”
And so he opened his sober bar in 2017.
Chris Marshall, Sans Bar founder. Photo courtesy of Chris Marshall
Growth of Sans Bar
Sans Bar wasn’t an overnight success. “The response at first was tepid, to put it nicely,” Marshall said. “A lot of people just did not understand what I was trying to do. Some people really resisted the notion that there could be a space and it would be profitable and not serve alcohol.”
It hurt his feelings when people asked what was next, a restaurant without food? “I learned not to read the comments on news stories. People were brutal.”
But people began to trickle in. While some patrons identify as being in recovery (AA beginnings) , many others don’t. Marshall estimates that 75% of people that come to Sans Bar more than twice a month identify as being either sober-curious or sober sometimes. Some come for a date night, a first date, or an office happy hour where they won’t make drunken asses of themselves in front of their colleagues.
Chris Marshall at work at Sans Bar. Photo courtesy of Chris Marshall
Sans Bar Academy Launches Sober Bars
Marshall has a larger mission than his original Austin sober bar . His empire has grown in several ways, the most influential of which might be the Sans Bar Academy . He’s offered his ten-week online course since 2020 and has graduated eight or nine cohorts, he says, with up to twenty students in each. The course teaches people how to open up their own sober bar.
“A dream of mine was to help people get started,” Marshall said. “People who would normally not have access to large amounts of capital and have very little to no business experience.”
The academy has a lot of dropouts. “Usually, if we have ten students, we probably have six at the very last class.” Some people realize they signed up because they want to quit drinking, not start a business. Many don’t realize how much work will be required. “I think people discount just how hard it is to start a thing,” Marshall said. “And in your mind, you have this wonderful image of you on the very best day of owning your own business, where things are moving fluidly, and you’re shaking hands, and people are so excited. And that’s not going to be every day. And so I spend a lot of time in the academy just being very real about that.”
Academy Curriculum
The course covers all that Marshall has learned since opening Sans Bar in 2017. Topics include marketing, leadership, developing community, business models, designing experiences, sharing your story, meeting non-alcoholic spirit makers, and partnering with brands. The final exam is producing a launch event. “It helps to have this accountability with a cohort of people on the same path,” he said.
Marshall also holds regular check-in calls with individual students. “We get really clear on what the next step is.”
Sober Bar Success Stories
Attendees might aim to open a sober bar, a non-alcoholic bottle shop, or hold pop-up events. “We’ve had some pretty standout students, which has been really exciting.”
To name just a few, the owners of Benedicion Dry Bar , a sober bar in Chicago, Umbrella Dry Bar in Raleigh, North Carolina, and bottle shop Clarity Zero-Proof Lounge in Los Angeles are all graduates of earlier cohorts. Owners of The Teetotalist in Sacramento and High Street Tonics in Portland were in a recent cohort, as was Hopscotch Zero-Proof Bottle Shop in Baltimore. Thanks in part to Marshall, these kinds of businesses are popping up around the US and beyond.
One of Chris Marshall’s favorite zero-proof spirits. Photo courtesy of Chris Marshall
Licensing the Sans Bar name
Another recent development is Marshall’s decision to license the Sans Bar name. He’s currently charging $2,000 for a one-year license that lets people use the trademark and branded materials, connects them with the best non-alc makers, and helps them plan menus and secure media coverage. So far, Sans Bar has two licensees—one in Houston and the other in Santa Clarita, outside Los Angeles.
Sans Bar at ChristoMio in Houston is a coffee shop by day and a sober bar at night. “They’ve been looking for a way to infuse a nighttime kind of offering in serving great alcohol-free cocktails,” Marshall said. It plans to open with three nights a week service in July. Sans Bar Santa Clarita is starting as a series of pop-ups before moving into a brick-and-mortar space.
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A Growing Empire of Sobriety and Wellness
In addition to the original Sans Bar East Side, Marshall recently opened Sans Bar Downtown. The new venue is a block from the Capitol. The downtown bar is open every Friday, while the East Side bar is open Saturdays. “I think that model is pretty healthy because we’re able to generate a crowd,” Marshall said.
Marshall wasn’t planning to open a second bar in Austin. But a company called Swift Fit Events convinced him to partner with them. “They’re a fitness activation community that does yoga and other wellness activations across central Texas,” Marshall said. “It’s the perfect pairing. It makes so much sense that this kind of wellness-focused business is partnering with Sans Bar, which is about social-emotional wellness.” Marshall envisions creating a wellness oasis in the middle of Texas.
“I don’t know if Swift Fit knows this, but my big vision is to kind of replicate this,” Marshall said. “I think this is more replicable than a standalone Sans Bar.” He loves pairing a sober bar with wellness activities like breathwork, yoga, and sound baths.
My zero-proof cocktail at Sans Bar’s Portland event. Photo by Teresa Bergen
Marshall knows he tends to take on a lot of projects at once. But his sober bar dreams have come true. His first Sans Bar event attracted maybe six people. He wanted to give up many times. But he persevered. I couldn’t believe the crowd at the Portland event. And he sold out his Washington, DC pop-up tour stop with 125 people. That’s 125 people who had somewhere fun, friendly, and sober to go that night. Multiply that around the country, and who knows how many lives Marshall and his academy graduates will save?
Let Wander With Wonder be your guide when planning your next sober travel adventure.
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Sans Bar Academy Helps Launch More Sober Bars
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