“To be honest, we were sceptical about it, but at the end of the day it worked out,” said Evans Kahindi, brand manager for Blended by Lyre’s, which organised the pop-up.
Saudis say the trend is consistent with a broader push by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to transform his oil-dependent nation into a foreigner-friendly hub for business, tourism and entertainment.
Why sober shame during Dry January? Bars and restaurants often don’t help
Why sober shame during Dry January? Bars and restaurants often don’t help
Yet the speed of the changes is surprising, said Abdullah Raslan, marketing manager for Blended by Lyre’s, which recently partnered with a food hall in Riyadh’s Kingdom Centre to serve mocktails including a spiced date sour and a “no-groni”.
“I’m not going to lie to you, Saudi is a bit of a religious country, but we’re seeing how it’s becoming more adaptable with what’s happening in the world,” said Raslan, a native of the eastern city of Khobar.
“Have we had a lot of pushback in the past? Yes, we have. Do we still need to educate a lot of people about these drinks? … Yes we do. But step by step, that’s all we’re asking for.”
King Abdulaziz enacted Saudi Arabia’s alcohol ban in the early 1950s, not long after an incident in which one of his sons got drunk and, in a rage, shot dead a British diplomat.
Prohibition has been the law of the land ever since, leaving most of the kingdom’s 32 million people with few ways to imbibe.
Foreign missions serve drinks in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter. Some people make home-made wine. Others turn to the black market, where bottles of whisky can go for hundreds of dollars ahead of holidays like New Year’s Eve.
Beyond that, the only real option is to travel, whether by road to Bahrain or farther afield.
The fast pace of recent social reforms – including the introduction of cinemas and mixed-gender music festivals – has fuelled rampant speculation that the alcohol ban might be lifted, or at least weakened with carve-outs in places like Neom, a planned US$500 billion futuristic megacity.
That is welcome news for Asabek Mashraboy, whose sole experience with alcohol ended poorly: he passed out after one beer.
“I swear to God, from one can of beer, and all my friends were shocked, because I was, like, dead,” said the Uzbekistan native.
That has not stopped the 24-year-old, who later relocated to Saudi Arabia, from becoming bar supervisor at Meraki, a Greek-influenced restaurant in Riyadh’s Al Faisaliah Tower.
Mashraboy gets rave reviews for his non-alcoholic Mykonos Mules and Old Fashioneds, even from foreigners accustomed to the boozy versions.
“I can compete with them,” he said confidently when asked how his drinks stack up against those on offer abroad.
It was precisely this challenge that drew marketer Mousa Shihadeh to Saudi Arabia after he completed culinary school in Germany and worked with bars and hotels there.
He acknowledged having some doubts at first.
Want to continue Dry January the rest of the year? Experts offer tips
Want to continue Dry January the rest of the year? Experts offer tips
“In the beginning, it was like, ‘You are a juice manager? What exactly are you doing here?’,” he recalled.
Yet he said he has relished the chance to introduce alternatives to time-honoured local favourites like “Saudi champagne” – apple juice and sparkling water – and syrupy mojitos.
“As I see it, it’s much more complicated to work with non-alcoholic drinks than to work with alcoholic drinks,” Shihadeh said. “When you come here, you really need to invent the wheel anew.”
