Amber Haines is five years sober, not because she was an alcoholic but because she wanted to run a successful business. A longtime bartender, Haines said she stopped drinking before she bought Mayne St. Pub-N-Grub, a bar and grill in Blue Grass, Iowa.
“I watched the previous owners sort of drink the profits away, and I didn’t want to do that,” said Haines. As she examined her relationship with alcohol and recognized the pressure to drink in social settings, the idea for a booze-free bar took root just as the “sober curious” movement was gaining momentum and nonalcoholic cocktails, or mocktails, were trending.
Haines and business partner Jim Thomson opened the first Unimpaired Dry Bar in Davenport, Iowa, in September 2020. They added an Iowa City location just over a year later and recently launched a franchise program.
“The amount of acceptance we had was immediate,” said Haines. “It showed us people are interested in this.”
Unimpaired founder Amber Haines with business partner Jim Thomsen.
The concept of Unimpaired isn’t all that different from a regular bar, Haines explained. There’s specialty pizza, pool tables, bar games, TVs for sports, live entertainment, and of course crafted drinks—with nonalcoholic spirits, of course.
“I’ve been a bartender for 20 years, so I absolutely love being creative,” she said of devising mocktails such as the Unim-Peared Mojito with pear juice, lime and mint mixed with a nonalcoholic white cane spirit from Australian company Lyre’s. “I can mimic the strong taste and pull out other flavors that aren’t masked by alcohol.”
Unimpaired also serves nonalcoholic beer and wine from brands such as Hairless Dog and Gruvi. The atmosphere is welcoming and lively, and “we don’t push the sober movement on anyone,” Haines said.
“First and foremost, we’re a business. We don’t want to be AA, we don’t want to preach to anyone,” she continued. “We simply want to be that social environment for anyone.”
The location in Iowa City, near the campus of the University of Iowa (which was listed as a top party school by the Princeton Review until 2018), is “wildly successful,” said Thomson. He’s a former Orangetheory Fitness franchisee and has an extensive business background with companies including Minute Suites, TapOnIt, Landjet and QC Fuel, a coffee and smoothie concept he is also preparing to franchise.
Unimpaired’s Campfire cocktail uses a nonalcoholic spirit from Australian company Lyre’s.
“Let’s get this out, let’s grow it as quickly as we can,” said Thomson of the motivation to expand Unimpaired Dry Bar via franchising. “We’ve got a niche here.”
Forging a connection with the university has been key to getting the word out and cultivating a customer base. Unimpaired has worked with the university’s Alcohol Harm Reduction Advisory Committee, hosted sober after-hours events and has relationships with fraternities and sororities on campus.
“We think we are so ideally suited for university towns,” said Thomson, and the growth strategy includes targeting fellow Big Ten Conference markets such as East Lansing, Michigan, and Bloomington, Indiana, home to Michigan State University and Indiana University, respectively. After flipping its Davenport location into a food truck, Unimpaired also has a mobile option.
“We were getting requests to do a lot of events,” said Haines. “Now we can take our alcohol-free beverages right to you.”
Unimpaired Dry Bar’s estimated initial investment range is between $313,600 and $542,200, including the $45,000 franchise fee. The royalty fee is 5 percent of gross sales.