Ocean Beach Cafe in San Francisco invites non-alcoholic enthusiasts to a coastal gem

SAN FRANCISCO -- Ocean Beach Cafe is much more than a cafe. It is a non-alcoholic cafe, bar, and bottle shop, that's truly one of a kind.

Joshua James, the Owner of Ocean Beach Café is proud of what he's accomplished.

"This is one of the first non-alcoholic bars in the world. This is one of the only one that's owned by a bartender and a food and beverage professional. I really liked that aspect of the hospitality service experience. It's been amazing," said James.

Located in the outer Richmond of San Francisco near the northern part of Ocean Beach, close to the cliffs and hiking rails, guests will find non-alcoholic beer, wine, and functional elixirs.

James exclaimed, "We've got the best of the best in the non-alcoholic beverage world. Yes, there is amazing non-alcoholic wine out there. I brewed a lot of beer in my time. So, I really geek out on the non-beer selection."

The non-alcoholic beverage scene is growing in popularity, especially as people are becoming more mindful of what they drink.

"This is much bigger than people know. I think there's a lot of people that are kind of aware that there's this thing going on the non-alcoholic beverage industry. But when you come in here, and you see all of these bottles, it changes the brain a little bit like, oh, wow, there's like a lot of stuff. And it looks really cool," said James.

James is on a mission to change the way people think about non-alcoholic drinks and how they socialize in the future.

"I left Hawaii several times to bartend and other cities. I chose bartending as a career at 26. I really got into liquor, beer and wine. And I was fascinated by it, I wanted to learn all about it and just try and drink every bottle. But that wasn't a very healthy pursuit, especially in my mid 30s. And I was like this has got to stop. Let's do the long term thing. And that that was the ticket."

James took a year off drinking in late 2019 and opened Ocean Beach Cafe 11 months later.

"It changed my life. And it wasn't till a couple months later, when I left there that I picked up my first non-alcoholic craft IPA and drank it. I was like, it's on Josh, the non alcoholic on YouTube and Instagram, and just started doing a bunch of videos."

A big part of the business plan for James was to keep ocean beach clean and get the community together through beach clean up days.

"We've been doing it for three years. Every Saturday 10am to 12pm. We have 30 to 80 people show up. And there is a grant program now through the city to feed all of them when they get done cleaning the beach that's open to anyone and that has been amazing," said James.

James feels honored to be part of such an amazing community and share the stories of his non-alcoholic journey.

"I did not think that three years ago, it could be quite like this. It's been, it's been really special. There's still times, it's usually when I'm like locking up the door, I'm just like, I own a cafe," said James. "But it's a non-alcoholic bar and, and bottle shop. And that is one of the biggest subjects in food and beverage in bars and restaurants right now for the world. And like, that's what we're doing here."

Learn more about Ocean Beach Cafe by visiting here.