New Owen Sound, Ont., restaurant offers all non-alcoholic drink pairings with its tasting menu
Naagan's chef and owner says he wants his guests to appreciate the effort spent on the food
Guests who dine at a new restaurant in Owen Sound, Ont., are served cedar tea with a house-smoked trout canape before starting the 12-course tasting menu of progressive Indigenous cuisine.
This dining experience doesn't come with substitutions or alcohol; Naagan offers non-alcoholic drink pairings with each course rather than wine or cocktails.
Chef and owner Zach Keeshig is Ojibway from Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation at Cape Croker reserve. He said his decision to make his restaurant strictly non-alcoholic is out of respect for his culture and his people.
He wants his patrons to "appreciate all the effort and time that we spent curating the food."
"We have hunters hunting us geese and we're foraging ingredients; we're getting fish straight from Indigenous fishermen," he said.
"We're growing these things and putting so much effort into the food, the space and things like that where I didn't want alcohol to confuse and blur people's mind to what we're trying to do here."
Keeshig said he first started serving non-alcoholic beverage pairings with his tasting menu at pop-ups around Owen Sound, about 150 kilometres northwest of Toronto.
He wanted to go beyond carbonated mocktails and learned how to make medicinal teas, juices, kombucha and ginger beer. He incorporates local and seasonal ingredients such as blueberries, stinging nettle or rose hips to flavour them.
He said these drinks take weeks to prepare and the ingredients in his Indigenous-inspired tonics have health benefits like the vitamin C in cedar tea and rose hips or the probiotics in kombucha.
"A lot of these ingredients may sound weird but in the end this stuff has to taste good as well," he said.
"We're always thinking about flavour and the medicinal benefits."
More non-alcoholic drink options shifting industry
His restaurant is one of few in Canada embracing a growing sober curious trend.
Global marketing and research firm NielsenIQ has reported a 24% increase in non-alcoholic beverage sales in Canada between June 2023 and June 2024.
Megan Powell, an Anishinaabe food stylist from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, said she thinks the restaurant is a fantastic idea.
"I think just foraging and being able to gather food from the earth is something that's so special and that was lost and for him to be able to do it in such a refined way I think is absolutely incredible," said Powell.
She said she's seen a growth in non-alcoholic options for diners in an industry where alcohol is often prioritized.
"You don't need to just go out and get a soda anymore or pop," she said.
"[Zach's] kind of stepping it up a level in that sense and connecting our Indigenous culture."
She said restaurants like Naagan are more inclusive of people who don't drink, she said, like breastfeeding and pregnant women.
"I feel like for a long time, there's a lot of people who didn't necessarily want to go and have a drink, but the pressure was there to go and have a drink," she said.
"So now that that there's an option and that there's becoming options, people are more likely to go out."
Charlee Roy, 34, has reservations at Naagan for next month.
"I'm super excited just because we don't have anything like this in Owen Sound," she said.
"I don't drink alcohol, so it's right up my alley."
She said as a mom of six-year old twin boys she doesn't feel like she's missing out because of her decision to be sober and has seen the harm alcohol can have.
"I'm always on my A game with them and I think for them it's healthy as well to see that mom and dad don't drink."
She said a lot of her friends have embraced the sober curious movement since the pandemic.
"People were really starting to tap into more of their roots and what really matters and the things and connections with people and nature and just in general, finding who they really are without the drugs and alcohol," she said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
