There are two kinds of people who walk into a non-alcoholic bottle shop for the first time.
The first kind already knows. The sober, the alcohol-free, the zero-proof evangelists. We walk in like we just found the last open bar in town. Except better, because we’re not about to throw away twenty years of sobriety on a grown-up Capri Sun.
The second kind is the curious. The friend who tagged along. The wife who’s three weeks into a dry challenge. The guy who heard “non-alcoholic bottle shop” and assumed it meant apple juice in fancy bottles.
At Dry Spell Bottle Shop in Burien, Washington, both kinds of people show up. And both of them leave with a bag.
The Grand Opening, or How I Spent a Thursday Evening With Jim Dever
A few weeks ago, I dragged my friend and creative collaborator Jim Dever, who runs Upper Lefters, a YouTube channel celebrating everything weird and wonderful about the Pacific Northwest, to the grand opening of Dry Spell’s new dedicated retail storefront on SW 152nd Street in downtown Burien.
Jim is not a sober guy. He’s a Pacific Northwest guy. Which means he’s a curious guy. And Jim in a room full of botanical aperitifs, NA rieslings, functional tonics, and cheese boards is exactly the content I want to be making.
You can watch my reel from that day here, and Jim’s Upper Lefters version here. Two different takes, same verdict: this place is a vibe.
Wait, Where Is Burien Again?
For the out-of-towners: Burien is a small city just south of Seattle with a real downtown, real sidewalks, and real small businesses that are not Starbucks. It has charm, it has grit, and now it has one of the best-curated NA bottle shops in the state.
Which brings me to something worth noting.
The Pacific Northwest Zero-Proof Retail Map, 2026 Edition
Three years ago, if you lived in Washington and wanted a curated, in-person, alcohol-free bottle shop experience, your options were: get in your car and drive to Portland. Or keep shopping online and hope for the best.
That has changed. Quietly. Store by store. Woman by woman.
Here’s the current map:
Cheeky & Dry (Phinney Ridge, Seattle) opened in November 2023 as the first dedicated NA bottle shop in Seattle. It was built into a neighborhood staple where you can taste almost everything on the shelf before you buy.
Sober AF Zero Proof Bottle Shop (South Tacoma Way, Tacoma) opened April 4, 2025. Founder Stephanie Housden built her shop surrounded by 12 actual bars on South Tacoma Way, which is the kind of strategic flex I deeply respect. Sober AF is more than a retail shop. It’s a third space. Open mic nights. Karaoke (because no one should have to wait until 9 pm to sing “Shallow”). LEGO events. Paint and sips. Kava. Bingo hosted by a queen named Sativa. If you haven’t already read our Sober Curator profile on Sober AF, start there. Stephanie’s story is a cultural moment of its own. All Sober Curator contributors local to the PNW frequent this spot.
Dry Spell Bottle Shop (SW 152nd Street, Burien) opened its dedicated storefront in February 2026, after years as a pop-up inside a bookstore.
Three women. Three shops. Three very different vibes. One quietly forming retail category in the PNW that did not exist at this scale three years ago.
If that’s not sober culture moving the needle in real time, I don’t know what is.
Meet Ingrid Miller, the Woman Behind the Wine-Free Wine
Dry Spell is owned by Ingrid Miller, who also co-owns (with her husband Tim) Three Trees Books, an indie bookstore just a few doors down. Which means you can now spend an entire Saturday in Olde Burien buying books, then grabbing a bottle of NA barolo to drink while reading them.
This is the kind of small business ecosystem that makes me want to move to a small city and open a stationery store and a record shop right next door.
Ingrid’s story is the good kind of sober story. The quiet kind.
She quit her nightly wine habit in 2016. That one decision (one nightly habit, reconsidered) set off a chain reaction that eventually produced Three Trees Books in 2019, a pop-up NA bottle shop inside the bookstore, an online store, and now a dedicated retail space.
In her own words from the Dry Spell website: “I realized it was time to take my career from comatose to dead, and from that funeral pyre came Dry Spell Bottle Shop.” If that line alone doesn’t tell you Ingrid has exactly the kind of dry humor this category needs, I don’t know what will.
After nearly a decade of taste-testing NA wines, beers, and mocktails herself, she’s opened the shop she always wanted to walk into. And her mission statement is my favorite kind of sober mission statement: there’s no reason we can’t be gluttonous lushes who just don’t drink alcohol.
Preach, Ingrid. Preach.
What You’ll Actually Find Inside
Dry Spell is compact, which is part of the charm. Every square inch is edited. Nothing is there by accident.
On the shelves: non-alcoholic wines, beers, ciders, spirits, aperitifs, mixers, functional tonics, and botanical sodas. Some names you know. Some names you’ve never heard of, which is exactly why you come to a curated shop instead of scrolling an algorithm.
Alongside the bottles: glassware, charcuterie boards, oyster shucking kits (yes, really), fruit and veggie candles that are embarrassingly cute, and the kind of hostess gifts that solve the “what do I bring to a dinner party” problem forever.
Two things that make Dry Spell different from an online cart:
- Free daily tastings. You can actually try before you buy. This matters, because NA wine especially is a wildly uneven category. Some bottles are stunning. Some bottles taste like grape juice having an identity crisis. Ingrid has already done the sorting for you, and she’ll pour you a sip.
- Custom gift baskets. This is Ingrid’s quiet specialty. Baby showers. Dry January starter kits. “My friend just got sober and I don’t know what to send” baskets. Housewarming. Birthdays. If you’ve ever stared at a 1-800-Flowers website wondering why the only gift option is chocolate-covered strawberries, Dry Spell just solved your problem for the next decade.
Online ordering is live at dryspellbottleshop.com for in-store pickup or Burien-local delivery.
The Thing I Respect Most About Ingrid
On the Dry Spell website, and in interviews, Ingrid is candid about something most NA shop owners skip: non-alcoholic “dupes” of the real thing can be triggering for people in early recovery.
She says it out loud. On her own website. On the record.
That matters. A lot.
NA drinks are a controversial topic in sober spaces, and they should be. Some of our readers love them. Some of our readers hate them. Some of our readers tried an NA IPA six months into sobriety and ended up drunk three weeks later. We have covered this tension at The Sober Curator many times, and we will keep covering it, because pretending there is a single right answer is how people get hurt.
The shop owners in this new PNW zero-proof wave all handle this differently. Ingrid’s version is: come in, taste things, but know yourself. Stephanie Housden at Sober AF includes a similar trigger warning on her site. Both of them treat their customers like adults.
That is the sober culture I want to be a part of.
If You’re Going
Dry Spell Bottle Shop
SW 152nd Street, downtown Burien, WA
Online: dryspellbottleshop.com
Instagram: @dryspellbottleshop
Pair it with a stop at Three Trees Books just a few doors down. Make a day of it. If you’re driving up from Tacoma, hit Sober AF on your way home. If you’re coming in from the north, swing by Cheeky & Dry first.
You can, officially, now do a zero-proof bottle shop tour of the Pacific Northwest. Which is a sentence I genuinely did not think I would type in my lifetime.
Why This Actually Matters
Alysse Bryson theory: every sober person remembers the first time they walked into a space that was built for them.
Not built to tolerate them. Not built to awkwardly accommodate them. Not built with one dusty bottle of sparkling cider on a back shelf next to the bitters. Built for them.
For a lot of us, that space used to only exist at recovery meetings. Which is sacred. And important. And also, sometimes, not what you want on a Saturday afternoon when you just want to buy a nice bottle of something to bring to your neighbor’s barbecue.
Dry Spell is that space. Sober AF is that space. Cheeky & Dry is that space. A bookstore in Burien is now that space.
Decade by decade, sober people have been told that our options are either A) pretend to drink, B) explain ourselves, or C) stay home. These three women, in three different cities, are quietly building a fourth option.
And I, for one, plan to show up. Bag in hand. Dog-eared novel already paid for. Jim Dever narrating in the background.
No days off.
HAPPY EVERY HOUR: Top 36 Non-Alcoholic Bars & Bottle Shops in the USA
Welcome to HAPPY EVERY HOUR, your go-to hub for all things NA (non-alcoholic). We review alcohol-free beers, ciders, wines, spirits, RTDs (ready-to-drink), and share NA cocktail recipes that taste just as good—if not better—than the boozy originals. Whether you’re sober, sober-curious, or just taking a break, this is where great taste meets zero proof.
TRIGGER WARNING: People in early sobriety may want to proceed with caution. Always read labels. Please hydrate responsibly … #becausedrunkneverlooksgood.
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Where is Dry Spell Bottle Shop located?
Dry Spell Bottle Shop is located on SW 152nd Street in downtown Burien, Washington, just south of Seattle. You can also shop online at dryspellbottleshop.com for in-store pickup or local Burien delivery.
Who owns Dry Spell Bottle Shop?
Dry Spell is owned by Ingrid Miller, who also co-owns Three Trees Books, an indie bookstore just a few doors down. Ingrid quit her nightly wine habit in 2016, and that one decision eventually led to the shop she always wanted to walk into.
What can you buy at Dry Spell Bottle Shop?
Dry Spell carries a curated selection of non-alcoholic wines, beers, ciders, spirits, aperitifs, mixers, functional tonics, and botanical sodas, plus glassware, charcuterie boards, oyster shucking kits, and custom gift baskets. Free daily tastings mean you can try before you buy.
Are NA drinks safe for people in early sobriety?
This is a personal decision and one worth taking seriously. Ingrid Miller addresses it directly on the Dry Spell website: non-alcoholic dupes of alcoholic drinks can be triggering for people in early recovery. If you are newly sober, talk to your support network before exploring NA products. Know yourself first.
What other zero-proof bottle shops are in the Pacific Northwest?
The PNW zero-proof retail scene has grown significantly. Cheeky & Dry in Seattle’s Phinney Ridge neighborhood opened in November 2023 as the first dedicated NA bottle shop in Seattle. Sober AF Zero Proof Bottle Shop opened on South Tacoma Way in Tacoma in April 2025. Together with Dry Spell in Burien, you can now do a full zero-proof bottle shop tour of the Pacific Northwest.
