Guests dining at a new restaurant in Owen Sound, Ontario are served cedar tea with a house-smoked trout canape before starting the 12-course tasting menu of progressive Indigenous cuisine.

This dining experience comes with no 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 the Unceded Chippewas of Nawash First Nation on the Cape Croker Reservation. He said his decision to make his restaurant strictly alcohol-free was a sign of respect for his culture and people.

He wants his customers to “appreciate all the effort and time we put into preparing the food.”

“We have hunters who hunt our geese and we look for ingredients; we get fish directly from indigenous fishermen,” he said.

“We grow these things and put a lot of effort into food and space and things like that. I didn’t want alcohol to confuse and cloud people’s minds about what we’re trying to do here.”

Keeshig said he began serving non-alcoholic drinks with his tasting menu at pop-ups around Owen Sound, about 150 kilometers northwest of Toronto.

He wanted to move beyond carbonated mocktails and learned to make medicinal teas, juices, kombucha and ginger beer. It incorporates local and seasonal ingredients such as blueberries, nettle or rosehip to flavor 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 rosehip or the probiotics in kombucha.

“A lot of these ingredients may seem weird, but at the end of the day, these products have to taste good too,” he said.

“We always think about flavor and medicinal benefits.”

Increase in non-alcoholic beverage options is changing the industry

His restaurant is one of the few in Canada to embrace a growing trend of sobriety and curiosity.

Global marketing and research company NielsenIQ has reported a 24% increase of non-alcoholic beverage sales in Canada between June 2023 and June 2024.

Megan Powell, an Anishinaabe food stylist from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, said she thought the restaurant was a fantastic idea.

“I think just the act of foraging and being able to harvest food from the land is something that’s so special and that’s been lost and to be able to do it in such a refined way, I think it’s absolutely incredible,” Powell said.

She said she’s seen an increase in non-alcoholic options for diners in an industry where alcohol is often prioritized.

“You don’t have to just go out and have a soda or soft drink anymore,” she said.

“(Zach) kind of raises the bar in that sense and connects our indigenous culture.”

She said restaurants like Naagan are more inclusive of people who don’t drink, like pregnant and breastfeeding women.

“I feel like for a long time, there were a lot of people who didn’t necessarily want to go for a drink, but the pressure was there to go for a drink,” she says.

“So now that there is an option and there are more and more options, people are more likely to come out.”

Charlee Roy, 34, has reservations in Naagan for next month.

“I’m super excited because we don’t have anything like this in Owen Sound,” she said.

“I don’t drink alcohol, so this suits me perfectly.”

WATCH | Making Yield Tea with Chef Zach Keeshig

Naagan opens in Owen Sound, Ontario.

Zach Keeshig, chef and owner of Naagan in Owen Sound, Ontario, said he had wanted to open a restaurant with a non-alcoholic drinks menu for some time and first began experimenting with teas and natural ferments in its pop-ups. He showed CBC Indigenous reporter Candace Maracle how he prepares naturally sweetened cedar tea for all his guests to start their meal with.

She said that as a mother of six-year-old twins, she didn’t feel like she was missing out because of her decision to be sober and that she had seen the harm of alcohol.

“I’m always at my best with them and I think for them too it’s healthy to see that mom and dad don’t drink.”

She said many of her friends have embraced the sober curious movement since the pandemic.

“People were really starting to dig more into their roots and what really matters, things and connections with people and nature and generally discovering who they really are without drugs and alcohol,” he said. she declared.