THE MODERN MOCKTAIL | Kava & Non-Alc FAQs

Build & Scale
Your Non-Alc
Bar or Shop

so it doesn't need you in it every day;

without the guesswork or the burnout.

You're operating in one of the fastest-growing beverage markets in the world; kava bars, non-alc lounges, bottle shops... The idea was never the hard part. The hard part is staffing it, keeping it compliant, and making the math work well beyond year two, ESPECIALLY if you want to expand.

That's exactly what we fix.

QUICK START RESOURCES

Tyler and Marina Castillo - The Modern Mocktail

Hi, I'm Marina Castillo, co-founder of The Modern Mocktail.

My husband and I started this company in 2024 to make the kava and non-alcoholic industries as accessible, and as profitable, as they should be. We've helped kava bars, non-alc lounges, and booze-free bottle shops cross $1M/year. You bring the branding and the brick and mortar. We bring the SOPs, the staffing systems, the compliance backup, and the follow-through that turns a good concept into a business that can run and expand smoothly without you needing to be constantly present.

We also work with the Global Kava Coalition to ensure kava remains a protected, properly regulated drink here in the United States while also ensuring the Polynesian farmers cultivating kava continue to receive all the support needed to grow it.

Due to this work, we've been named Thought Leaders by the Global Kava Coalition and continue educating operators worldwide on what it actually takes to run a profitable, sustainable kava bar or non-alc lounge.

If you'd like to learn more about us, check out our About section.

The non-alc industry is growing. Are you ready to lead it?

The non-alc industry is growing fast, and most of the businesses opening into it aren't built to last. The sober-curious movement and functional drinks aren't a trend, they're here to stay, and it is a market that's still figuring out its own operating standards. We help the operators building into it now do it with systems already proven, instead of learning the hard way.

HOW WE WORK TOGETHER:

Choose Your Level of Support

Whether you're just getting your footing or running a multi-location operation, there's a right fit for where you are right now.

Just getting the idea out of your head?
The Discovery Phase Launchpad

You have had the idea for months, maybe years. It lives in a notes app, in half finished conversations with your partner, in the version of you that talks about it at parties but never quite starts. The Discovery Phase Launchpad exists for the exact moment you decide that ends. Over 90 days, we build the plan, test the idea against real people instead of your own head, find your funding path, and get your operations set up before you ever open the doors. You leave with a business plan, a niche you can say out loud with confidence, and a clear next step every single day.

🔗 Explore Discovery Phase Launchpad

Already in it, but doing it alone?
The Non-Alc Roundtable

You are past the idea stage. You have opened, or you are close, or you are deep in the daily grind of running something in an industry that barely existed five years ago and where nobody around you fully gets it. The Roundtable is the room you have been missing. Real operators, real numbers, real problems talked through in real time, so the decisions you have been carrying alone stop being yours to carry alone. This is where you stop reinventing what someone in the room already figured out last month. It is where a slow Tuesday, a staffing headache, a menu that is not converting, gets solved in a conversation instead of a spiral.

🔗 Explore The Non-Alc Roundtable

Ready to run it like a real system?
Bula Boss Mastermind

You did not open a kava bar or a non-alc bottle shop to spend every week putting out fires that a real system would have prevented. Bula Boss is the operating system that lets you finally step back from your own business. Every SOP, every job description, every training protocol, every hard call about tips and reporting lines and crisis response, already made, already documented, already proven. This is the difference between a business that needs you in the building every day and one that runs the way you would run it whether you are there or not. You get your weekends back. You get to take the trip. You get to walk in and coach your team instead of being the answer to every question. And because we work closely with the Kava Coalition, you also get a think tank of lawyers, scientists, and advocates behind you for the health department questions and regulatory gray areas that no operations manual alone can answer.

🔗 Explore Bula Boss

Need someone in it with you?

1:1 Retainers

Some decisions are too specific, too high stakes, or too personal for a group or asynchronous setting. This is for the owner who needs an actual partner, not another course, framework, or template pack but someone who has built and scaled these businesses themselves and will sit across from you and think it through with you. This is what it feels like to stop carrying the entire weight of the business by yourself. Every hard call, every hire, every pivot, every moment where you genuinely do not know what to do next, has someone in your corner who has been exactly where you are.

🔗 Jump on a call and see if we're a good fit!

Why Work With Us?

Expert-Led Guidance, Proven Results

✅ Over a decade running and consulting for kava and non-alc bars
✅ 100+ businesses launched, several past $1M a year, several franchised
✅ Industry-specific expertise in operations, compliance & branding
✅ Direct line to the Kava Coalition's legal and regulatory network

✅ SOPs and systems built from real operations (not templates written for a generic bar)

But don't just take our word for it...

Take a look at what our clients have had to say: