Doing Dry January? An ‘All on the Table’ Guest Has a Hack to Make It Actually Fun

You know the feeling: you want to drink less, but not feel like the odd one out nursing a sad soda water while everyone else is having fun. Dry January, a reset, a random Tuesday night—whatever the reason, not drinking shouldn’t feel like a punishment.

On All on the Table, host Katie Lee Biegel sits down with actor, chef, and cookbook author David Burtka to talk about a smarter, more realistic way to approach drinking—one that doesn’t rely on willpower alone. Whether you’re trying to cut back, go alcohol-free, or just avoid the next-day regret, this conversation lands on a surprisingly simple idea that’s changing how people sip.

The One Cocktail, One Mocktail Hack

Mocktails have (finally) grown up

“Ten years ago, there wasn’t anything out there,” Burtka explains. “Like you’d go to a restaurant and you’d get these sugary drinks. The mocktail section was pineapple with ginger syrup and loaded with sugar…like I can’t drink that.”

He’s not wrong. For years, non-alcoholic drinks were an afterthought, something restaurants threw together for designated drivers and pregnant women while everyone else got the real menu. But that’s changed dramatically.

Industry forecasts put the global category on track to surpass $40 billion by 2027, with steady growth through the mid-2020s—and it’s not just sparkling water driving that shift. There are now actual good options: distilled non-alcoholic spirits like Seedlip, herbal aperitifs like Roots de Vino, and functional drinks like Little Saints made with lion’s mane mushroom and adaptogens. These aren’t sugar bombs pretending to be cocktails, but sophisticated drinks designed to stand on their own.

That shift is exactly why Burtka and his husband, Neil Patrick Harris, wrote Both Sides of the Glass. The book pairs every cocktail with a mocktail version using similar ingredients, so you’re not buying a whole separate bar setup just to accommodate people who aren’t drinking.

“There were mocktail books and there were cocktail books, but there wasn’t anything out there that was both of them,” Burtka says. “If you’re having a cocktail party and people don’t drink and some people do, like what do you do?”

Now there’s an answer.

You deserve to feel like part of the party

Here’s the thing nobody talks about: not drinking can feel isolating. Even when you’ve made the choice for yourself, there’s something about holding a sad little glass of H2O while everyone else has a crafted cocktail that makes you feel like you’re on the outside looking in.

Burtka gets it. After getting sober, he found himself wanting to participate in the ritual of drinking without the alcohol. “As a person who doesn’t drink, you want to feel part of the crowd,” he says. “You want to feel special.”

That desire isn’t superficial—it’s kind of the whole point. Studies on why people drink socially show it’s often less about getting buzzed and more about belonging. Holding a drink. Clinking glasses. Feeling included instead of visibly opting out while everyone else is in sync.

The good news? Not drinking doesn’t come with weird energy anymore. Gen Z drinks less than any previous generation. Dry January participation grows every year. And most higher-end bars and restaurants now have legitimate non-alcoholic options that don’t turn ordering into a whole thing.

“It used to be, you go to a party, if you didn’t want to drink, you had club soda or you would pretend that you were drinking,” Biegel notes. “But now there’s no stigma, no shame around not drinking.”

“I feel like I can go out now and feel like I’m part of the crowd,” Burtka adds. 

The one-one hack

Now, maybe you’re not swearing off alcohol forever. You still like a good margarita. You still want to toast, flirt, celebrate, stay out past 9 p.m. You just don’t want the headache, the regret, or the next-day fog.

This is where Burtka’s favorite trick comes in: one cocktail, one mocktail. Repeat.

“That’s what people are doing now,” he says. “They’re having one cocktail, then they’re having one mocktail. They’re having one cocktail, then one mocktail…so they can last the whole night.”

It’s almost comically simple, but it works. You still get a real drink. You still feel like you’re part of the moment. You just cut your alcohol intake in half, which usually means less hangxiety, fewer regrets, and way more energy the next day.

Biegel is immediately sold. “I’m going to try that,” she says. “Because if I have more than one cocktail, I really feel bad the next day. So if I can do the regular margarita and then have the non-alcoholic margarita, I feel like my night gets extended.”

And if you are doing Dry January, Burtka keeps it refreshingly straightforward. “Dry January, I think you could do anything you set your mind to,” he says. “It’s just willpower.”

Still, willpower gets a lot easier when the options don’t feel like a downgrade. Stock a non-alcoholic spirit or two. Keep some NA beers in the fridge—they’re genuinely good now. And if you’re hosting, make the same drink in both versions so no one feels like they ordered off a different menu. Because drinking less doesn’t have to mean opting out. Sometimes it just means drinking smarter.

For more insights, tune into All on the Table wherever you listen to podcasts.

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