Roll Up Herbal Bar has found its biggest and best home yet on S. Main Street in Waynesville

What a long, strange trip it’s been for Sam Kearny, who first put the Roll Up Herbal Bar into gear as a mobile mocktail bar and non-alcoholic beverage catering service in the fall of 2023.

Technically, it was her husband Matt who put Herbie – the retrofitted 1971 VW bus from which the bar operates – into gear. “I never learned how to drive a stick shift,” Sam says with a laugh. “I saw the bus and thought it was so cute. Thankfully, Matt can drive it.”

Sam is the driving force behind the concept and the business, which was inspired by her desire for zero-proof cocktails beyond cranberry juice and club soda. A bartender off and on for more than 15 years, she has been sober for the last five and wanted to make drinks she could drink. As it turns out, there’s a big difference between a mocktail, and a good mocktail.

“I was really cocky about it,” she admits. “I thought ‘I make cocktails all the time, no problem, I got this.’ Then I started making them and they were awful. It’s hard to make a good mocktail!”

Before she ever pulled up the service side of Herbie, she embarked on intense research, trial and error. She eschewed the growing line of NA spirits that have rapidly developed in the past few years. “I find them to be overpriced and disappointing.” Instead, she approached the process by looking at ingredients from a culinary position. If she wants something evocative of gin, for example, she’ll use juniper berry.

Matt drove and parked Herbie at weddings and events, where the mocktails are often an option in addition to boozy beverages. “Sometimes it’s a separate bar, but I can also add alcohol to my drink menu.”

But as sober curiosity and interest in NA options grew, it was her mocktails that grew her reputation and led her to open her first brick and mortar in a former storage closet at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville in February 2024. In September, Helene took out all of the historic Frog Level District, including her bar, equipment and product.

Thankfully, Herbie was safely parked at their home and wasn’t damaged; when she was offered a space in Church Street Studios, a former school being renovated to lease to artists and retail, Sam pulled her construction clothing out of storage, reacquainted herself with the local Lowe’s, and got to work on her own buildout. Herbal Roll Up Bar opened on January 1, 2025, in the principal’s office. Just in time for Dry January and those new year resolutions.

Though the space was “really cute,” at 185 square feet it was also really tight. She wanted to offer table seating and have more autonomy, so began seeking something larger and more stand alone. She and another Church Street Studios tenant, Golden Bear Alchemy, decided they would share space.

A friend pointed her to an available lease on S. Main Street. “It had been a gym in the basement of the building and had been vacant for two or three years. It needed a lot of work.”

During the 45-day renovation, Herbie went back out for wedding season through June and July. In mid-August, the third brick and mortar Roll Up Herbal Bar soft opened in its own 1,200 square feet, decked out with a tin ceiling, freshly painted walls, a bar, tables and several pieces of comfy upholstered furniture arranged like a living room. Shannnon Horton, owner of Golden Bear, has stocked her apothecary shelves with items she makes like tallow face cream and faerie face serum. She also does tarot and pendulum readings.

Sam says she is always happy to find good mocktails in conventional bars when meeting friends who are not following a sober lifestyle, but Herbal Roll Up Bar is strictly NA. “I want to facilitate a fully sober experience for people. I didn’t realize how important that was until I did it and began hearing from people how much they enjoy and appreciate that.”

Who wouldn’t appreciate a repertoire of drinks with ingredients like lavender, rosemary, tangerine, basil, pressed coconut water, dragon fruit powder and butterfly pea flower? The six signature mocktails are named for how they present and taste. For example, Something Floral has rose, juniper berry, cucumber, lime, dragon fruit powder, and is finished with rose buds and lime wedge.

Something Bright is grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, basil, and finished with orange bitters and lime wedge. Something Sweet is strawberry, peach, pear, pressed coconut water, finished with cocktail cherry. Something Spicy — jalapeño, ginger, chili powder and pineapple, finished with jalapeño lime salt and lime wedge – has already developed a cult following.

“When I was starting out, I knew I wanted something sweet, something spicy. That was my framework and when it came time to print the menu, I hadn’t named them, so I went with that. People say they really appreciate knowing what they’re getting into.”

She also has a classic lemonade and a fancy lemonade; for fall, she is going with the Arnold Fallmer – half classic lemonade, half unsweetened apple cider, with a spiced simple she makes of fresh orange, fresh ginger, cinnamon, cardamon and clove. No PSL (that’s pumpkin spice latte) in the building!

On September 26, Roll Up Herbal Bar will officially celebrate its grand re-re-opening from noon – 8pm with a ribbon cutting (12:30), music, light bites, a scavenger hunt, and a champagne toast. Non-alcoholic, of course.

More about Roll Up Herbal Bar

— Written by Kay West

— AIRfare is sponsored by McGuire, Wood & Bissette

Photos courtesy of Roll Up Herbal Bar & Laura Coddington
First photo:  Sam Kearny and Herbie
Second photo:  The making of a good mocktail
Third photo:  Roll Up Herbal Bar’s line up