Talk about making lemonade out of lemons. Abbie Runyan Romanul, a young mother who quit drinking because of the way alcohol was affecting her life, has launched a surprisingly successful company based on the premise that even non-drinkers like herself enjoy the experience of sitting down with a fancy cocktail every once in a while.

“When I quit drinking, I really missed out on the creativity and festiveness of cocktail culture. I remember looking online for something to fill that void,” said Romanul, who stopped drinking in 2018. “Few options existed for alcohol-free drinks and even fewer that weren’t loaded with sugar. I was familiar with alcohol-based cocktail kits, but I wanted to bring something to people like me who love the idea of mixing up something special but without the booze! When I realized the product I imagined didn’t exist, it was a no-brainer to make it ourselves.”

And that's how Abbey and her husband Devin Romanul started Raising the Bar, a company that delivers non-alcoholic craft cocktails. It was in September of 2020, a year that was possibly the most stressful most people have ever experienced, with pandemic-induced anxiety and feelings of isolation leading many to increase their alcohol intake.

“There has been a steep learning curve,” said Romanul. “Things like sourcing, margin analysis and customer acquisition were all new to me, but we hit the ground running. You learn as you grow. I say to my husband I can't believe I get to do this. People tell me such great stories. It's such a gift to open up emails from people who say they appreciate having this alternative to drinking. There is a lot of trial and error. We experiment and test all recipes ourselves, trying to retain the complexity and intensity of traditional drinks. And the alcohol-free segment of the market is definitely growing. But the best thing is that I am my own boss!”

The company, which curates ingredients to create craft alcohol-free cocktails with various flavor combinations, has been featured in a Dec. 1 segment on TV's The Today Show. Customers can get a subscription for one month, three months, six months or one year. The ingredients come in the mail in a box with directions. Each box contains ingredients for at least four drinks, with recipes for leftover ingredients. So far 230 customers have purchased monthly subscriptions.

And it isn’t just recovering alcoholics who like the service. One customer, Suzanne MacFarland of Erdenheim, said the “mocktails” helped her get through pregnancy. “I missed having fancy drinks to make an evening special. Raising the Bar’s cocktails have the complexity and flavor of a cocktail. The subscription has introduced me to many exciting products that are now staples of my bar cart.”

Romanul lived in Chestnut Hill until the age of 11, when her family moved to Wyndmoor, where her now-retired parents still live. Her father Stan was the head of Stan Runyan & Associates, an architectural firm, and her mother Prudence was a senior vice-president of a health care agency.

Abbie went to Jenks Elementary School and Springfield Township High School, and now says that even in high school she had a serious drinking problem. “I had low self-esteem and discomfort in my own skin,” she said last week in a Zoom interview, “and that's how I dealt with it.”

The drinking did not prevent Romanul from graduating from Trinity College in Hartford, CT as an art history major or earning a master's degree in art history from Boston University. Nor did it inhibit her from doing curatorial work at the Boston Museum of Fine Art for one year, followed by three years at a marketing job at Babyganics, an eco-friendly baby products company.

Romanul met Devin, a North Carolina native, in college. The couple went on to have three children.

Throughout all these years, Romanul said, “I had a drinking habit but was not an alcoholic, so I tricked myself into thinking I was OK. Every once in a while I had a really bad experience. I finally decided at the age of 33 that I never wanted to feel like that again. I've been to 12-step meetings, but their stories were so different from mine. I felt like an imposter. The meetings were not for me, but there is a very active recovery community on social media.”

Although he is involved in Raising the Bar, Devin, also has a full-time job for a nonprofit organization that works to inspire change with regard to racial issues. Their children are Jack, 8; Ellie, 6, and Charlie, 5.

For more information, visit weareraisingthebar.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.