Long before the "sober curious" movement went mainstream, Melanie Masarin saw an opportunity to rethink what we reach for at happy hour. The Founder and CEO of Ghia created the now-beloved non-alcoholic aperitif to make social drinking feel just as celebratory—minus the alcohol. Since then, she's helped redefine modern rituals around gathering, hosting, and slowing down.
We caught up with Melanie to talk about building a category-defining brand, why the best dinner parties are the simplest ones, and how her new cookbook, Riviera, brings those same values to the table.
What inspired you to create Ghia and rethink the role alcohol plays in social rituals?
I never set out to rethink alcohol. I just wanted something beautiful and delicious to drink when I wasn't drinking. At the time, the only options were water, soda, or a sad mocktail. Ghia was designed as an invitation to participate, not abstain. People use drinks the same way whether they're alcoholic or not: to mark a moment, to slow down, to feel included. When the focus is only on absence, you lose the emotional reason people reach for a drink in the first place.
When you launched Ghia, the nonalcoholic category was still relatively niche. What gap did you see in the market at the time?
A lot of the category defined itself by what was missing: no alcohol, no sugar, no calories. And while that matters, the framing felt restrictive and joyless. As someone who doesn't always drink, that messaging never made me want to reach for a bottle. There was also nothing on the market that felt aesthetically elevated o
