Today we’d like to introduce you to Victoria Burgess.
Hi Victoria, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m originally from Baltimore, Maryland. I moved to Las Vegas in the fall of 2012 for the weather and the energy of Sin City. I built my career in hospitality, working as a server and bartender, which meant I was fully immersed in a culture where drinking isn’t just common, it’s the default. You’re either a normal drinker or you have a problem. That’s the only framework that exists here.
I didn’t fit either box. I knew something wasn’t right about the way alcohol made me feel, even if I looked normal compared to the people around me. After a couple of Dry Januaries and a few 90-day challenges, I took my last sip on October 15, 2023. Brunch with friends in Baltimore.
There’s something I don’t talk about enough. Working in hospitality for as long as I have, you eventually start asking yourself where this leads. The money is good, the freedom is real, but the question underneath it all is deeper than that. What is my purpose? Why am I here?
I grew up in church, and one thing that always stuck with me is the idea that your testimony is meant to be shared. That what you’ve been through isn’t just for you. That it’s supposed to reach somebody.
After I stopped drinking, I had all this energy and creativity and nowhere to put it. I kept thinking about how cool it would be if Vegas had its own alcohol-free bar. Same vibes as a lounge or a club, just without the alcohol. That idea became Cozmic Spiritz, an alcohol-free pop-up bar. I did Sans Bar Academy, a program that helps build non-alcoholic communities and businesses, and on January 24, 2024 I hosted my very first alcohol-free happy hour. That year I experimented with yoga and mocktails, pottery events, vendor pop-ups. I was figuring it out.
2025 was slower. Life was happening. Then I got let go from my server job at a restaurant I loved, and something shifted. Private event bookings started coming in. A company launch. A private dinner pairing. The opening of a sober community center. A mocktail mixology class. These were real opportunities, but I kept wanting more. I wanted a space where people could let loose, dance, and actually connect without alcohol being the reason they were there.
So at the start of 2026 I launched a new branch of the business: Cozmic | The Mocktail Club. A zero-proof social community in Las Vegas for anyone who wants to go out, socialize, and have a great time without the buzz. This is the place I would have wanted when I first stopped drinking. So many of my relationships had been built around alcohol and I didn’t even realize it until I stopped. Suddenly I felt left out of my own social life.
Cozmic isn’t a sober space. It’s an alternative to the normal Vegas scene. If you don’t drink, this could be your night out. If you do drink, this could be your pregame. Everyone is welcome. There just won’t be any alcohol at my events. Because you don’t drink doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the ritual.
Cozmic feels like the answer to that question I was carrying for years. It’s the place where everything I am actually meets. My hospitality background, my relationship with wellness and fitness, my faith, my story. I didn’t plan it that way. But looking back, it makes all the sense in the world.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road, and honestly, most of the obstacles have come from me.
Life happens. And it’s hard to keep pouring energy into something that doesn’t pay off right away. There were stretches where I went quiet on social media, disappeared for a while, and that silence has a real cost. Visibility is everything when you’re building a community from scratch. When you go ghost, people can’t find you, and momentum is hard to rebuild.
The deeper challenge has been the mindset shift. Community building and entrepreneurship require a version of yourself you’ve never had to be before. Comfortable being uncomfortable. Willing to take risks. Okay with hearing no. And convinced, even on the slow days, that what you’re building is actually needed. That last part is the hardest. It’s an ongoing practice, not something you figure out once and move on from.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Cozmic | The Mocktail Club is a zero-proof social community based in Las Vegas. We host a mix of free monthly meetups called Mocktails & Mingle and ticketed signature experiences called The Cozmic Lounge. Every event is designed to feel like a real night out, not a wellness workshop, not a support group: just good vibes, great mocktails, and people who actually want to connect.
What sets Cozmic apart is the positioning. This isn’t a recovery community or a wellness brand. It’s social moments. The events are designed to feel like something you’d actually want to go to on a Saturday night, because that’s exactly what they are. In a city built on indulgence, Cozmic is proof that the experience, the energy, the ritual of a night out, doesn’t require alcohol to be worth showing up for.
I also specialize in private events: corporate launches, dinner pairings, mixology classes, and community celebrations. If you want a mocktail experience that feels elevated and intentional, that’s what I do.
What I’m most proud of is the positioning. Cozmic isn’t marketed as a sober space. It’s an alternative to the normal Vegas scene, and that distinction matters. It opens the door for everyone. The person who stopped drinking, the person doing a dry month, the person who just wants something different on a Friday night. Nobody has to explain themselves to walk through the door.
Las Vegas has every kind of nightlife imaginable. Cozmic is proof that alcohol-free can belong in that conversation, too.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Everyone knows faith and fitness are a huge part of my life. They’re really what push me to take big swings, whether that’s starting a business, signing up for a HYROX competition, or booking a solo trip somewhere new. But something most people don’t know about me is that I’ve started collecting vinyl records. I’ll hit different record shops just looking for whatever catches my eye, and the music on my records is almost never what’s in my streaming library. I’m drawn to a totally different era when I’m listening on vinyl. We’re talking 50s through 80s, all different genres. Coltrane, The Beatles, The Temptations, Carlos Santana. There’s something about putting a record on that just slows everything down.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cozmicmocktailclub
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/victorious_lyb/
