I have to admit: Dinner's a lot more affordable when there's no alcohol on the menu. But most people like to have a drink with dinner. These days, you need one. Or two.  It's hard enough to open a restaurant, never mind a sobering one. The Mott, a new establishment in Nolita, had to debut without a liquor license. There was some saga about how Emma Cleary, a former owner, parted ways and took The Mott's liquor license with her.  But you know what? The Mott's doing pretty well without one and it's not because of the location. It's situated at the edge of Nolita, on the verge of Chinatown, where the only other thing open at night is one of those Tui-Na massage parlors.  The space is wonderfully quaint — a 38-seat nook furnished with romantic lighting, tin ceilings, whitewashed brick walls and a padded brown leather bar. There's a small, well-edited menu of American dishes like pan-seared cod, chilled summer tomato soup and roasted chicken with haricots vert and fingerling potatoes.  The flavors are much bigger than the menu. The chef, Brian Bieler, used to cook at Upstairs at Bouley and Cafe Luxembourg. Here he's cooking what he wants to cook.  When a chef is happy, you can ­really taste it on the plate. Fluke crudo tends to be delicate and subtle. Not at The Mott. Raw fluke — sprinkled with diced cantaloupe, sea salt, snap peas and a generous dose of chili oil — is sweet and spicy and sour all in the same bite. There are a lot of gnocchi dishes in this city, but the ricotta gnocchi at The Mott are perfectly cooked, pillowy nibbles, coupled with fresh artichokes and toasted pine nuts in an artichoke reduction sauce.  Bieler has a way with making everything fit the season. Pork belly isn't typically light eating, but Brier curiously manages to make it taste that way. He crisps the pork and plates it with spring lettuce and ripe cherries and sliced peaches. The sirloin is sliced and coupled with a summer zucchini and sweet cipollini onions, the rabbit terrine accompanied by pickled shallots and cherries. One of my favorite dishes on the menu is an arugula salad with roasted pistachios, fennel, grapes and shreds of moist, sweet duck confit. The salad is garnished with fresh, shaved Parmesan cheese and tossed in a Dijon vinaigrette.  There's a lot of potential in the kitchen, but the menu has a few weaker moments. The zucchini flower tempura arrived cold and not so crispy. The scallops with cherry tomatoes and wax beans were serviceable but forgettable. The salmon was a full-fledged failure. I thought maybe the chef was on to something new and original, pairing salmon with squid and tartar sauce. Nope.  There are only three desserts on the menu, and only one worth trying. It's a terrifically light crème brûlée spiked with pink peppercorns. There's a great selection of coffees, including one called the ­hairbender, all a lot cheaper than an after-dinner drink. There's also a mocktail list with an Einbecker, nonalcoholic beer, Mott Punch and a Bloome mocktail of mint, blueberry and lime juice.  Bieler has talent and The Mott is worth visiting sober for its food and atmosphere. It's also a lot less pricey without a liquor license, though it does deserve one.
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