The Alchemist is an interesting place with a great vibe, nice decor, and a good concept. It’s a cocktail bar and restaurant, separated into two distinct and large rooms. When you first walk in, you’re in the cocktail bar. There’s a huge U-shaped bar with tons of bar seating and lots of couches and tables. The space is huge, comfortable, and chic. If you walk straight past it, up the stairs, you will enter the restaurant. The restaurant is quite large and spacious as well, with many booths and tables. Both places are always busy and I recommend making reservations, particularly for peak times.
The restaurant serves fusion tapas and a number of more upscale bar foods – nachos, wraps, burgers, stews. The burger is quite good, served with two thin beef patties on a brioche bun, tomato, lettuce, onion, and a pickle. The hummus and rainbow wrap is really nice – creamy, cheesy hummus with chunks of chickpeas, three types of lettuce, cucumber, and carrot served with a sweet chili salsa and fries. Servers are nice, but also busy, so service can be a bit slow.
The cocktail bar is more hit or miss and mostly miss. They take themselves too seriously, serve cocktails that take 10 minutes to prepare, and use all kinds of exaggerated techniques and contraptions to feign coolness. The bottom line is that anyone who knows and understands good cocktails will absolutely not be impressed by this place. The pours are wrong, the proportions are off, the taste is paltry, the drinks are weak, and it’s all show. It’s expensive and flashy, but there isn’t the matching substance behind it.
Nonetheless, the overall vibe, the good food, and the accommodating staff make it a great place to hang out or catch up with friends and I’d still recommend the place as a whole. But just don’t go thinking you’re going to get a good cocktail, though you will get a big show and spectacle to watch.
