Alchemy, a restaurant on C3 Lab’s campus near South End, will open on June 25. The restaurant is meant to be an expansion of the creative hub, celebrating the art of dining. A few doors down from C3 Lab’s original building of subsidized workspace and studios for artists, Alchemy’s dining experience begins with a walk through a white-walled gallery space, where the host stand is stationed near the door.

The restaurant’s main dining room is separated from the gallery with a glass wall. Custom touches, like a wood-backed logo and gold, geometric patterned divider created in C3 Lab’s printing shop, further connect Alchemy to C3 Lab. During the day, a coffee bar supplied by Enderly Coffee Shop and lunch menu will feed those who wish to come in and work. A connected private event space will also be available to those working there.

“You don’t have to buy anything, but you’ll have coffee, you’ll have food,” says Glen Nocik, who owns C3 Lab with his wife Maria. “So the idea is some people will, some people won’t, but we want to create more community.”

Running the kitchen is former Napa on Providence chef Ken Aponte. His plan for the menu is to be vegetable-focused, though there will be proteins on the menu. Playing on the name Alchemy, Aponte says dishes will be made both traditionally and as a vegan dish, such as a classic Cuban. There will be one option with ham, pickles, and dijon mustard, and another with seitan. Aponte hopes the restaurant will capture the growing demographic of people eating less meat.

“I know there’s a lot of people who are either transitioning for health reasons but still have someone in the family that’s just not going to change,” he says.

Bob Peters will be consulting on the beverage program. To stay in line with the value of pure ingredients in the kitchen, there will be no commercial sodas served at the restaurant — those they use will be house-made.

The timing of a vegetable-forward menu is a lucky coincidence, planned long before illness in meat processing plants due to the covid-19 pandemic slowed the meat supply. Nocik says they’re also lucky to have the private event space, which will allow them to serve what would be full capacity in the regular dining room on nights the space isn’t booked. Even with social distancing, the restaurant can seat 80 by expanding into that space.

Alchemy will open to the public on June 25. —Kristen Wile

Unpretentious People Say...

Other Articles You Might Enjoy