The Alchemists' Garden in downtown Paso Robles is about to get a lot more cerebral.

Make reservations for Thursday, Friday, or Saturday for slots between 7 and 10 p.m. and ask for The Remedy. When you get to the Vine Street restaurant, the host will lead you through a side door, and after a minute-long walk down the street, they'll open another vine-covered door to lead you into a small, dark room resembling a professor's study.

• Photos Courtesy Of Quin Cody
• MOLECULAR MASTER Co-owner and head mixologist Tony Bennett flaunts his cocktail craftsmanship and knowledge at The Remedy's bar cart.

Decked with dark wood, plush leather couches, and velvet chairs, the cozy space welcomes you to a large, well-equipped bar cart. Behind it, co-owner Tony Bennett shares his cocktail-crafting prowess.

"I think a lot of people don't know what to expect with a cocktail program like this because they hear 'cocktail bar' and think it's watching an Old Fashioned being produced and in 45 seconds, the drink is finished," Bennett said.

In fact, preparation to make The Remedy's drinks can take four to seven hours even before opening the doors. Bennett told New Times that most of the work has to be done in the kitchen with the help of a battalion of machinery like immersion blenders, sous vide machines, nitrogen canisters, and handmade glassware pieces. Some of the ingredients take two or three days to finalize and produce.

Take Bennett's breakdown of his signature drink: "The Negroni Bianco is a nitrogen rosemary-infused gin. That's going to be built around a Bianco profile, meaning the Campari has been removed," he explained. "Then we turn the Campari into a liqueur or a cordial ... and then we bind sodium alginate, which is an extracted molecule from algae."

• Photos Courtesy Of Quin Cody
• THE ALCHEMISTS Co-owners Andrew Brune (left) and Tony Bennett compiled detailed information packages for the bar staff to read up on before they progressed to fine-tuning drinks according to the character of each liquor and the palate of each patron.

The sodium alginate-bound cordial gets immersed in a calcium bath that creates a gelatinous layer around it. The result: tiny caviar-sized balls of alcohol. This entire alchemy process is done table-side.

"It's a form called direct spherification, one of the most difficult to do because the entire shelf life is 15 minutes. So you can't prep it ahead of time," Bennett said.

The Remedy's Negroni is a true labor of love. Bennett went through countless iterations of the recipe ever since he opened The Alchemists' Garden two years ago with co-owners Andrew Brune, Quin Cody, and Alexandra Pellot. Originally, the Negroni came into being by substituting club soda in an Americano cocktail with gin. Bennett called it a historically important cocktail that challenged him gastronomically.

"The Negroni is probably one of the first good craft cocktails that turned my attention from bartending in sports bars and high-volume lounges to really crafting something that I would consider respectable. It's a really powerful drink," he said.

Bennett's founding team at The Alchemists' Garden is all too familiar with his Negroni fixation.

"We've tested it for him 12 or 13 times, at least. He was all, 'Taste it, this is it!' Ten days later, it's, 'No, it's not good enough!'" Pellot said.

Pellot and Cody devised the high-end cocktail lounge's name. The small back section started out as the staff lunchroom until The Alchemists' Garden decided to expand.

"The Remedy came to be because we were always thinking about something that cures you," Pellot said. "Back in the day, people used alcohol to cure themselves, for pain, aches in the stomach, for headaches, pimples. Between all the research that we both did, [the word] 'remedy' kept sounding in our heads."

Cody said that the original idea was to create a space where patrons could enjoy the education and learning that goes on behind the scenes of crafting cocktails. Bennett will soon be assisted by two other bartenders, who he'll help keep up on their spirits education amid an ever-changing market.

"Being in wine country, it brings people who most likely have all sorts of knowledge," Pellot said. "That back-and-forth conversation does happen, and even though that may be a cool conversation, we want to be able to provide actual facts."

Reservations open every Thursday at 4 p.m. Punctuality is key, and guests are expected to arrive a few minutes before their reserved time. The Remedy seats a maximum of 10 people at a time, and each person or group gets 60 minutes to enjoy the experience. But becoming a member of its private locker program earns you an extra 30 minutes with first preference when it comes to booking a spot. And they also receive first access to private events.

• Photos Courtesy Of Quin Cody
• SCROLL AWAY Laced with Old World charm, The Remedy's dark academia style seeps into its menu, too, as guests get to scan drink options from a rolled scroll tied with a black ribbon.

"Our bottle count is around 125. The one benefit of doing the locker program is we can source alcohol for people through multiple channels," Bennett said. "Typically, as a private members' club, we have the ability to pour things that you can't just serve to the public."

Cody said that members can keep their purchased bottles in one of the lockers that adorn the walls at The Remedy, which enables patrons to get their favorite specialty drinks made by their favorite mixologist.

For example, he said, "If I'm a member here and I wanted to have a bottle in the locker, and I love Tom Collins cocktails. [Or] if I'm like, 'I drink this at home all the time but I want to go out and I want to get this rare bottle of gin and I want Tony to make it.'"

Members can do just that and more at The Remedy. Bennett and his team are highly versed in the composition of the spirits they serve. That, coupled with an understanding of the customers' palates, allows the mixologists to tailor and fine-tune cocktails of all kinds. Now Bennett is going through his long list of membership signups even though The Remedy just opened on Oct. 14.

"We're selling only 25 memberships right now. I have well over 25 on the waitlist, but I haven't sold them yet," he said. "We also firmly believe that if we extend something like this to people, we want to make sure we can deliver—it's about making sure the value is there." Δ

Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal is ready to be schooled on molecular Negronis. Send study tips at [email protected].