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| - Much love for Alchemy, our neighborhood standby. All of the food is delicious and unique. I love their hanger steak and all of the salads. The fish fry is as delectable as everyone says (in my opinion, top in town). My boyfriend and I usually split an order of their AMAZING wings- crazy good cocoa/buffalo/barbecue sauce on those- as well as as the Tinshack burger which is a bison burger with bacon and smoked onions and Muenster cheese... my mouth is watering just thinking of it. Alchemy defaults to splitting the burger and its accompanying side (usually we get the fries, which are more American fry than French fry, but tasty nonetheless) in the kitchen so it's perfectly portioned when it gets to the table- it's the little things like this that elevate Alchemy from great to fantastic. Other little things: prices reasonable, portions perfect. Ingredients are fresh and local and that makes a huge taste difference. Plus the beer list varies wonderfully and frequently- as does the dessert list; we've loved every dessert we've tried, but do not miss their cheesecakes!!!
Minus one star from perfect for two reasons- one, service can be inattentive/not the friendliest, we always hope to get one of our two favorite servers who are gracious and totally on it but when we don't we end up waiting 15-20 minutes for things like the check or refills. Also because some nights we go there and the live music is just overpowering the space. I'm a total fan of live music but Alchemy is really tiny, and it seems the sound could easily be tweaked on nights with a band so that diners and musicians could coexist. Instead, we end up yelling over music that's supposedly mellow background music (jazz ensembles, bluegrass etc)... then everyone in the place is yelling, and it gets uncomfortably loud. Regardless, we're regulars, and it's our favorite place to be on the East side.
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