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The Alchemical bar, in Cartagena, was founded by the Frenchman Jean Trinh, and is considered one of the best in the world, ranking 10th, according to The 50 Best.

The bar is located on Calle del Colegio # 34-24, it is a three-story house in the walled city where not only cocktails, drinks and food are offered, but visitors can also go partying.
But how much does a night out at Alchemical cost? 

Meal

For snacks and cold food, they have a board of artisanal cheeses from Quindío, fish ceviche and tiger's milk from Lulo, hearts with candied eggplant and skewers of feta cheese, roasted paprika and patilla. Prices range between 18,000 and 31,000 pesos.
There are also hamburgers, fried chicken sandwich, posta negra sandwich and veggie tartine, between 24,000 and 30,000 pesos.
The hot cuisine includes beef meatballs with romesco sauce, chicharrón tacos, seafood jelly, cheese carimañolas and octopus skewers, between 17,000 and 42,000 pesos.
For dessert there is banana cake and cholao valluno, at 16,000 pesos.

Drinks

Most cocktails cost 30,000 pesos on average and have names like Balandú, Bacatá, Muzo and Santa Cruz, among a wide variety of offerings.
In the drinks, there is champagne. The value per bottle is between 300,000 and 2,800,000 pesos. The wines (white, red and rosé) cost 38,000 a glass and 190,000 pesos a bottle.

The offer of viche, curao and tomaseca from the Colombian Pacific is between 13,000 a drink and 220,000 pesos a bottle. It comes from recognized vicheras houses, among them Uramba, from Buenaventura.
The offer also includes spirits, pisco, vodka, rums, whiskey and aperitifs, mezcal and tequila, with drinks from 17,000 pesos and bottles up to 1,700,000 pesos.


ALQUIMICO, a story of reinvention in Cartagena
Alchemical comes from alchemy, and cooking is pure alchemy. Here I tell you how in a corner of the Colombian Caribbean a great mind dreamed one day of a liquid kitchen full of experiences, friendly to the environment and supported by coherence and sustainability. This is the story of Alchemical, the #47 bar in the world according to "The World's 50 Best Bars."

Jean Trinh, that's the name of the Frenchman with Vietnamese parents who is behind this whole idea. An engineer by profession, I would describe him as the “king of hospitality”. He was born in Paris, and from a very young age he grew up in the midst of kitchens, tables and diners, so serving people and comforting them through food and drink is not something new for him. Alchemical is his second bar in Cartagena - he had previously created El Laboratorio, the place where I met him - and was designed with the firm purpose of generating sensory experiences through drinks that take advantage of the great biodiversity of the entire Colombian territory in a conscious and responsible with your environment. Located in a three-story Republican building in the historic center, the bar would end up becoming an example of how to make conscious and sustainable businesses a reality over time.
They started with small changes; those that do not seem noticeable at first glance, but that result in decisions that benefit the planet. They adapted their menu to use as few imported ingredients as possible, lowered the carbon footprint of their dishes, and gave prominence to local ingredients through a menu inspired by world flavors and Caribbean products. They also stopped selling some bottled products such as beers and soft drinks, because they were not sure where their bottles would go, they began to use cup holders made of ecological materials - you can imagine the number of cup holders that are thrown away daily when you serve 800 people a day - and they decided to give filtered water to their clients and serve it in recycled bottles of the different distillates they used.


When everything seemed perfect, this new reality called Covid-19 arrived. With a staff of 60 people and a high-volume operation, the pandemic forced them to make an abrupt stop along the way, return home and reflect on how they will face difficult times. After a month of total closure of the business in which the entire staff stayed busy with academic activities focused on improving their knowledge of mixology and service, Jean proposed to them to undertake the adventure of accompanying him to Jamaica, a farm in the coffee region that had acquired with the intention of converting it into the bar's agricultural pantry where it could produce and harvest varieties of fruits, aromatic herbs and coffee, with a space dedicated to reforestation and environmental conservation that followed the bar's philosophy of sustainability and made them even more coherent.

For Jean, the physical and mental health of the Alchemical team was paramount. Finally, more than twenty people undertook a long overland journey of almost 900 km until they reached the Jamaica farm in Filandia, Quindío. The boys, most of them young people between 20 and 30 years old, distributed the tasks of the farm among themselves and gave a radical change to their routines and their way of interacting with the world. They went from being people of the night and shaking cocktails, to getting up every day at 5:00 am to work in the fields, in construction, in planting trees, while day after day the tasks were divided into groups. domestic, as important as the daily food of the entire group. Believe it or not, they themselves built the foundations and walls of the farm house, made seedbeds, set up apiaries, planted fruits, coffee and vegetables, and had the opportunity to discover new facets of their lives; but most importantly, they stayed united, healthy and motivated for the day they could return to Cartagena.


Alchemical was reactivated in October 2020, and this initiative, selfless and generous, designed for the well-being of its team, made Jean and the bar enter the renowned list of “The World's 50 Best Bars” occupying position number 47, and also , will award them the “Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award 2020”, which positions them not only as one of the best bars in the world, but also the most sustainable at the moment. Thanks to Alquímico and his entire team for representing us in the world -Alquímico is Colombia!-. Projects like this are what motivate us to continue betting on the local.

He is currently a partner and chef of Sustainable Development and Research at Celele Restaurante, winner of the “Miele One To Watch Award” for Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2019 and position #49 in “The World's 50 Best Restaurants LatAm” 2021. Co-founder of “Proyecto Caribe Lab” and with more than 10 years of experience in the gastronomic world, Sebastián is a chef who has focused his professional career on working with local products and producers, rescuing culinary traditions, and the culture of hospitality. and sustainable practices with the environment.

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