Reviews

Medieval alchemists tried turning lead into gold. Park Slope’s Alchemy transformed a hardware store into a London-style gastropub, and you’ve deemed it Brooklyn’s preeminent new eatery. The formula is simple: Fill a brick-and-weathered-wood room with deep booths and filament bulbs, toss in locally brewed beer, add a secluded backyard and fashion lofty pub grub that rivals the fare at the Spotted Pig. Curried fried calamari and tempura-crunchy fish-and-chips appease the hunger of Brooklynites from lunch to late night, while Guinness-flavored pancakes set the gold standard at breakfast.

The inviting, old-timey 48-seat restaurant offers hearty pub food with some curious culinary flourishes. Standouts on a brief but enticing menu include diver scallops ($10) nested in acorn squash puree, lovingly cloaked in a Guinness froth — perhaps to remind you that you‘re still in an Irish pub. – By PAPERMAG Editors

…delicious, elevated pub fare. Every meal at this comfortingly masculine spot—with rough-hewn communal tables for dining, and a warm glow thanks to exposed filament bulbs—starts with a small bowl of piping-hot fried chickpeas, an addictive snack that’s a fine complement to your pint… – TONY

Park Slope‘s Alchemy has already become the area’s favorite gastropub with a certain “drunken” British flavor. Serving fine draft beers, wine by the stemless goblet, and succulent, adventurous eats from the U.K. (such as rabbit pot pie and frogs legs), this warm, laid back pub brushed with vintage light fixtures, a dark wood antique bar, booth seating, and exposed brick is a trap of Old World comfort. Alchemy brings the neighborhoods of London just a little closer to Brooklyn.

You can tell a lot of hard work went into the making of Alchemy from its exposed brick, comfy wooden bar and booths, to its three sturdy sharing tables in the rear. Dangling light bulbs add a warm glow to the room which, on the night we visited, was buzzing…
Be sure to save room for dessert. The homemade apple crisp is a keeper. It arrives in its own little tart pan straight from the oven. Plump apple slices topped with a thick layer of cinnamony crumbs, and a scoop of ginger ice cream melting into it. Yum!

I have been waiting for a place like this to open up in Park Slope for so long and much to my delight it finally has. Though they are still waiting on a liquor license, the food and atmosphere are amazing, like being in your local pub, but much nicer and much betterfood. The roasted mushroom salad is amazing, as is the fried cuttlefish (like calalmari, but less chewey) and the hanger steak could not be more tender, (which is hard sometimes for a hanger steak). And the Guinness toffee pudding is ridiculous! This place has everything to become an instant classic in the neighborhood.

Kevin Read, former barkeep at Lucky Strike, has given a post-Victorian makeover to a Park Slope hardware store, trucking in a 100-year-old bar, for this bar-restaurant inspired by his time in the townhouse gastropubs of Hempstead, London. Chef Jared King—formerly of Windows on the World, Oceana, and more recently, Peacock Alley—cooks $12 to $25 entrées of roasted chicken, ravioli, seasonal stews, and a hangar steak in red-wine reduction, plus more adventurous specials made with game and organ meat. Ingredients are largely local, organic, and free-range, and during spring the patrons can be free-range too: There‘s a garden in the back. — Daniel Maurer

On Gothamist’s recent visit, the cooks turned out a tantalizing plate of fried cuttlefish wrapped in a thin sleeve of batter and served with a pot of chorizo oil mayo. Braised pork cheeks were tender and vaguely sweet, responding to the slightest stroke of the fork. Alchemy’s subtle elevations are overwhelmingly successful—a hangar steak is topped with a lightly fried disc of bone marrow, a burger is dressed with a shallot confit and a knob of bite-size fingerling fries..

It takes more than science to transmute a base into pure gold.That’s the magic of Alchemy, Park Slope’s first gastropub — the kind of place you wish was around the corner from your apartment — where owner and former Lucky Striker Kevin Read has taken an old hardware shop and filled it with hardwood floors, booths, and communal tables.
Standouts include fried cuttlefish with chorizo mayo, braised pork cheeks wrapped in phyllo, hanger steak in red wine bearnaise, skate and chips, and roasted beet ravioli in goat cheese bechamel. Guinness toffee pudding needs no explanation.