Dallas’ Most Scientific Bar Jumps Into Austin’s Buzzy Drinks Scene

Nerd culture has become pretty damn cool over the last 10 years, a big change from when the word carried negative connotations of Coke-bottle glasses and an inability to talk to girls.

And I’ll admit I’m in love with almost everything about the popularity of nerd culture, minus the yearly Comic Con traffic. One bar in Dallas has been making the most of nerd culture since its inception in 2016.

The mad scientist bartenders at The Tipsy Alchemist in Dallas’ Cedar Springs district have been making drink specials using science cool for years now. 

The bar’s goal is to blow their customers’ minds with expertly done cocktails crafted through science, art and technique. The bartenders even call the bar “the lab.” Now, the hot bar is expanding its beakers to Austin’s Rainey Street this summer with a second location.

“When we decided to open The Tipsy Alchemist in Dallas, our mindset was to break the rules, have our own style and elevate people’s nightlife experience,” Dallas managing partner Stephen Underhill Jr. tells PaperCity. 

“After two years of support and thinking outside the box, we are finally ready to grow, and I can’t think of a better city to open our second location of The Tipsy Alchemist than Austin.”

Drinking Smart

The original Dallas Tipsy Alchemist has drinks named for elemental symbols — like the “Am,” or Alchemist Margarita. Made with salted chocolate tequila, mango-habanero reduction, lime, agave and finished with a Tajin rim and candied mango, the Tipsy Alchemist brings an unexpected edge to the unofficial drink of Texas.

But The Tipsy Alchemist is most known for The Edison, made with rum blended with nitrogen-frozen mint and lime and then served in a light bulb on ice.

Then, there’s the Mad Hatter, created with vodka, vermouth, lemon, cucumber and watermelon and then placed into a pneumatic tube transport system — similar to the tubes you deposit checks through at the bank — which encircles the bar so the cocktail is mixed via transport and then served at the other end of the bar.

Tipsy Alchemist’s cocktail menu explains each cocktail’s spirit, modifier, elements and lengthener to give drinkers a better understanding of what they’re sipping.

The new location will open on Rainey Street this summer, bringing sophisticated, hipster cocktails to one of Austin’s hottest drinking locales. The new Tipsy Alchemist will be Austinfied — boasting a sizable patio and an outdoor stage for local music acts.

Yes, science can be fun.