photo by: Chad Lawhorn

I once thought about trying to sample every coffee shop in downtown Lawrence in a day, and then I realized that it would be too expensive to rent a U-Haul to transport my bladder. In other words, there are a lot of coffee shops in downtown. There soon will be another, but its owners are promising it will stand out.

The owners of Alchemy Coffee & Bake House at 19th and Massachusetts have signed a deal to open a shop at 816 Massachusetts St., which is the vacant space next door to Limestone Pizza. Yes, owners Ben Farmer and Joni Alexander know there are already a lot of coffee shops in downtown. But they’re confident the venture will work, in part because they learned something during their four-year run at their current shop about what Lawrence customers want.

“I had this moment about two months after opening,” Farmer said of his venture at 19th and Mass., which is a location that has chewed up a host of other businesses. “I wondered, if you try to do high quality things, will people notice? The answer was yes. If you put the effort into it, people will notice. We’ve been successful here, and it definitely hasn’t been because of the parking or the size of our space.”

Indeed, Alchemy just as easily could be called Coffee in a Closet. The shop — including the kitchen space — is 420 square feet. Farmer and Alexander said they began looking for a new location because the business — particularly the bakery element — needed more room.

“We do want more space, but we also want to keep it cozy,” Alexander said. “We want it to be that type of small space that you would find in New York or Seattle.”

On the coffee side, the business’ hallmark has been “pour over” coffees, which basically are individually brewed cups of coffee. That will continue at the new location. But the shop also has developed a following for its cold-brewed coffee and something called “nitro coffee,” which involves adding nitrogen to the production process.

“Nitrogen doesn’t change the flavor of the coffee, but it changes the texture,” Farmer said. “It is more creamy. Some people equate it to having a Guinness without the alcohol.” (Yes, there are entire Irish pubs right now bewildered by that statement.)

On the bakery side, Alexander said she will continue to promote a philosophy that is a bit unusual in the restaurant world.

“I don’t have a menu,” Alexander said. “That does throw people, but it is the best solution I can find of how to run a kitchen without being trapped by it.”

There are some items that customers can regularly count on. Alexander said a breakfast sandwich that involves a homemade biscuit, egg and Gruyere cheese is a staple. So too is at least one variety of pie, with key lime pie being the most popular at the moment. Cinnamon rolls and doughnuts regularly show up, especially on the weekends, as do cupcakes and cakes. And there are those times that Alexander gets an idea and just kind of runs with it, then runs some more.

“I have 25 house-made jams right now,” she said. “I kind of went crazy with the jams.”

The jams aren’t just used for breads and biscuits. One of the dishes is “Not your Momma’s Chocolate Mousse,” which is a mousse with house-made jams and a graham cracker crust.

“My philosophy is I work really hard to get people to trust my style of cooking, and then when they do, I can make all types of creations and they’ll try it because they trust that I won’t put it out if I don’t love it,” she said.

As for what will become of the small shop at 19th and Massachusetts Street, Farmer and Alexander said they haven’t decided yet. There is a possibility they may keep the shop open and simply run two locations. But they said they can’t yet commit to the idea because they are uncertain whether they can find enough quality staff to operate two shops.

Renovation work on the new shop — which will include an open kitchen where you can watch the staff bake — is expected to begin in the next couple of weeks. They hope to have the new location open by late September.