When I started getting sponsors for my & David’s trip to Myrtle Beach, the one thing I had hoped I would be lucky enough to get was somewhere amazing to eat- I have not ever did a review of a restaurant before so I thought that would be a really cool thing to add to my portfolio! Also, generally speaking David and I stick with cheap /places we “know” even when we go on a trip! So when I ended up with a few contacts from an awesome gal that had helped me with a few other trip related things (TIGERS Myrtle Beach Safari & Legends In Concert) I was quick to send out a few emails.
I quickly got a YES from the awesome folks at Bonfire Restaurant group– They have 4 different restaurants around Myrtle Beach! They are: Art Burgers & Sushi Bar, Gordos Tacos & Tequila, The Noizy Oyster and of course the one i’m writing about: The Chemist Craft Cocktails and Modern Cuisine! I was also supposed to do the Noizy Oyster as well, but because of a snafu on the blogging side of things I didn’t end up following through with that- but like I say it was a total miscommunication on the blogging side of things so I totally still recommend that you check them out because you wouldn’t have that happen to you 🙂 Oh and even though I had a snafu, I’d def. go back!
The story behind Bonfire restaurant group is totally amazing because basically the owner Larry, had already been working in restaurants in Myrtle beach and went on to Florida to work there. His mother Linda had always wanted to be an art teacher and went back to school and achieved her goal- she was actually an art teacher at North Myrtle Beach High school. She had been teaching just a few months when she had an aneurysm and almost died!
Larry came to see her and told her that if she recovered that he would come back to Myrtle Beach and open a restaurant in her honor- and she did recover, and with the help of not only her family but art therapy! She doesn’t teach anymore and sometimes she forgets the words for things sometimes. However, her art is better than ever! She even paints at ART burger and sushi bar 3 days a week! She also uses the funds from her sales to fund art therapy classes that she provides for other folks that need it!
I loved this story, and I knew that even though we didn’t do ART I had to mention it- because it made me think of my grandpa and how his stroke that he had years ago affected him and it just really touched my heart!
I knew that The Chemist Craft Cocktails & Modern Cuisine was a place I wanted to try as soon as I saw it on their site! Of course I love to drink, and that is a big thing there- their awesome cocktails – which I will get more into here in a bit(I promise there will be a section all about that!)
I also  absolutely loved the theme of the restaurant from the start- I guess in a random sort of way with all the elements and what not it kind of reminded me of breaking bad! I also don’t think I had ever been to a restaurant that had an actual THEME either. You can see the theme throughout the restaurant- here are a few pics to show you what I mean!
We visited the Chemist on a Monday evening fairly early, and they weren’t really that busy, but we really loved the atmosphere and everything! The first mixed drink that I ordered actually one that that you get to help make because it is like an experiment. I had picked the Moderntini which had Olive Juice (I do have this weird thing with olives) and it also had this really cool molecular olive in it that had basically had been frozen into a bubble and you could poke at it to make the martini as dirty as you wanted to. The cool thing though with this one though was getting to help make it- here are a few shots of that:
David’s Drink didn’t have a cool experiment to get to participate in , however there was this beaker on the table that I figured was just for decor- but it was actually there so he could have a little bit of fun too!
There are SO many awesome drinks to choose from – and they even had this REALLY AWESOME drink menu- it lit up and it sat on the table and you could change colors. I Totally wanted one as a souvenir(I almost asked lol)!
I ended up having 4 drinks total, and David had 2- we kind of shared them all though! I have pictures of all of them except the last one David had( that was a Radiocative Coke- which was bourbon, cherries and coke) I made a collage of the others !
The funny thing is I can only remember 3 of the names of these 4 and I know the top left is a periodically peach martini, the top right is the Mad Scientist and one of the bottom 2 is a subatomic sour! I am at a loss on what the 4th one is, but maybe it will come back to me! I also had actually never had a martini until this night and I had 2 so that was pretty cool as well! I know one of these was supposed to have some foam going on but mine didn’t and I was a tiny bit bummed! I mean it was o.k but it was supposed to be phosphate foam and that would have been awesome!
O.k So in the midst of all this concocting and drinking and smoke our food came! Oh and here is a few more smoky pics for you!:
Alright, now lets talk about the food! I pretty much knew ever since I saw a menu that I wanted to get some BEEF RIBS! You know how picky/weird I am by now likely.. but anyways, I don’t eat pork and I hardly ever get good beef ribs so I was pretty darn excited! This meal is on the menu with corn, but I really am not a corn person so I decided to try it with the crashed potatoes- because I thought that would be like mashed potatoes.. but I was wrong.. it was a cheesy potato!
Well.. you all know how I generally am with cheese… so thankfully it wasn’t melted into any of my green beans or the meat and I just traded David for his green beans 🙂 I was so glad that since it was my mistake I didn’t have to send anything back! I never even have mentioned it to anyone other than David till now!
Here is a close up of my food sans smoke 🙂
They were FREAKING DELICIOUS. Something else I was going to mention- You don’t need SALT or any sort of extra flavoring on their food! Oh and the green beans were OMG fresh!! Now I was looking at this plate like this is not enough for me..and I know David usually eats more than me- but believe it or not we both left full (and we polished off desert, but I’ll get there in a few!)
David ordered the Wagyu steak- and I just thought it was a cute name for a steak, and I don’t guess David thought much about it either here is a pic:
Anyways, come to find out Wagyu steak is like an really top notch cut of Steak! David actually asked the girl that was our server about it because he said it was the best steak that he had ever eaten! I actually found a link about Wagyu steak on The chemist facebook page – that you might want to check out : What is Wagyu ? I remember our server telling us it was basically VERY well treated cow- like a king or queen! Oh and it is a heck of a ton more healthy than your regular steak! David NEVER eats a steak without sauce. EVER. And.. He did…and didn’t miss it or the salt!
Now we usually don’t do dessert but.. I thought well.. they have this stuff called Brownie Batter Hummus and I Think I need to try it! It was brownie batter and it had strawberries, pretzels and Marshmellows that you could dip into it. It had a bit of a darker chocolate taste than what I generally would go for but we REALLY liked it!
If you can’t tell I could probably write about 1000 more words on The Chemist Craft Cocktails & Modern Cuisine! David and I kept sitting there talking about how much we liked it and we would like to be able to come back in the future on our own (not review related) and that we would keep that in mind when I start planning and saving for our next trip! I think we would have likely hung out longer but our parking meter was expiring and we were out of change so we left a little sooner than we would have probably otherwise!
I loved the theme, the atmosphere.. you all know I am big on unique things and this was truly authentic and unique! The cocktails were awesome and the food was just .. words seriously can’t describe how darn good it was! I look forward to hopefully visiting again in the future and maybe checking out other restaurants that they have too!
I have actually enabled comments on this post, which is something I don’t do a whole lot anymore but if you have any questions or comments that you would like to leave I’d be glad to respond to you -if I don’t know the answer I will find it out for you- or you can even go by their site and tell me what you might want to try if you were ever there!
