No alcohol at new Modesto bar. ‘Euphoric’ experience comes from something else
A lesser-known fact about me is that I quit drinking alcohol in January 2024. So when I discovered a zero-alcohol bar opened near downtown Modesto, I was champing at the bit to go.
The Alchemist Café opened April 26 at 1311 E St. The building is a house turned therapist office turned café. The two bedrooms are now colorful dining areas and the living room is now an ordering area/bar, where drinks are made, complete with a ceiling mural painted by Vince Cabrera, owner of Painted Ape Tattoos.
The total consumption of alcohol in the U.S. declined by 5% during 2025, according to a news release from IWSR, the global leader in beverage alcohol data and insights. The same year, nonalcoholic wine sales in California increased 29% and nonalcoholic beer sales increased 22%.
As ‘Dry January’ became more of a trend, a sober-curious lifestyle movement began on social media and promoted in social settings.
“I think people are just becoming more aware of the side effects and wanting to feel better,” The Alchemist Café owner Candace Fleming said. “But definitely the younger generation is just not drinking.”
For me, sobriety came after almost a decade of bartending, growing older and honestly just becoming bored with the idea that alcohol has to be involved to have a good time.
Fleming’s story is similar. She was a bartender for six years before she stopped drinking.
“When I quit bartending, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I need to do a mocktail bar’ — herbal-based, fresh fruit, natural sugars,” she said. “Because if I went to a bar and ordered a mocktail, it was like sugar and soda. So I just wanted to offer the public something different.”
A year and a half ago, Fleming started a mobile mocktail bar called Alchemy & Elixirs and worked farmers markets and events. How she progressed to a café began with the purchase of an espresso machine.
Fleming went to the E Street space in September to meet Gretchen Peek Scheder-Bieschin, owner of Clayton’s Coffee. During the transaction, it was mentioned that the house-turned-coffee lab was being put up for rent.
“Four days later, I’m signing the lease, and now she’s my landlord,” Fleming said.
Kava, cacao and herbs are the bases of The Alchemist’s cocktails
The root of a kava plant is used to make drinks, supplements and extracts and creates a mildly “euphoric” or calming experience, Fleming said. Cacao also originates from a plant and is minimally processed, whereas cocoa, which comes from the same plant, is processed into chocolate.
She uses both in five of her 12 current mocktail choices. The other seven drinks she calls elixirs and are made with fresh fruit, hand-crafted honey or agave syrups, herbs and tinctures.
Kava-based drinks, cacao-based drinks and elixirs range from $8 to $10. Smoothies range from $9 to $12.
Customers can create their own tea blend with one to four loose-leaf herbs for $3 per cup or $9 for a pot. Coffee drinks are between $4 and $8.
“It is the bar experience without the alcohol,” Fleming said. “So the conversation, the mixology, the muddling, the juicing, the shaking.”
Food options include salads, toasts, customizable parfaits and snacks including hummus, plantain chips and bread with oil. All products are organic, sugars are natural and anything can be made vegan or gluten-free.
The all-ages Alchemist Café is open Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Thursdays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
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