Say Alice in Wonderland, and the images come easy: A little girl, her mouth wide open in awe, a rabbit hole, and a child wrapped in a never-never world of fantasy. Say Alice in Wonderland, this time to Club Alchemy owner Don Puno, and he sees a bulb light up on his head. He sees a whole new source of inspiration to lure people to his three-storey club at Silvercity Mall, Frontera Valle Verde cor. Julia Vargas, Pasig City.
His instinct for the unique and the fascinating, honed from years learning the ropes of the family’s restaurant-bar business told him to make a go for it. So he summoned the best of the lot: A master illusionist, a DJ-production designer and an architect-design expert. Puno’s mission statement for them was: Jazz up Club Alchemy using the Alice in Wonderland concept come Halloween night. Let your imagination run wild. Exercise your creativity to the hilt.
Very well, said magician Erik Mana. So it is that on Oct. 31, he promises illusions galore the minute one queues up at the entrance. He and his street magicians will be busy making sure no one will have a single dull moment from then on. Things will appear and disappear when you least expect it. And woe is he or she who doesn’t hold on to the stairs’ handrails when Mana opens his bag of illusions.
“Guests will be in for a lot of eye candy,” Mana says. “The first floor, for instance, will ‘bloom’ with giant flowers and gargantuan teacups.”
DJ-production designer Pan Martinez won’t be outdone. He will engage not just the eye, but the ear as well. He advises guests to open their ears for a musical buffet: Techno music in one floor, house in another; R ’n B at the topmost floor. This sound smorgasbord will offer something for everyone.
Leading Spanish DJ Jesse Garcia and Filipino DJs Elmer Dado and Gruppo Tribale will also be there to keep the music going.
Who knows, this could even open many a guest’s eyes on new kinds of sounds he may otherwise have ignored or just didn’t know about.
As architect-designer Manolet Garcia predicts, “This one-stop shop for all kinds of music will make it unnecessary for clubbers to go to seven places anymore. They will find all they can ever want here in Alchemy in Wonderland.”
You got to pardon the guy for blowing his horn. He’s mighty proud of what his friends have painstakingly prepared.
Martinez (also known as DJ Panovision) will bring down the ceiling on the second floor to make guests literally feel 10 feet tall. And while they’re at it, vertically-challenged people will scurry about to serve them a tray-ful of food and drinks.
Go up a winding staircase or board the escalator to the third floor and your eyes will feast on a giant chessboard with gargantuan chess pieces to match. Pretend you’re the king or queen of hearts while you give your orders to a walking piece of card.
All these come with a price, of course — a fortune, actually. And while Puno, like all businessmen, plans to recoup his investment through the bar’s earnings (P1,000 per person entrance fee; P1,500 for those who want to avail of VIP facilities like a special place overlooking the city), he will just shrug his shoulders if he only breaks even.
“It’s a matter of social responsibility,” he explains. “We want to raise the bar in the Manila party scene. It’s been stagnant for the past few years.”
Martinez agrees, “We plan to raise the bar for competition to follow. Then, we will raise the bar again.”
Alchemy is the process by which you transform things into gold, among others. Puno and company are just doing their best to live up to the bar’s name.