Entry No. 31 — the Asheville file — filed under: speakeasy
Antidote at Chemist Spirits
Chemist Spirits is a women-owned South Slope distillery — founded by Debbie Word and her daughter Danielle, an actual chemist — built on the legend of turn-of-the-century pharmacists who kept distilling through Prohibition. Antidote is the bar stacked on top of it at the same address: a turn-of-the-century tasting room and mercantile at street level, a 1920s-styled cocktail lounge, and a rooftop bar that catches the sunset over downtown. The house pours are the point — vapor-infused small-batch gins, barrel-rested and navy-strength variants, a Burial collaboration single malt — mixed with the same measured fussiness the stills get. It runs as a coffee bar from 8 a.m. before the cocktails take over, and on Thursdays Modelface Comedy stages $15 standup on the roof.
→ Three more hidden bars & speakeasies in Asheville — never the same twice
The story
Chemist Spirits began, by the distillery's own telling, with a small family still and "many hours of moonshining." Debbie Word founded the company with her daughter Danielle, whose chemistry background makes the name a credential rather than a costume, and the women-owned operation now fills 151 Coxe Avenue on the South Slope. The house legend reaches further back: during Prohibition, the story goes, turn-of-the-century chemists "found clever ways to turn contraband bars into happy-hour laboratories," and every design decision in the building takes that sentence literally.
Street level is a turn-of-the-century tasting room and mercantile; Antidote is the bar stacked on top of it, a 1920s-styled cocktail lounge with a rooftop that catches the sunset over downtown. The stills below supply the specs: a flagship American gin vapor-infused with botanicals from the North Carolina highlands — lemon verbena, cardamom, mint — plus barrel-rested and navy-strength variants, a chocolate-orange gin liqueur, a vodka, and a growing bench of American single malts that includes a collaboration with Burial and two Biltmore projects, a single malt and a Conservatory Rose gin.
The whole address runs on a long clock. Antidote opens at 8 a.m. as a coffee bar and hands off to cocktails through 11 p.m. most nights, midnight on weekends; the mercantile keeps shop hours; and on weekend afternoons a $25 distillers tour (21-plus, reservations preferred) walks you through the production floor and ends in a tasting. Thursdays, Modelface Comedy stages standup on the roof — proof that a building themed on covert pharmacology has a sense of humor about itself.
What it's like
You enter at street level into the mercantile and tasting room — bottles, barware, and staff who will talk botanicals as long as you let them. Before noon the place is effectively a coffee shop; from afternoon on, the action moves up to Antidote's 1920s lounge, and an hour before sunset the smart move is the rooftop, where the South Slope's low rooflines leave the view open. Cocktails lean hard on the house spirits and are built to spec, so expect measured pours rather than speed. If you want the tour, book a weekend slot ahead — it's strictly 21-plus, ends in a complimentary tasting, and comes with a 10 percent mercantile voucher you have to use on the spot. Both the tasting room and the distillery floor are ADA accessible; park on the street or in a nearby garage.
The move: Reserve the $25 Distillers Tour for a weekend afternoon (21-plus), taste through the botanicals downstairs, then claim the rooftop an hour before sunset for a navy-strength gin cocktail — and if it's Thursday, hold your spot for the 7 p.m. rooftop standup, doors 6:30.
📍 Before you go Antidote is open daily — 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday–Thursday, until midnight Friday–Saturday — with the bottle shop running 9–9 (noon Sundays). Distillery tours are weekends only, by reservation, strictly 21+. Street parking and garages nearby on the South Slope; tasting room and distillery are ADA accessible.
- 📍 Asheville
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 151 Coxe Ave, Asheville, NC 28801
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Level 256 Classic Arcade Bar — Three blocks down the same street at 79 Coxe, it swaps measured pours for thirty-plus arcade cabinets and sixteen taps — the exact opposite school of bar discipline.
- Sovereign Kava — A five-minute walk over to Biltmore Avenue lands you at a bar that serves no alcohol at all — the correct nightcap after navy-strength gin.
- Pack's Tavern — Antidote plays at Prohibition; Pack's basement actually ran moonshine through a tunnel under Eagle Street — dinner there first makes the theme land harder.
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Good to know
How does the distillery tour work?
It's $25 per person, offered most weekends, preferably by reservation, and strictly 21-plus. You get a behind-the-scenes walk through the distillery, a complimentary tasting of the spirits lineup, and a 10 percent mercantile discount voucher that's only good during that visit (and excludes bottles of spirits, per North Carolina rules).
What are the hours?
Antidote runs 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until midnight Friday and Saturday, with coffee from open. The Chemist tasting room and mercantile keeps 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 9 on Sunday.
Is there really standup comedy on the roof?
Yes — Modelface Comedy, Asheville's mobile comedy operation, stages a Thursday rooftop show; recent listings have it at $15 with doors at 6:30 and a 7 p.m. start. Check the current calendar before you build a night around it.
Where do I park, and is it accessible?
Street parking and paid garages sit within a couple of blocks on the South Slope. The tasting room and distillery are both ADA accessible, and information sheets for hearing-impaired guests are available on the tour by request.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · romanticasheville.com · asheville.com
last checked: 2026-08-25