The Bar at The Edge of the Multiverse

There’s a bar open now inside The Real Unreal for Lamp Shop Alley residents and Meow Wolf Grapevine visitors to experience — Prime Materia!

When this information landed in our office, I hopped into the nearest portal to go check it out.

Prime Materia is the invention of a group of Tavers known as Gizmo_Mancers. These Tavers find themselves through their creations and things they are passionate about. They are artists creating the world they want to inhabit, much like Meow Wolf itself.

According to Prime Materia’s lead hacker Glitch_Nox, the drinks are a science beyond our realm, which sounds exciting. These Tavers create all their beverages through an alchemical-technological process known as Transmutronics. While the recipes are closely guarded in their great Arcane Codex, I was given a little peek behind the metaphysical curtain to see how this all works.

The secret is in the Source. Behind the bar, an array of devices glow and hum as they distill Source and other ingredients into drinkables. Every single drink at Prime Materia is made to order using an intricate process of hacking the Source_Code of ingredients and carefully mixing them together in their Mixology Compiling Device.

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I had a taste of the Overclocked Margarita, which you can get in a special Cryocore Cup upgrade that makes the concoction bubble and smoke. You can taste the Source elements fusing with the hacked ingredients in every sip.

Brew_Hacks are still being calibrated for Earther consumption — the full effects are still being studied and we don’t want people turning into frogbats! — but these Gizmo_Mancers are onto something great.

Since the easiest way to access Lamp Shop Alley from Earth is through Meow Wolf’s Grapevine portal, my next stop was to The Real Unreal Director of Exhibition & Facilities Tommy Schatz-Thompson to get the low-down on how this all came about. I heard that the idea started with him.

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Tommy described Prime Materia as an extension of his fascination with multidisciplinary creation — a convergence of design, storytelling, and function. Bringing the Gizmo_Mancers to The Real Unreal wasn’t just about adding a bar, but about embedding a thoughtful experience grounded in craft, precision, and narrative. Prime Materia reflects a reverence for the beauty of schematics and a community of makers whose identities are forged through process and creation. It is an opportunity for the staff at Meow Wolf Grapevine to add something to the worlds of the exhibit.

If you stop by Prime Materia, make sure to look at all the details in the bar. You can see the Gizmo_Mancer’s mode of transport — Holo Skate Decks — hanging on the wall, as well as their Essence Evaluator. The whole place hums with an almost geometric feeling, like it’s all in the perfect place to make the perfect drink for you.

Prime Materia is now open in Lamp Shop Alley inside The Real Unreal.

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