Chicano Soul. Queer Magic. Cocktails as Ceremony.
Chicano Soul. Queer Magic. Cocktails as Ceremony.
From barrio to boulevard, The Shady Lady is a sanctuary where community, cultura, and ceremony converge. This isn’t just another bar — it’s a portal: a place where every pour, every song, and every gathering is intentional.
Here, Chicano lineage meets queer brilliance, luxury collides with spirit, and every guest becomes part of the story.
Still wrapping my head around the fact that I’m on a group chat with my best friend of 22 years and my little cousin… talking production runs and print placements for the first-ever prototypes of my brand’s apparel.
From backyards and borrowed speakers to full-fledged hospitality systems and design language — we really built this from the dirt.
What a surreal, sacred kind of moment — where hustle meets lineage, and the barrio becomes brand architecture.
🜂 Hospitality ain’t business — it’s ceremony.
#ShadyLadyHospitality #AngelTheAlchemist #BarrioSoulCosmicFire #ROIandROL
#slidecity ➡️ to see past & present meeting to design our future.
This isn’t just a menu — it’s a prayer in motion.
Every elixir, every bite, carries a story of survival, sabor, and spirit.
Mystic Manor Halloween Soirée — our first altar of the season.
Hospitalidad no es negocio — es ceremonia.
This one’s for the kitchens that raised us.
For the mothers who stretched every dollar into dinner and every moment into meaning.
I learned more from my mom’s hands than any management book ever taught me —
how to feed people even when life was feeding you struggle.
Still here. Still cooking. Still fighting for something better.
Every service is ceremony —
every plate a promise to never let the hard parts steal the beauty from the work.
This altar is dedicated to everyone still choosing care in a world that taught us survival.
Join us this Halloween weekend at Mystic Manor —
where food meets memory, and story becomes flavor.
Shady Lady Cocina will be the sole food altar, serving sacred plates with soul.
✴️ Limited menu, unlimited heart.
📍 Venice, CA
📅 October 31 · Mystic Manor Soirée
Late night dreams, it’s like when I couldn’t sleep the day before school started… this is how I know it is coming without a doubt. My spirit feels it in a way that words can’t explain.
See ya’ll soon. Besos!
#shootsiesbisnootsies
🌹 Los Angeles, hear the call: before the Shady Lady rises, the circle is already forming.
Tap follow, tag the homie/homegirl/sis/gworl/doll you’d bring to opening night, and step closer.
I’ll pull you into HQ — together we’ll attune, align, and weave the first threads of this sanctuary.
Mis Palabras
The Shady Lady is more than my dream — it is my life’s work, a sanctuary built from decades of service, study, and resilience. I’ve poured twenty years of hospitality experience, my Chicano heritage, and my vision for sacred community spaces into this project. This is where spirit and story converge…
For me, this isn’t just a bar — it’s a place where people will feel seen, celebrated, and connected. I invite you to join me in co-creating something timeless: a cultural landmark that will outlive us, inspire us, and give back to the city we love.
Together, we will build The Shady Lady.
– David “Angel the Alchemist” Holguin
Founder, The Shady Lady
✨ Tomorrow begins the countdown: 90 days (or less) until I own my first brick & mortar. No more playing small. This is ceremony, cultura, and community in motion.
Follow the journey:
🍸 @shadyladyhospitality
🌌 @angelthealchemist | @mowglibyday
#LosAngelesNights #HospitalityWithSoul #ChicanoFuturism #CocktailsAsCeremony #AngelTheAlchemist #TheShadyLady1957 #90DayCountdown
“The Codex hides in plain sight. For those with ojos bien abiertos, every line, every swirl of cloud, every fragment carries a deeper frequency.
Meaning isn’t given — it’s uncovered. Some will scroll and see words…. The few will pause, decode, and unlock the map.
For those that do, a door opens — toward ceremony, community, and a journey beyond the digital into the sacred. Tlazocamati.”
From barrio to boulevard — redefining hospitality, one ritual at a time.
From barrio to boulevard — redefining hospitality, one ritual at a time.
The Shady Lady: A sanctuary where community, cultura, and cocktails meet
The Shady Lady: A sanctuary where community, cultura, and cocktails meet

No Kings. Only Ceremony.
👑🚫
We were never meant to serve kings.
We were meant to serve each other.
For twenty years I worked inside a system that called itself “hospitality” — but it was built on exhaustion, scarcity, and exploitation disguised as opportunity.
I’ve watched brilliant cooks, bartenders, and servers — artists of human connection — burn out and fade while executives cashed in.
So I stopped asking permission.
And I started building a new altar.
✨ Shady Lady Hospitality isn’t another restaurant group.
It’s an economic ecosystem disguised as a dinner table.
A model where:
• Every employee earns $30/hr baseline pay.
• No tips. Ever. Instead, a weekly profit bonus shared by every hand that builds the experience.
• Quarterly retreats.
• Art & education residencies.
• Community programs offering hot meals, direct access to resources, and cultural training that honors those who came before us.
This is hospitality as ceremony.
Where profit circulates like prayer — through care, creativity, and reciprocity.
Right now, while millions march under the banner #NOKINGS, we have a chance to prove that revolution doesn’t require violence — it requires vision.
If just 1,000 people donate $1, we fund the foundation of our first flagship.
If 7 million protestors did the same, we could redistribute wealth for hundreds overnight.
Every dollar. Every share. Every repost.
It’s not charity — it’s solidarity.
It’s proof that the power has always been in our hands and in our hearts.
⚡️ Our first goal: $60 in the first hour — $1 per minute.
Join us. Be part of the next wave of hospitality.
Because there are no kings here — only kin, only care, only ceremony.
🌐 Donate / Learn / Join: https://www.angelthealchemist.com/contribute
📲 Tag a friend who’s ready for the future of service.
🕯 #NOKINGS #HospitalityAsCeremony #WeAreTheShadyLady #NextWaveOfHospitality #CommunityCapitalism #RedistributeWithDignity #AngelTheAlchemist #ShadyLadyHospitality #FromTheBarrioToTheBoardroom
There’s an omen in the air.
And it tastes like smoke, marigold, and midnight. 🌙
Our altar opens 10.31.25 @mysticmanorla 3:33p🕯
Elixirs:
✨Emerald Velvet Portal · Cempasúchil Spritz · La Vida Rose ✨
Invocations:
🔥 Jackfruit Tinga Tostada · Portal Verde Aguachile Duo 🔥
Main Altar:
🌮 Carnitas Tacos · Calabaza Blossom Quesadilla 🌮
Limited Availability Specials we be revealed on 10:31 @ 3:33p, available until they’re not.
Under candlelight & cosmic bass — we serve ceremony.
🜂 Feed the spirit. Honor the body. Join the ritual.
Use Our Promo Code: #Shady for 15% ticket price!
🎶 “Omen” — @disclosure ft. @samsmith 🎶
#HospitalityIsCeremony #TheShadyLadyCocina #HalloweenSoiree #MysticManor

#growingupmexican Be like…
#yacomiste o #tieneshambre ?! And the answer is always I can eat / puedo comer 🫰🏽🤣🫰🏽

Marketing for us is not hype; it is ritual invitation + archival storytelling.
Every reel, headline, and altar booth is an offering — proof that Chicano + queer lineage can move both hearts and markets.
We don’t advertise; we testify. Every post is a prayer for visibility, every headline a record of survival turned celebration.
#hospitalityasceremony #theshadyladycocina #shadyladyhospitality #aguachiles

🌟 The Guardian of Systems & Flow 🌟
Another joins the circle: Derick G.
Since 2017, he’s been a brother, co-dreamer, and builder — carrying roots in hospitality, brand-building, and multi-state ventures that prove visions can scale without losing their soul.
From kitchens with his father to launching DG Mobile Services across states, from global brand ambassadorships to startup systems architecture, Derick has always been about weaving service with structure.
On the road full-time, he embodies adaptability, adventure, and precision — now stepping into the circle to ensure our altar runs smooth, scalable, and sacred.
Every system aligned,
every current tended —
flow becomes ceremony.
#HospitalityAsCeremony
#ShadyLadyHospitality
#GuardianOfFlow
#AngelTheAlchemist
#CulturalResonance

The kitchen has always been altar. ✨
From Guillermina’s recipes to late-night experiments, every bubble, every stir, every smell is memory made edible.
This week’s potion: Ibarra chocolate arroz con leche, brewed half-caf, half oat milk.
A Chicano classic remixed for the girlies, the gays, and the theys 🌈.
Thick, creamy, spiced — a reminder that our cultura adapts without losing soul.
Hospitality ain’t business — it’s ceremony.
And ceremony tastes like this.
#HospitalityAsCeremony #QueerKinship #ChicanoSoul #GirliesGaysAndTheys #FoodAsMemory#

✨ Another joins the circle.
With love and deep honor, we welcome Monica as our Scribe of the Ledger.
For 22+ years, Monica has been my best friend — family beyond blood. She’s walked with me through every chapter, and now she steps into her ceremonial role with The Shady Lady.
As a nurse and supervisor, she’s carried lives in her hands, practiced compassion under pressure, and led with both precision and care. As a community servant, she’s led clothing drives, organized outreach, and remained a steadfast presence in her church, building sanctuaries of service long before this circle was formed.
Now, she brings that same devotion to us: to safeguard our words, archive our rituals, and ensure our ceremonies echo forward in time. Because memory is not transaction — it is offering.
🌙 Hospitality ain’t business — it’s ceremony.
Every word a seed. Every note an altar.
#HospitalityAsCeremony #TheShadyLadyHospitality #ChicanoFuturism #ScribeOfTheLedger #CommunityCare

Back when I was serving, I used every inch of my server book. No blank pages, no waste. Meanwhile other servers tossed paper like Captain Planet ain’t up there side-eyeing us from the heavens. 🌍✏️🔥
Hospitality ain’t business — it’s ceremony. Even the paper matters.
#HospitalityAsCeremony #TheShadyLady #EcoBarrio

✨ Surprise altar pop-up behind the bar tonight ✨
Hollywood, 8pm–2am.
I’m bringing recipes straight from The Shady Lady Cocina — first pours of what we’ll serve when doors open. Come sip the vision before it becomes a house.
Hospitality ain’t business — it’s ceremony. 🕯️🥂🌙
DM me for the address if you want to taste what’s next.
#HospitalityAsCeremony #TheShadyLady #FromSeedToLegacy

The soundtrack says it best: let go. Behind this reel is orientation prep, our first catering contract, and the systems that will carry us. Foundations in motion — hospitality as ceremony.
The music shifts, the beat dissolves into something softer — and like Let Go says, sometimes you have to just release, breathe, and trust the fall.
This reel isn’t just aesthetics. It’s a window into the groundwork. Behind the glow is orientation prep: gathering our first crew, designing the systems that will hold us when things get real, making sure every plate, every guest, every detail has a rhythm.
We’ve signed our first catering contract. It’s more than an event — it’s our chance to prove that the Shady Lady ethos works in the wild. And as I map the training, build the checklists, and craft the flow, I keep hearing my mamá’s voice in the back of my mind, reminding me: hospitality isn’t business, it’s ceremony.
So here’s the deeper truth: every spreadsheet, every practice run, every call is an altar in its own way. We’re preparing not just to serve food, but to serve spirit, to create a refuge where even strangers feel like kin. This is the foundation. This is the work. And it’s only the beginning.

This ain’t breakfast — it’s ceremony.
Mazapán crumbles, Ibarra chocolate melts, vanilla hums like an old bolero, canela drifts like incense.
Not just cafecito — it’s a morning altar, built from the flavors our abuelas tucked in our pockets when the world felt too heavy.
At The Shady Lady, every cup is a prayer — for resilience, comunidad, and the rhythm that keeps us moving.
Hospitality ain’t just feeding bodies — it’s nourishing spirit. Today the spirit said: start sweet, start in ceremony. ☕️✨ #HospitalityAsCeremony #CafecitoMagic #ShadyLadyCocina #BarrioPoetics #ChicanoSoul
Since the rapture was supposed to be today 👀… what’s your last drink before lift-off

Earth might be ghetto but don’t trip, mija — we’ll pack you a lil’ send-off kit: aguachiles pa’ the vibra, tacos pa’ the fuerza, agüita fresca pa’ the soul… and a cafecito ‘cause that flight sound like it’s finna be long. ✈️☕️🔥
#earthisghetto #vamanos #theshadyladycocina

She must’ve been my sister in a past life… 🤜🏽🤛🏽
Play-fighting, laughing, vibing — just like I used to do with my mom, The OG Shady Lady, throwing hands on that old Xbox Kinect boxing game 🥊✨
Full circle moments hit different when you realize familia isn’t just roles — it’s spirit carried across lifetimes.
Hospitality ain’t business, it’s ceremony… even when it looks like a sparring match in the sala. ❤️
#TheShadyLadyHospitality #FamiliaEsTodo #CeremonyInEverything #CruisingWithTheOGShadyLady #ChicanoFuturism #TheShadyLadyCocina

✨ From barrio pan dulce to altar-worthy ritual 🍓🔥
Hospitality ain’t business — it’s ceremony.
Familia, this is our Concha French Toast — layered with housemade hibiscus chamoy & a custom custard base I’ve been fine-tuning for weeks.
Plating update lands early next week 😜 — so tap save, follow @TheShadyLadyCocina, and drop a 🍓 in the comments to lock in at the altar before the reveal.
#HospitalityAsCeremony #BarrioPoetics #QueerAlchemy #ShadyLadyCodex
🌱✨ The Shady Lady Cocina begins to bloom.
Three nights. Three petals. A table where familia, sabor, and ceremony meet.
Friday 🌙 Dinner Ritual — 7:07p–10:10p
Saturday 🌞 Antojitos de la Calle — 1:11p–4:44p
Sunday 🌊 Cruise Brunch — 9:09a–12:12p
This ain’t a meal — it’s an altar.
Every sip a prayer. Every plate a story.
⚡ Invite-only, Venice Beach.
Follow @theshadyladycocina | @ShadyLadyHospitality
🌐 www.angelthealchemist.com

🌌 Hospitality ain’t servitude — it’s ceremony.
As we continue our journey, this mantra reminds us why we gather here: every shift is a sacred act, not a sacrifice.
Your support helps us build Fairfax → West LA → Venice and beyond. Link in bio.
#HospitalityAsCeremony #TheShadyLady #HospitalityAintServitude #ChicanoFuturism

CAMPAIGN PORTAL in BIO, JOIN THE CIRCLE TODAY! ✨
🌊✨ Today the altar opens.
Title: “Shady Lady: Hospitality as Ceremony, Dignity, Liberation”
Soy Angel — el Alquimista. For 20 years I’ve carried stories behind bars and cucina altars… and today, I consecrate the first sanctuary. We’re opening our GoFundMe — transforming hospitality into ceremony: no tips, living wage, weekly abundance sharing, and a roadmap to reclaim housing for our people.
Your contribution ignites the journey:
• Fairfax → the Seed Ground
• West LA → the Elixir Production Hub
• Venice → the Flagship Sanctuary
• And beyond — housing, multi-unit redemption, generational legacy.
All tiers are a ceremonial journey — from “The First Sip” to “The Destiny Covenant.” Hidden initiations await those who walk deeper into the circle.
Link in bio.
**Contribute. Share. Speak it into existence with us.**
**Every sip becomes wave.**
#chosen #mypeople
Familia, it’s time. The cosmos opened a door in a very prominent neighborhood in LA — a stage where Shady Lady can finally breathe her first breath.
For 20+ years I’ve poured my corazón into hospitality, and now I stand ready to pour it into my own sanctuary: a home where hospitality become ceremony, cultura becomes connection, and every guest is familia.
But I can’t do it alone. To claim this space, I need my people — the dreamers, the lowriders, the queers, the artists, the healers, the ones who believe hospitality can be more than transaction.
🙏 Here’s how you can help:
💸 Donate / share to fuel our launch (link in bio).
📲 Save this post, tag your crew, and drop a ✨ in the comments if you’re with me.
📢 Every like, share, and repost pushes this vision closer to reality.
This isn’t just a bar. This is our cultural sanctuary — Chicano soul, queer fire, sacred geometry woven into velvet nights. And LA is the first key.
Let’s unlock it together. Vamonos. 🚪🔥🌹
#AngelTheAlchemist #ShadyLadyHospitality #HospitalityAsCeremony #Fairfax #QueerChicanoMagic

Venice beach, Los Angeles, CA
06/10/2025 3:52pm Tuesday
On my way to work. LA is not what they tell you, BUT IT IS what WE make it.
#chicano #losangeles #venicebeach

Just woke up from a post dinner-itis nap to find out…
I MADE TOP 5 in my group for @inkedmag’s #InkedOriginals! 🖤
But here’s the real deal:
👉🏽 ONLY 1st place moves on to Quarterfinals.
Not Top 2. Not Top 3. Just one winner per group.
This next week (June 5–12) is the Group Finals—and if I don’t hit #1, I’m out. Period.
This is more than a tattoo contest for me—it’s a chance to launch my personal brand rooted in healing, Chicano soul, and high-end mixology. Everything I’ve built over 21 years in this industry has led to this moment.
🗳️ Daily votes are crucial
🔥 Keep an eye out for the days when 2x donation votes
📲 Link in bio to vote
💬 Share, comment, repost—every move matters
Let’s push this all the way to #1 and bring the vision to life.
I can’t do it without you. Thank you for riding with me this far. Let’s go. 🤍
#VoteForMe #AngelTheAlchemist #Top5NowTop1 #ChicanoDriven #QueerCreative #FromPainToPower #MadeInLA #SupportArtists #HealingThroughHospitality #LegacyInTheMaking #InkedOriginals #TattooedAndTalented #LetsGetIt #DailyVotesMatter