Todd Maul may finally have met his match. The former bar manager of Clio, who’s as apt to use a centrifuge and a rotary evaporator as a muddler and a jigger, has teamed with Harvard professor and inventor David Edwards as part of Le Laboratoire Cambridge’s Cafe ArtScience. That means whenever Maul has a science question—about fractional distillation or chemical reactions—he now asks the “ingenious gentleman” Edwards. And then he shuts up and listens.

“With all the talent we have involved in this project, it’s really like a think tank for food,” Maul says. “If someone has an idea, they just say it. And a better idea comes out of many people thinking about it.”

All that talent includes Cafe ArtScience partners Maul, executive chef Patrick Campbell (No. 9 Park), general manager Tom Mastricola (Commonwealth) and Edwards, who founded Le Lab in Paris and is opening the first U.S. location in Cambridge. Le Lab will feature art and design exhibits, public programs and experiments, futuristic food products and the highly anticipated Cafe ArtScience, slated to open Oct. 31. And while the restaurant has a clean, almost lab-like aesthetic, the vibe is anything but sterile. The center of the space is home to a honeycomb-shaped auditorium, which will host experiments, demonstrations and private dining. The dining room offers plush seating for 120, with another 24 seats at the bar, where Maul aims to live up to the latter part of the restaurant’s name.

Case in point: The orange and cherry flag for a Tom Collins will not simply be a cherry and orange slice. Maul will use the juice from a Luxardo cherry jar, cut it with lime juice that’s been through the centrifuge, then mix it with citrus rice and put that inside an edible orange-flavored WikiPearl envelope (an Edwards invention). And while Maul’s menu will have 20 drinks to start, he hopes that guests only glance at it. “I want people to ask me what I’m working on,” he says. “Once I’ve put it on a cocktail list, I’ve already moved past it. Cocktail menus are like greatest-hits albums.”

In the kitchen, Campbell is taking a more traditional approach, preferring to master crudos and grilled pork belly before branching out and incorporating Edwards’ inventions, such as aroma telephones and Flavor Clouds. Most portions will be sized somewhere between a tasting and an appetizer. “We’re encouraging our guests to order three or four dishes per person, depending on their appetite. We’re trying to get people to try more things than they’ve tried before,” Campbell says. “My goal is to be able to offer a very special and exciting experience to guests in the dining room, but the menu is going to be based on substantial, real food.”

Cafe ArtScience, Le Laboratoire Cambridge 650 East Kendall St., Cambridge cafeartscience.com