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Most anticipated new restaurant ever?

Let's not argue about whether Grant Achatz' Next really is the most anticipated ever, though it may be (it was just an attempt to get your attention :)), but let's talk about this radical idea - changing menu and tying the concept to a completely different location and time in history every three months.

Quote:

Recipe 695 in Auguste Escoffier's "Le Guide Culinaire" is Puree Palestine, a sunchoke and roasted hazelnut soup. The five-sentence recipe, much like the 5,011 others in the book, is rather vague. Few recipes even call for salt. Dubbed "Escoffier" for short, "Le Guide Culinaire" is Textbook One of French gastronomy and points in a general direction rather than offering turn-by-turn maps.

In researching the 100-plus potential dishes for their forthcoming restaurant, called Next, Alinea chefs Grant Achatz and Dave Beran cooked the sunchoke soup as Escoffier indicated. The result was a "cream bomb," Achatz recalled, lacking acid to counterbalance its intense richness. But Beran, the 29-year-old Tru and MK alumnus who will head Next's kitchen, suggested serving the soup as Escoffier intended and gauging reaction.

The response was polarizing. Some who sampled the soup thought it tasted "French" and "perfect"; others couldn't finish the bowl. And therein lay a philosophical debate behind this most ambitious sequel from the Alinea team: When a restaurant promises to transport diners everywhere and to every era, should authenticity carry as much weight as progress? It's a battle the Next team hasn't entirely resolved.

The success of Alinea — which recently got top honors from Michelin in the form of three stars — has afforded Achatz and restaurant partner Nick Kokonas a rare chance in the restaurant industry: bankroll a wildly radical dining concept. Next, scheduled to open in Fulton Market at the end of the month, will feature a menu that will change every three months, tied to a location and time period. Paris 1906 is its inaugural theme; Thai street food (time period undetermined) will follow in June. For future menus, Achatz has floated the idea of Prohibition-era Chicago, New York circa "Mad Men" and Hong Kong 2036. He's even considering "The French Laundry — Oct. 16, 1996," re-creating dishes from Achatz's first day working for Thomas Keller (and possibly bringing in Keller for a weeklong guest stint). It is the most anticipated restaurant opening Chicago has seen, period.

More of the fascinating story:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entert...0,436860.story

I'm thinking that if it's successful, it's going to be very difficult to change the menu that often. Seems like it might be a great place for a potential quarterly FT dinner do. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILuvParis (Post 16011337)

I'm thinking that if it's successful, it's going to be very difficult to change the menu that often.

They could easily repeat successful time/place periods (e.g., Paris 1906 will be back from June-August of next year).

Interesting to note that in the Escoffier recipe they discuss in the article, the name "Purée Palestine" doesn't make much sense now that the former 'Jerusalem artichoke' has been redubbed the 'sunchoke'.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/di...=Achatz&st=cse

excerpt:

February 15, 2011
The Perfect Menu. Now Change It.
By JULIA MOSKIN
CHICAGO

WHEN a chef has nothing to prove and nothing to fear, what does he cook?

Next month, Grant Achatz will open a restaurant here that, if all goes according to plan, could be the most difficult, ephemeral and stressful in culinary history. “My idea of fun seems to be more work,” he said; he will remain in charge of Alinea, his acclaimed restaurant nearby.

When this new restaurant, Next, serves its first customers on April 1, its menu will be painstakingly reproduced from the classical French repertoire: whole lobes of foie gras baked in brioche, clear turtle soup with Madeira, duck pressed and sauced with its own blood and marrow, as served at the Tour d’Argent in Paris for more than 200 years.

These dishes, which Mr. Achatz has been refining for a year, will be served for all of three months. Next will then morph into an entirely different restaurant, and again three months after that.

Just to set the bar a little higher for himself, and make the creative process more invigorating, each menu for Next will draw from a different place and time. So, rather than the earthbound categories of Japanese, Italian or Peruvian, the food will evoke cloudier concepts: Kyoto in springtime; Palermo in 1949; Hong Kong in far-off 2036. A menu might be designed around a single day — say, the Napa Valley on Oct. 28, 1996, the day Mr. Achatz started work at the French Laundry, where he remained until 2001.

Now 36, he is at the top of his profession, having achieved his lifelong ambition last fall when Alinea was awarded three Michelin stars. He has the sober perspective and what-the-hell attitude brought on by a near-death experience. His food at Alinea is already highly inventive; now, Mr. Achatz has set out to reinvent the restaurant itself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by clarence5ybr (Post 16016541)

From what I know of Grant Achatz, I can't imagine they'll ever repeat a time period, not matter how successful.

First, how do you define success? Alinea operates at or close to 100% capacity every day it's open. Next has a waiting list of 15,000 people last I heard, so it's safe to assume it will also operate at close to 100% capacity, too. (The menu price will, apparently, vary depending on the cuisine, so so may produce more revenue and/or be more profitable than others.)

Second, remember that this is a guy who has a constantly evolving 17-23 course menu (and many courses may include 6-12 individual components each with its own recipe). This is not a guy who knows the definition of stasis....he embraces the challenge and thrives in an environment where no two meals are ever the same. (I don't know if I've seen this addressed, but I doubt the Escoffier meal served on Day 1 at Next will have many dishes in common with the Escoffier meal served on Day 30 at Next.)

FWIW, I was served one of the Escoffier test dishes when I was at Alinea a couple months ago--complete with period china, silver and crystal. I was very intrigued, and immediately added my name to the Next waiting list.

The 5 Spot in Seattle changes their menu every three months, switching to focus on food from a different region of the US each time. I realize it isn't in the same category as the Chicago place, but the menu change is possible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by alanw (Post 16028225)

I think quite a few restaurants do that. And, of course, some restaurants change their menus every day. Achatz supposedly never makes anything the same way twice. As I understand it, Next will completely change the restaurant every three months. What I meant would be difficult, however, is changing a menu and concept that is wildly popular and raking in the bucks.

One of our members has visited and has an excellent report with great pictures in the Chicago forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chica...estaurant.html