For those of you who aren't obsessed, Next is selling season tickets for this entire year.

The tickets will probably go on sale today or tomorrow, and be sold out within a few hours at the most.

This year's menus are:

• El Bulli
• Kyoto
• Sicily

Fernan Adria, of El Bulli, worked closely with the Next team. The El Bulli menu is 28 courses. There is only one seating per night, and tickets are $365 per person including beverage pairing.

Just snagged season tickets for a 4 top on Fridays. If you aren't in the queue already, you're out of luck. I'm sure there will be a lot of el Bulli available for resale, though.

Next = three words - jumped the shark. I'm a foodie, but this is just ridiculous. Season tickets? To a restaurant. Not a chance.

I think it's awesome - and just scored a two top for three Fridays this year.

Got chefs table for 6 for 3 Wednesdays. We are from LA, so anyone interested in the Sicily and Kyoto dinners?

Frebay, I'd absolutely be interested in buying them off of you. Please PM me to let me know details (price, dates). Thanks! (I was # ~2600, so no luck for me today.)

I got a 4-top for Sunday nights.

Not sure if we'll stay for Kyoto/Sicily (though I'd like to, the hassle of flying to Chicago kind of outweighs it in my mind).

I like Next and think Grant Achatz & co are doing something really unique and cool. But the hassle of sitting by the computer to buy tickets and lurking around for a week or two is really annoying.

And $3500 for three dinners? Someone pinch me. A friend of mine figured roughly that they would pull in about $1.6m for el Bulli alone and more for the other menus. Good work if you can get it.

It's a really unusual system, and buying tickets this far out means there is a not insignificant risk that the restaurant will not be around to honor them when the date comes up. I think it could only work with a unique concept/chef combo like Next's.

That said, I didn't find the process to be much of a hassle at all. Next posted a Facebook status update about 12 hours before the tickets went on sale, and another as soon as the tickets went on sale. I did not sit obsessing over my computer, and I still managed to get tickets.

agreed.how is it awesome?

The guy has something unique enough that people are willing to pay in advance for it, and he books much of his revenue early in the year. It's a new and interesting idea in an industry that has a great deal of replication and failure.

If you don't like the idea of season tickets, you don't have to buy them. There were more than 8,000 people trying for 950 tickets on Saturday, so the idea appears to have been a success.

Right. And I'll have a delicous meal at a wonderful place without the angst. For half the price!

If deliciousness is all you care about, you can get a delicious meal for much less than half of what it will cost to dine at a place like Next (or TFL, Momofuku Ko, EMP, etc.).

Delicious was just phone shorthand for "a wonderful experience." At the cost of El Bulli you can have a wonderful experience at Alinea for less without having to buy "season tickets."

I see what you mean. I guess it's just a question of what each of us values. I also want to try the Sicily and Kyoto menus (I'm particularly looking forward to Kyoto). Since I was unable to get tickets to Paris, Thailand or Childhood, I'm thrilled to have been able to get tickets to all three of this year's menus. Alinea is a great value, too, but it's only somewhat less expensive than El Bulli (which includes wine) and it's more expensive than Sicily and Kyoto.

Alinea is many things, but $500 for dinner for one is not a great value. It's just a high price.