I’ve been lucky enough to get to Next—the Chicago restaurant which reinvents itself three times per year—for six of their menus—Sicily, Kyoto, The Hunt, Vegan (twice!), Bocuse d’Or and, most recently, Tapas.

With SFWA’s Nebula Awards weekend once more returning to Chicago, I’ve been looking forward to Next’s announcement of its 2016 plans. And now that, minutes ago, they’ve gone public with their three latest offerings, I know what I’ll be having for dinner with several of you.

So here’s what’s in store— (more…)

Next released a video earlier today for its new menu—Terroir—which will be the restaurant’s fifteenth incarnation.

As anyone who knows me knows, I love, love, love Next. The amazing food is the main reason, of course. But there’s also the fact that Next is a culinary Brigadoon, here for a brief time, then gone, changing its theme three times a year. With most restaurants, you can always say, “Oh, I’ll head there some other time.” Not so with Next.

Miss a menu and you’ve lost your chance forever. Which, for me, gives each meal an added emotional resonance. It’s like tasting a dream.

Hyperbole? OK, sure, somewhat. But not by much. Which is why I made it to six of the fourteen menus Next has hosted so far.

But now comes Terroir, which has its first service tomorrow. And sadly, even if I were in Chicago, this is a meal I’d have to skip—it’s a wine-based menu, and since I don’t drink, its charms would be lost on me.

*Sniff*

Check out the video below, though, because if great wine plus great food is your kind of thing, you won’t want to miss Terroir.

If you’re unfamiliar with the sort of experience Next provides, check out my prior posts on their Sicily, Kyoto, The Hunt, Vegan, Bocuse d’Or, and Tapas menus.

As for what the future will bring, at this point … no one knows. The three menus for 2016 are still being conceived by the chefs, and likely won’t be announced until the first week of December.

One thing I do know, though. Next year, when the Nebula Awards will be once more be held in Chicago—I’ll be back at Next!

Up until Sunday, I’d been to Next—the restaurant that reinvents itself three times each year—six times for five different menus—Sicily, Kyoto, The Hunt, Vegan (twice!), and Bocuse d’Or. For a variety of reasons, I had to miss out on Next’s 2014 cuisines, but once it was announced that the Nebula Awards would be held in Chicago this year, I knew I’d have a chance to go back, and was thrilled.

It will give you a sense of my priorities that the first thing I’ve decided to share with you (well, after my acceptance speech as Groot) is the weekend’s dinner at Next, for which the cuisine was Tapas.

Once I was seated at our table with my three dining companions—Kate Baker, Eugene Fischer, and Barry Goldblatt—the first thing I noticed was a postcard, supposedly sent from Barcelona, because the chefs had travelled to Spain for inspiration.

Also on the table were three varieties of cocas—a type of flatbread—which we found difficult to resist nibbling on before our server could describe them. (more…)

I may have let my season tickets to Next lapse once I no longer had that Syfy salary funding three trips to Chicago each year, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still interested in what the ever-changing restaurant has in store for 2015. I’ve been lucky enough to experience five menus there—Sicily, Kyoto, The Hunt, Vegan (twice!), and Bocuse d’Or—and have never been less than wowed.

Here, as just announced over on it Facebook page, are the three cuisines Next will be tackling next.

January – May

Next: Bistro

4 Years after opening with our Paris 1906 menu we embrace the more casual side of Parisian dining culture. With the great flood of 1910 behind them, Parisians embraced the Bistro. In 2015, Next will as well.

Every week we will introduce new items on our evolving 5-7 course chalkboard menu — we will also have specials and supplements on a daily basis.

Casual, delicious, and filling for the cold Chicago winter. And the kind of menu you’ll want to revisit every few weeks.

$80-$120 per person.
Please note: optional supplements of $ 15 – $ 75 will be available to order in the dining room. (more…)

The same night Dave Beran wins the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes, Next restaurant reveals the trailer for the restaurant’s newest menu.

Dig that the size of that fortune cookie!

Next: Modern Chinese from next restaurant on Vimeo.

Ticket for Modern Chinese are now on sale.

I’ve been to five other Next iterations so far, and have enjoyed them all—yes, even Vegan—so I hope I can make it to Chicago before the restaurant morphs again in September.

As I told you earlier, I probably won’t get a chance to experience the new incarnation of Next due to a major life change … which means I’m counting on you to go and then let me know all about it.

Next released its latest video today, this one promoting “Chicago Steakhouse,” hoping to persuade us to check out its latest blink-or-you’ll miss-it menu. As you’ll see below, this time around it’s more about the mood than the food.

Next: Chicago Steak from next restaurant on Vimeo.

Sure wish I could be at that card table, though I don’t know that my bluffs would work on those guys.

Now where’d I put my double-breasted suit and that fedora?

Though I visited Chicago for all three Next restaurant meals last year—The Hunt, Vegan, and Bocuse d’Or—I sadly have no plans to return in 2014. That has nothing to do with a lack of desire, but rather, a recognition that with my recent change in employment, some things had to go, and travel to Next, while resulting in lifetime peak meals, was one of those somethings—especially since we won’t be canceling our trips later this year to either Easter Island or the London Worldcon.

But that doesn’t mean I’m still not intensely interested in what Grant Achatz, Dave Beran, and Nick Kokonas have in store. The next Next menu—Chicago Steak—is currently being served to friends and family in advance of its debut to the public, and yesterday Achatz teased us by tweeting a pic of the menu.

First time serving actual food. FOH training night. @dcberan @mknorth @JTomaska pic.twitter.com/eyDJqZAg2R

— Grant Achatz (@Gachatz) January 4, 2014

He followed that today with a pic of the steaks as they’ll be presented to diners. (more…)

Saturday night, Irene and I went to Brigadoon. Or at least … that’s how I think of it.

If you’ve been visiting here for awhile, you’ve already heard about Next, the Chicago restaurant that reinvents itself three times a year, totally changing its menu in an explorations of new cuisines. I’d already been there for Sicily, Kyoto, The Hunt, and Vegan.

I think of Next as Brigadoon because it’s here … and then gone. Unlike with other restaurants, you can’t say, oh, I’ll get there next year. Because whatever’s there now won’t be there a year from now. You’ve only approximately a three-month window in which to experience a meal, and then … it’s history.

Which is why Irene and I flew to Chicago Saturday specifically so we could experience Next’s final menu of 2013, a tribute to the Bocuse d’Or competition.

We sat at the Kitchen Table, which is the only table in the house capable of accommodating six people, and also the only one with a view of … well … the kitchen. I’ve been in the main dining room before, and loved my time there as well, but there’s something about seeing the process that’s captivating to me.

They say you should never see sausage being made, but the more I’ve eaten at restaurants with views of the kitchen, the more I feel that adage only works as a metaphor. I actually do want to see how the sausage is made. And the soufflé. And the consommé. And the pheasant … (more…)

I had a great meal Saturday night at the ever-changing Next restaurant, one which celebrated the Bocuse d’Or competition. I’ll tell you all about it later, and share plenty of pics, but first—moments ago, Next announced what its three cuisines for 2014 would be.

And here they are!

January – April 2014: Chicago Steak

We admit it—we have a love/hate relationship with steakhouses. Too often it’s just ‘meat on a plate’ without sauces and a bigger-is-better, size-trumps-all attitude.

We love a perfectly cooked, dry-aged cut of beef, marbled, juicy, & delicious. A great lobster thermidor. Perhaps a succulent shrimp cocktail, a silky bisque, simple but perfect vegetables and a few potatoes. Mix in a cocktail to start, a trophy red in the middle, and a digestif with dessert. Big music, big smiles, and a casual satisfying time for conviviality. Perfect night, right?

Next: Chicago Steak will marry the simple and delicious with wonderfully sourced ingredients, modern techniques, and an old-world vibe. Expect a party.

** please note: due to the cost of high-quality dry aged beef this menu will be priced slightly higher than previous Next menus.

May – August 2014: Chinese: Modern

What happens when a thousand year-old cuisine collides with the mind-set of culinary innovation? As China goes, so too does our Chinese Modern menu at Next.

Noodles, buns, dumplings, seafood, poultry, pork—all the basics could be covered. Chinese cuisine typically favors small portions of each dish but many bites, not unlike many of the menus at Next. But while we honor the ingredients and traditions, we will bring a unique Modernist attitude to this menu. Recognizably Chinese…. recognizably Next.

Chinese take-out anyone? You never know….

September – December 2014: Trio, January 20, 2004

Approaching the 10 year Anniversary of Alinea in 2015, our Grand Menu for the year will revisit the Tour de Force Menu that chef Achatz served on January 20, 2004.

Documented in their book Life, on the Line, the meal was the start of a conversation between Grant and Nick about building a restaurant. Barely over a year later Alinea opened.

A unique retrospective on the nascent ideas that became an identifiable cuisine… as well as a few ‘classics’ that were long ago put on the shelf, this menu will transport diners back to a great time in chef Achatz’ career. But it is hardly a museum piece. The cuisine remains vibrant, startling, and delicious.

Season tickets should go on sale soon. If you want in, keep an eye on Next’s Twitter feed and Facebook page, because scoring them ain’t so easy. (Well, unless you live online 24/7 the way I do.)

Moments ago, Grant Achatz teased one of Next’s 2014 menus by tweeting a pic.

This pic.

Whoa!

I can take a hint. Can you?