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Next Restaurant

New Chef Trend: Using Media For Menu Inspiration
Food News

Music and Media Are Fodder For the Modern Menu

Last week, Grant Achatz revealed that the third iteration of his popular pop-up restaurant, Next, will be conceptually based on childhood.
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Last week, Grant Achatz revealed that the third iteration of his popular pop-up restaurant, Next, will be conceptually based on childhood. His initial inspiration? Where the Sidewalk Ends, the classic children's book by Shel Silverstein. Achatz's conceptual menu isn't the only one we've seen lately that draws on something other than the farmers market and the seasons for inspiration: these days, media and food are feeding one another more than ever. TV chef Elizabeth Falkner is currently offering a menu at her San Francisco restaurant, Orson, that's based entirely off the Eagles song "Hotel California." Among the courses? "Spirit of 1969," a cocktail with gin, cinnamon syrup, and a watermelon-tomato vinaigrette.

One new creative collaboration, The Recipe Project, demonstrates how the creative fodder can go both ways. Hipster band One Ring Zero has taken the notion of chefs as the new rock stars to a whole new level, transforming famous chefs' recipes into song lyrics. Chris Cosentino's recipe for brains and eggs becomes a Beastie Boys-inspired rap; David Chang's Maine jonah crab claws with yuzu mayonnaise reportedly sounds like an Iron Maiden cover. It's hard to imagine what new movement will follow farm-to-table dining, but I predict that media and pop culture will certainly play a part. Do you agree?

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Grant Achatz's Next Restaurant Now Open
Poll

Are You Interested in Eating at Grant Achatz's Next?

Next, the new restaurant by molecular impresario Grant Achatz, has just opened, to an obscene amount of fanfare and reception.
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Next, the new restaurant by molecular impresario Grant Achatz, has just opened, to an obscene amount of fanfare and reception. The pop-up, which will serve four menus a year from various moments in culinary history, has been anticipated for nearly a year, and now its $85 tickets are being scalped on Craigslist for up to $3,000.

The restaurant itself has spawned a bit of a trend: pop-ups are hot right now, and so are menus curated from great moments in food history. But Katie and I got into a heated debate about dining at Next.

"I wasn't that into all the hype, but then I saw opening night pictures, and it looks amazing!" she exclaimed. I disagreed: Paris 1906 seems more creative in concept than in reality. Of course, the only real way to get to the bottom of this is to snag some tickets ourselves. What do you think of Next? Is it an avante-garde idea, or nothing to write home about?

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Alinea's Grant Achatz Reveals Plans For a New Bar and Restaurant
Video

Grant Achatz Reveals Plans For a New Bar and Restaurant

Big news came out of the Lincoln Center last night, and not all of it had to do with this year's James Beard winners.
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Big news came out of the Lincoln Center last night, and not all of it had to do with this year's James Beard winners. Right before the start of the Beard Foundation Awards, Alinea's Grant Achatz, who was in attendance at the ceremony, tweeted about two upcoming projects.

The first, to be called Next Restaurant, will serve four menus per year from what the website calls "great moments in culinary history — or the future." The second, Aviary, is being described as "a cocktail bar, redefined" and will entail chefs, not bartenders, producing cocktails and food pairings in what's being termed a "drink kitchen."

Both Aviary, which will allow walk-ins, and Next, which will require tickets, are currently on target to open this Fall. Get a better sense of both concepts when you watch the restaurant's trailer, after the jump.