Kman wrote:

Darren72 wrote:Did you ask for an itemized bill?

There is no bill - the "bill" has been prepaid via the ticket purchased online. What is being requested is that ticket buyers are given more info that breaks out the component costs of what they purchased, presumably with receipt of the ticket.

Yes, I realize that. Vitesse98 wrote:

Vitesse98 wrote:Here's a question: in the future would it be possible to itemize the emailed bill/receipt? We're going with friends, and frankly we can't remember how to split the bill, as the receipt comes through as just the final non-itemized total price.

I'm just asking whether he asked for this and was turned down.

Dude, there is no one to ask. You pay online after selecting the various options, they email you a receipt with the total on it. The emailed receipt shows the time/date of the reservation, the number of diners, the tax and the total. That's more or less it. Nowhere does it mention the cost of each meal or the cost of the drink pairing, which makes it difficult to divide the bill, especially weeks after the fact.

Can't you just estimate? Does it have to be to the penny?

jesteinf wrote:Can't you just estimate? Does it have to be to the penny?

Not only can he esimate, he did it already. In a post that probably took 20 seconds to write. In the amount of time it's taking to complain about the non-itemization, one could develop an itemization app for the Next generation of smartphones.

Vitesse wrote:Say, $85 (for the meal and water), around $100 (for the meal and non-alcoholic pairing), around $130 (for the wine pairing) and around $170 (for the meal plus reserve pairing).

Dude, of course it has to be to the penny. Do you split to the nearest nickel?

In any case, Yellow Truffle posted this screen shot which shows an itemized breakdown:


I realize you want this emailed to you. I agree that it would be strange if you couldn't get this, but it also seems strange that there isn't anyone to ask. How about calling the restaurant or asking when you are there?

You do get the information... the problem is people are clicking purchase so fast that the screen disappears before they can even comprehend what they've done.

Man, you guys can be so pedantic sometimes (and frankly the restaurant-is-always-right crew can be exhausting; the only thing worse than the guy who shouts requests at concerts is the guy who yells "play what you want!"). Of course I can estimate the bill myself. I can do lots of thing myself, including cook. I'm not complaining. Nick explicitly solicited questions, and that's what I did: asked a question (admittedly couched as a suggestion).

It would cost literally nothing to offer an itemized emailed bill. It would literally not alter service or operation at Next one bit. All it would do is remedy a minimal inconvenience with even less effort.

Vitesse98 wrote:Man, you guys can be so pedantic sometimes (and frankly the restaurant-is-always-right crew can be exhausting;

If you're including me in that category , you haven't followed my participation here very closely

I'm not defending the restaurant. I'm defending the people who want to read something at least a tiny bit interesting on the Next thread. Itemized bills don't cut it.

Kenny, Nick asked, I answered. The rest is me responding to people acting like my question/request was some crazy imposition. I plan (perhaps) to write about my meal after I eat it, in one hopefully fast week.

Somebody just posted this on the facebook page:

water service free
non alcoholic $22
standard wine $48
reserve wine $98

I'm almost positive that the wine prices never change, regardless of date and time, unless it's the kitchen table. There it's $150 per person.

So just take your total, subtract the drink fees, and divide by the number of people in your party and there is your itemized bill. Just add the wine fees back on to whoever drank it.

Obviously, some people would like an itemized bill so in the interest of hospitality (after all, restaurants represent a core part of the hospitality industry) they should generate one, either via email or at the restaurant.

That said, I just don't get the idea of "you had the x, and he had the y, so your tab is $$$). Very foreign to me. And to the poster who said he liked lots of negronis before, a cognac (or whatever it was) after, all I can say is not only does this not bother me if we're splitting the tab, you're the kind of guy I like to dine with. Bring it on!

TCK wrote:Somebody just posted this on the facebook page:

water service free
non alcoholic $22
standard wine $48
reserve wine $98

I'm almost positive that the wine prices never change, regardless of date and time, unless it's the kitchen table. There it's $150 per person.

So just take your total, subtract the drink fees, and divide by the number of people in your party and there is your itemized bill. Just add the wine fees back on to whoever drank it.

that'll get you close, but that doesn't count tax+service charge, which adds roughly 30% on the top of those costs. so really it'd be more like ~$29, $62, and $127 that you'd want to subtract.

So, yeah, how about that great food, brilliant wine-pairings and fantastic service, eh?

Is it just me, or does it feel like this thread has jumped the Schwa?

I'd love to talk to you about those things if I were able to get a reservation, but...

Oh, come on. This thread will reinvent itself every time Next invents itself. And unlike Schwa's eccentricities, which have revealed themselves over time, Next's unique reservation policy has been part of the story from the very start. If ever it was fair game for discussion it's now, as the reservation policy will not change. Discussion of the food, on the other hand, will constantly be ready for renewal. So have some faith in the thread!

I just want to say that I had an absolutely fantastic dinner last night at Next - dinner with close friends and thanks to a really wonderful staff, I felt as if I was dining at a good friend's home. To say that I have nothing negative to say about the service last night would be really unfair to Next . . . the staff was warm, friendly, and amazingly knowledgeable about every aspect of the restaurant. So much of the discussion here has focused on the food and concept, but let me tell you that the service takes the entire experience up several levels.

Let me first start by offering up some advice to those of you still trying to score a table. Pay close attention to Next's Facebook page. There seem to be fewer releases of tables these days (maybe only one large release per week), but in greater numbers of tables at one time. Tables seem to be released at 10:00 or 10:01am and when you see the white date click for your life and immediately select a table size and time. Don't waste precious breaths - there's no time for thought as the tables will be gone in an instant - or 3 seconds as the case may be.

But wait, there's more. Some people will have clicked furiously at 10:01, only to secure a table that they decide they don't want. In that case, the table will be released back into the system 10 minutes later, at 10:11am. Perhaps then again at 10:21am. Be ready to pounce. If you think it's crazy and don't have time for this, so be it. Demand will eventually settle . . . maybe for Bangkok 2060 or whatever comes next.

As for the food last night, we were a table of 4 and had everything already discussed, plus some extras. A couple of notes on items already discussed: 1) I don't know how they got butter to taste so good, but this butter is out of this world, and 2) the Bombe Ceylon was . . . the bomb. Personally, I just loved it and found it the perfect finish.

We were fortunate to have a few extra dishes last night (although not at a kitchen table). One, small gougeres filled with just a little mornay sauce - delicious. We were also served the lamb dish pictured in RonTam's post. It was wonderful - the lamb sweetbread was my favorite part of the dish, but it also featured lamb rillettes, lamb tongue and really fantastic onion rings (without listing every element of the dish).

Pre-bombe we were also served the sorbet sauternes - sauternes frozen with liquid nitrogen . . . some of it melted (intentionally) leading to a part frozen, part drinkable, sauternes. It was outstanding too. Here's a bad picture, but a picture nonetheless:


Sorbet Sauternes

Dinner was followed by a tour of the kitchen. I was intrigued by the number of induction cooktops:



Lots of east coast sole waiting to be prepped:



A "Sole-less" ménage à trois of crawfish shells ponder their next move (sorry, but I don't pretend to take myself too seriously):



After at least 3 hours at Next, two of the four of us moved on to Aviary for cocktails (maybe at 12:15 or so) and were pleased that there were tables open. If you'd like to hit up Aviary, I suspect you'll be able to get in.

All in all, a terrific night . . . outstanding food, equally outstanding service, and although I could probably dissect the whole experience and find minor flaws, why bother. I never believed the dinner could live up to the expectations I had built up in my mind. Yet in fact, it exceeded my expectations. I can't wait to see how they interpret Thailand.

BR wrote:To say that I have nothing negative to say about the service last night would be really unfair to Next . . . the staff was warm, friendly, and amazingly knowledgeable about every aspect of the restaurant. So much of the discussion here has focused on the food and concept, but let me tell you that the service takes the entire experience up several levels.

Completely agreed. Even amazingly knowledgeable may be an understatement. Our server went so far as to describe exactly where on the Route du Vin the Crémant d'Alsace that we were starting with was grown after my wife inquired (I'm sure making a mental note for our next trip). Everyone who approached our table read our mood perfectly and made us feel entirely welcome and informed.

E-mailed Nick asking for a table with the reason given that we had been up since 2am watching the wedding and we needed nourishment. The reply was a short and hilarious

what wedding?

No hard feelings and like everyone else we'll keep bloody trying.

I ate there last Wednesday and it was fantastic. A couple things that stood out to me that nobody seems to mention:

- The spicy mushroom in the sole dish. I wasn't expecting it since it was the only thing with a kick the entire meal.
- With the turtle soup in the standard wine pairing comes "Domaine de Montbourgeau l'Etoile 'Cuvee Speciale'". This wine blew me away. It smelled like a sherry, yet tasted like a dry white.
- The dill they used in several dishes (ex: cucumber wraped in pork belly), was incredibly pungent. Just a tiny piece of it smelled the entire plate. Do they grow their dill (or other herbs) on premises?
- Unrelated to food, I noticed the forks were presented tines up, the American way. I wonder why they did not choose to do it tines down, wouldn't that be how they ate in Paris 1906? Also I noticed they always put the wine glass directly to the right of the knives, rather than behind them and next to the water glass. I wonder what the plans are for silverware when they change the menu, are they going to be continually selling and rebuying new stuff? Seems like it would be expensive to do it that way.
On the financial side, I'm curious as to how they are doing all things considered. They had a lot of waiters working, several hostesses, and many chefs. In addition to using the kind of ingredients they used, there were multiple pours of many of the wines. Factor in the amount of time to develop the next menu every 3 months ("R&D costs"), I wonder what thier profit margins are like. With the amount of people involved in this production, I am surprised the tickets aren't 3-4 times the current cost just to get a fair return on investment.

Next has a YouTube channel with some interesting videos. Sorry if this has been posted already.

http://www.youtube.com/user/NextRestaurant

Next has opened up registration for everyone now. The F5 key will weep when the ticket buying madness begins anew.

I hate to be that guy, and in some ways I'm not - all four of us left Next last night disappointed by the food, to varying degrees. Certainly none of us thought the meal particularly memorable. We all agreed it peaked early with the small bites and hit its low point with the chicken, which two of us thought would not have blown us away as exceptional in an airplane. I will say that the service and servers were exemplary and, to my tastes and personality, more enjoyable than the meal itself; one server even overheard one of my dining companion's concern over an impending headache and delivered some pain medicine sans solicitation, cradled delicately in a folded napkin. That's some quality service. But in the end I think we all agree our money would have been better spent down the street at Publican. Oh, well. There's always Next time. Which brings me to some other observations:

1) I'm still excited about the restaurant. If anything, this introductory menu is too conservative, and ideally, Bangkok will shake things up a bit. I believe that the possibility of failure is actually an appealing facet of Next. As much as I'd like them to hit it out of the park each cycle, I also want them to be more adventurous and take more risks.

2) We noticed a rare six top seating across the main room from us which received frequent visits from Nick.

3) On the way out we passed Mayor Elect Rahm (!) walking down the sidewalk in the rain with an aide/security/friend; maybe he was coming from Aviary?

4) This is more indelicate, but the bathrooms at Next were a bit ... messy. In fact, one of the toilets was seriously, conspicuously clogged. What is patron etiquette in this situation?

Vitesse98 wrote:4) This is more indelicate, but the bathrooms at Next were a bit ... messy. In fact, one of the toilets was seriously, conspicuously clogged. What is patron etiquette in this situation?

In keeping with the Paris 1906 theme, diners are expected to whiz in the street.

Vitesse98 wrote:4) This is more indelicate, but the bathrooms at Next were a bit ... messy. In fact, one of the toilets was seriously, conspicuously clogged. What is patron etiquette in this situation?

I was also at Aviary and Next on Thursday evening, and also noticed this. I went to the same stall (not the clogged one!) several times, and on all but one occasion it was quite a mess (one time it had been cleaned up, but at some point I went about 3 times in just over an hour, and I'm pretty sure it hadn't been cleaned at all in that time). I don't think I've ever seen the bathrooms in such a mess at a similar bar/restaurant; I guess if you have men drinking a lot you probably have a lot of them pissing all over the place, but presumably other places must check on their bathrooms more frequently, because I haven't seen anything like it elsewhere.

I enjoyed the actual restaurant itself a good deal - much more than I enjoyed Alinea a few years ago, where the (somewhat similar) service rubbed me up the wrong way. I was pretty relaxed about the whole thing, really enjoyed the wine pairings (something else that didn't work for me at Alinea), thought the food was good though not amazing, all in all a nice meal in a very nice space (I found the 2-top booth tables surprisingly big).

Edited to add: one thing that amused me was the pride the servers seemed to express over serving Lurpak butter, which in England is the basic brand you'd buy in any supermarket.

Vitesse98 wrote:4) This is more indelicate, but the bathrooms at Next were a bit ... messy. In fact, one of the toilets was seriously, conspicuously clogged. What is patron etiquette in this situation?

This is not specific to Next, but... I'm guessing that people put paper towels in the toilet. People do that in bathroom at my office, and it always clogs the toilet. It's disgusting. I think people decide to line the seat with paper towels because the toilet paper or tissue covers aren't robust enough for them, and decide that it's much more sanitary to back up the toilet with paper towels instead. It drives me nuts.

Alas, 'twas not paper towels clogging the toilet. If only it were something that ... simple. But beyond that, per the above poster, the floors were a mess, too, regardless of stall/room. Granted, we're talking the men's rooms, which are rarely in good shape in the best of circumstances, but I was expecting something less bus depot-like. Do Next and Aviary share the bathrooms? Looks like they do.

This is more indelicate, but the bathrooms at Next were a bit ... messy. In fact, one of the toilets was seriously, conspicuously clogged. What is patron etiquette in this situation?

"Shut the place down" - Michael Carlson

Changing the subject, but still speaking of patron etiquette, what is the best way to deal with the wine and extra pours? The 4-top next to us was pouring their own wine with the bottle that was left on the table while my wife and I were not touching ours and let the various people (seemed like at least 3 or 4 different people were topping us off) take care of it.

One issue that came up happened because I was sucking my wine down like it was about to evaporate while my wife was drinking it much slower. Random server would come up and give me a second pour then immediately remove the bottle without giving my wife a second pour. Is the second pour just a courtesy or is it not dick-ish just to remind them that the other person is still on their first pour?

Why not just ask your server for more wine if you need it on a given course?

Also, why not just tell a server about the bathroom situation...I'm sure they'd appreciate the heads up and would tell someone who could fix it.

TCK,

You bring up a good point. Dining both here and at Alinea, whenever the servers leave the bottles on the table, I have always had the servers come pour additional wine if I am empty, understanding that it is just a courtesy. I had thought the bottles had been left at the table if the patrons wanted to example the label or description of the wine.