kathryn wrote:

Khaopaat wrote:Question for those of you in the know: was the unannounced midnight sale for the whole shebang, or just for opening weekend? Can we expect a second sale for the rest of the season, or am I S.O.L.?

They'll very likely continue doing weekly weekend sales for tables, selling a handful only for the coming week, as well as daily Facebook tables.

"Like" Next Restaurant's page on Facebook, then turn on SMS updates.

kathryn wrote:Buried in the Facebook comments:
"There are about 25% of seats still being held for same-week, same-night, etc. tix to give more people a chance."

Excellent. Thanks for the info!

They sold some same night tables yesterday since opening night went well and they could handle more tables I gather so it looks like keeping an eye on FB already is a good idea.

"I do still wish Nick et al. would clarify/explain the policy on selling tickets above list price. As far as I can tell, they have chosen not to do so. "

By law the tickets must be transferable if they are non-refundable. This makes complete sense... once you buy them, they are yours to do with as you please, just like the tickets to a Cubs game or a Steppenwolf play. You can give them to a friend, gift them to your mother, etc. It makes sense -- after all, you paid for it. We CANNOT as some people have suggested make the tickets good only for that single person who has to show an ID at the door. Yes, some concert promoters have done so, but in those cases the tix had very different policies, and the event was far different as well.

Scalping is illegal in Chicago except for registered ticket brokers. Our policy is that we make every effort to discourage scalping by: 1) selling tickets for Same Night seatings via FB 2) doing occasional same week sales via our ticket page 3) making ticket transfers go through our site so we can monitor people who never come, only transfer 4) keeping an eye on Craigslist and if it is obvious who is selling a ticket and it is over face value, contacting that seller and asking them to remove the CL post. When we have found repeat offenders, we have blocked their user-ID and email address, and in a few instances revoked the tickets.

We do NOT want scalping for many reasons, the primary one being that we don't want the sense of value to get out of whack with the price people paid.

So that's the policy. It is admittedly impossible for us to enforce 100% of the time, so we simply try to make people who are scalping jump through hoops that are more costly in terms of time and money.


Happy to answer any other questions you may have.

It's a solid policy. People are going to complain no matter what.

But for a mere mortal like me with no connections in the industry, it's back to Craigslist where I can search for a nice pair of tickets...

nick.kokonas wrote:Scalping is illegal in Chicago except for registered ticket brokers....Happy to answer any other questions you may have.

Thanks, Nick. Your TOS says "Unlawful resale (or attempted resale), counterfeit or copy of Next Ticket is grounds for seizure and cancellation without compensation." It does not then go on to say what you have claimed here, that resale above list retail price is illegal in Chicago except for brokers. That it is illegal in Chicago with respect to Next tickets is far from clear to most people, for a number of reasons. See, for example, the discussion here. I would like either an explanation of why you (or your lawyers) think it is illegal in Chicago.

Or, perhaps more simply, why not post a clear statement on your TOS to that effect? I think (from a non-legal perspective) you should be completely free to set whatever policies you'd like. I would just like it to be clear, which I don't believe it would be to someone who had gone to your website and not read any of your commentary on facebook or here.

ChitownJackson wrote:It's a solid policy. People are going to complain no matter what.

But for a mere mortal like me with no connections in the industry, it's back to Craigslist where I can search for a nice pair of tickets...

FYI - I've had much more luck with their facebook wall than with craigslist.

I am not a lawyer. Our TOS was, like every other TOS, compiled by lawyers who are very careful with their wording.

This law firm is unrelated to our TOS or Next, but has a nice summary of the legal issues involved: http://www.huckbouma.com/CM/Publication ... alping.asp

I think we have been pretty clear in our dislike for scalping of our tickets, and also the limitations in our ability to fully control it. We can only put up speed bumps.

GAF wrote:One of our servers informed me that the El Bulli dinner at Next might be limited to a single seating each night (thus, halving the number of diners). He indicated that they might have twenty courses per seating. (This is not official information, but it makes sense). I can only imagine the challenge to Nick's reservation system. Certainly (unless the price point is extremely high) the demand will be huge and the supply of tables low. I wish that they could rent out Carnivale - or maybe Soldier's Field for the three months run. Or establish the Next El Bulli.

Per Facebook:

Tickets for El Bulli Regression will only be 64 ppl per night... and therefore will have to be priced higher -- and may well by necessity be tied to annual subscriptions since we will have so few seats available. Still working out the details...

Subscriptions will happen in December. The reason we will have to tie El Bulli to subscriptions is because: a) people want subscriptions b) el bulli menu will only serve one seating per night = to 64 people c) if we offer annual subscriptions and include El Bulli, then we have to tie in the price difference to the subscription -- and only have 64 per night x 4 menus to sell. The 8 PM to 10:30 PM seats will be for the other 3 menus and will be normal tickets / same night seats via FB as before. I think it is a fair mix between the two types and allows the most flexibility for customers and the restaurant service. We will likely hold a few El Bulli seats for same night as well.

The subscriptions will vary in price. Think: Opening nights package. Saturday kitchen table package. Wednesday early package. Closing nights package. etc. Multiple by 4, with menu pricing varying by night, special events, and of course the 4 menus / drink pairings.

This sentence "The 8 PM to 10:30 PM seats will be for the other 3 menus and will be normal tickets / same night seats via FB as before." in the context of the discussion confuses me.

Have they said how they will do subscription sales? If its like regular tickets it is going to be wild.

TCK wrote:This sentence "The 8 PM to 10:30 PM seats will be for the other 3 menus and will be normal tickets / same night seats via FB as before." in the context of the discussion confuses me.

Have they said how they will do subscription sales? If its like regular tickets it is going to be wild.

My understanding is that there will be subscriptions sold that include seats for all four seasons for an early-ish seating in each. These will be the only seatings for the El Bulli season, then the 3 subsequent seasons ("the other 3 menus") will have other seats released for later seatings ("8 PM to 10:30 seats") as a normal sale at the start of each menu with additional same night seats, as has been done for every menu thus far. The fact that the subscriptions will all be for earlier seatings seems necessary if the El Bulli menu is going to be a particularly long meal.

That description sounds like they might offer the other three menus (Paris, Thai, Childhood) later in the evening while only offering El Bulli for the earlier seating. However, our server at Next indicated that they really have not yet figured out how they will structure the reservations and logistics when the El Bulli menu is offered.

nsxtasy wrote:That description sounds like they might offer the other three menus (Paris, Thai, Childhood) later in the evening while only offering El Bulli for the earlier seating. However, our server at Next indicated that they really have not yet figured out how they will structure the reservations and logistics when the El Bulli menu is offered.

I highly doubt that they would cook more than one menu per night...

FWIW, I would think they would stagger the seating for the all night long El Bulli dinners maybe not as late of a starting point that they are using now but not everyone at once

mhill95149 wrote:FWIW, I would think they would stagger the seating for the all night long El Bulli dinners maybe not as late of a starting point that they are using now but not everyone at once

Right. So the seatings would be from, say, 5:00 to 7:45pm, but still only one turn of the tables, as opposed to what they are doing now and plan to do for Kyoto, Sicily, etc.: seatings from 5:00pm until 11pm (2 turns of the tables?).

Just posted to Facebook:

We will sell 50 subscriptions or so per night for the year. Which will leave 12 to 14 for El Bulli regular tickets. In addition, we will be auctioning one El Bulli table per night to the highest bidder for Charity.... U of C cancer center to get 100% of the proceeds.

12-14 seats for "regular" tickets is what, two or three 2-tops and two 4-tops? I'm very curious as to how they'll handle the Kitchen Table.

Mod Note

Hi all,

We split discussion about Next's Childhood menu into its own thread:

Next - Childhood Menu - Grant Achatz

It wasn't a perfectly clean split but we did our best to keep the general discussion and the specific menu discussion separate. Please send a PM if one of your posts ended up in the wrong place.

Thanks,

=R=
for the moderators

I just got a notice -- you can now download the book about Next's Paris 1906 --including all the recipes and more than 200 photos -- $4.99 on iTunes. (Certainly a more palatable price than the Alinea book -- though I have that, too.)

http://www.iTunes.com/NextRestaurant

Oops. Have to have iBook, iPad, or iPhone. You can't read Next: Paris 1906 if all you have is iTunes. So I'll just have to imagine this one.

Per Kevin Pang (via twitter), he has spoken to a Michelin Inspector. This is what they had to say about Next:

Just spoke to Michelin Inspector. RE: Next: "We need to see consistency. To get stars, we have to go a number of visit..." (1/2)

RE: Next -> "With the concept changing on an ongoing basis, it was problematic. We went as many times as we could get in." (2/2)

It appears either the demand or the ticketing system might have been what ultimately caused its lack of inclusion in this year's guide.

I've spent the last few hours searching to no avail. Can someone tell me if it is actually possible for six people to go to next without resorting to the higher priced kitchen table? I was asked to figure out a time and per person price for a party of six but have hit a wall of useless web pages and misinformation. Disappointing, if I cant figure it out I lose the only chance to eat there.

Octarine wrote:I've spent the last few hours searching to no avail. Can someone tell me if it is actually possible for six people to go to next without resorting to the higher priced kitchen table? I was asked to figure out a time and per person price for a party of six but have hit a wall of useless web pages and misinformation. Disappointing, if I cant figure it out I lose the only chance to eat there.

It is not possible.

gleam wrote:

Octarine wrote:I've spent the last few hours searching to no avail. Can someone tell me if it is actually possible for six people to go to next without resorting to the higher priced kitchen table? I was asked to figure out a time and per person price for a party of six but have hit a wall of useless web pages and misinformation. Disappointing, if I cant figure it out I lose the only chance to eat there.

It is not possible.

Unless, of course, you were able to score a 2top and a 4top at the same seating time. Still, you wouldn't be dining "together" but the pacing would be similar.

But to buy tickets for a party of six without the kitchen table, no.

Next Sicily now on sale per the Facebook page:

Next Restaurant
Buon Giorno! Sicily tickets are now on sale.

We're doing things a bit differently this time, releasing in a few waves over the next few weeks to give the greatest number of people a chance to buy. So if you miss it this time, keep your eyes on this page as we release more seats in the coming weeks.

50 seats per night were sold as Season Tickets. Today we're releasing the opening weekend seats in full, plus about 20 more seats per night.

As always, thank you for your enthusiasm and patronage!

Grazie Mille !

It seems people are actually able to get tickets this time, which is great. I'm already going with a friend who has season tickets at the end of June. Hopefully this means that I won't have too much of a problem getting tickets for Kyoto.

Ursiform wrote:Next Sicily now on sale per the Facebook page:

Next Restaurant
Buon Giorno! Sicily tickets are now on sale.

We're doing things a bit differently this time, releasing in a few waves over the next few weeks to give the greatest number of people a chance to buy. So if you miss it this time, keep your eyes on this page as we release more seats in the coming weeks.

50 seats per night were sold as Season Tickets. Today we're releasing the opening weekend seats in full, plus about 20 more seats per night.

As always, thank you for your enthusiasm and patronage!

Grazie Mille !

Thank you! This hadn't yet appeared in my FB post, so I'm fortunate I saw your post and was able to grab two tickets.

Logged in and easily grabbed tickets for next Sunday night. The wife doesnt know yet and 10p may prove to be too late for her. Has there been a ticket trading board of some type? I'm sure the question is answered among the 19 pages thus far - my apologies for not reading it.

Booked for September 1st

Commbrkdwn wrote:Logged in and easily grabbed tickets for next Sunday night. The wife doesnt know yet and 10p may prove to be too late for her. Has there been a ticket trading board of some type? I'm sure the question is answered among the 19 pages thus far - my apologies for not reading it.

There's a very strong facebook community on Next's facebook page. Your best bet is to post on their and hope someone responds.

Saw it late and pulled 2 for next Wednesday at 9:45. Not my preference, as I work quite early on Thursdays, but it will do.

Does anyone know anything about the menu? I haven't heard much, although I haven't been following very closely.

ziggy wrote:Saw it late and pulled 2 for next Wednesday at 9:45. Not my preference, as I work quite early on Thursdays, but it will do.

Does anyone know anything about the menu? I haven't heard much, although I haven't been following very closely.

This is the most I've seen about it