I was at Next last Wednesday and had the same menu described by mgmcewen, but had a vastly different impression of it. This was the second time I've been to Next; the first was for Paris 1906. My wife and I both enjoyed this menu more than Paris. I don't know that the food was better (I also don't know that it wasn't better - that's a hard comparison) but this one was just a lot of fun. The menu was divided into several conceptual groups, which each were cohesive within the group, but a bit disparate from each other (which is not meant as a complaint - I thought there was a good flow.)

The first section was meant to represent foraging and preserving the hunt. These courses were served on more rustic dishes, either natural or handmade pottery.


Hen of the Woods mushrooms with mushroom consomme
This had a really rich woodsy flavor. Both the mushroom and the consomme were simple, but delicious. A great start.


Catch of the Great Lakes - smoked trout, milk-braised trout rillettes with pumpernickel crisps
Maybe not the best smoked trout I've ever had, but quite good and the rillettes were delicious: creamy and rich and flavorful enough to stand up to pumpernickel


Charcu-Tree - rabbit pate, elk jerky, wild boar salumi, venison heart tartare, blood sausage
When they set down the branch, they said the flavors went from mild to stronger starting from the rabbit pate through the blood sausage, but my wife and I both thought they got that order reversed. It was just a bite of each, but they were all delicious. My favorite was probably the blood sausage (I think they said it was a morcilla) but then I'm a sucker for blood sausage. The pairing for this one was a flask of cognac, which was pretty fun too.


Cellar Aged Carrots and Onions
I was surprised at just how delicious carrots and onions could be. They managed that trick of tasting like the essence of carrots and onions and also so much better than "just carrots and onions". I'm a bit tempted to try cellar aging vegetables at home, just to see if it's possible for mere mortals to do.


Duck Tongue - scrambled duck egg wrapped in radicchio and puffed duck tongue with apples
Other than the idea of eating duck tongue, there wasn't a lot memorable about this dish. I enjoyed it, but a few days later I'm having trouble remembering many particulars.

The next section was meant to represent a baroque hunting lodge. They brought a candelabra to the table and courses were served on gold-rimmed dishes.


Sturgeon - with sunchokes, caviar buerre blanc, and spruce oil
This was one of the best dishes I've eaten anywhere. The sturgeon was simply cooked, so it let the sauce really shine, and sauce really was phenomenal They brought out the dishes without sauce and a little pot of buerre blanc and a large spoon of caviar, stirred the caviar into the sauce and added to the plate tableside.


Woodcock Jolie - woodcock roulade with a huckleberry and hazelnut salad
This one was another good but not particularly memorable dish.


Squab - seared breast, confit leg, brain with breadcrumbs, offal dumpling, roasted bones and steel cut oats
We had a lot of fun with this one. I can see others complaint that the brain tasted mostly of breadcrumbs, but then with a brain that size, there's not a ton of it. Otherwise, it was delicious and eating the wings and bones with our fingers, along with the deerskin and candelabra felt, more than any other course, like we really were transported to another time when even the rich ate with their fingers. It was easy to get caught up in this course.

The next section was meant to represent eating outside and had some pretty inventive presentations to convey that.


Fallen leaves - fried kale and roasted salsify with kidney mustard sauce, served on birch bark
We really enjoyed this one. My picture really doesn't do it justice, but the leaves on top looked just like maple leaves, which just added to the concept. (I seem to remember them saying the leaves were amaranth, but a quick google tells me amaranth isn't shaped like that.)


Bison and Bearnaise - Bison ribeye cooked on a hot stone at the table, with leeks and "bearnaise reduction" on the side
I really really wanted to like this, but it was the one miss for me. It was a lot of fun to cook the slices of ribeye on the rock, and I think even given that we didn't like the course, it was still worth it for the fun factor. But the "bearnaise reduction" that came with it was sour and oily and unpleasant and without the sauce, it was just a piece of seared meat. (It's worth noting that while my wife didn't particularly love this course either, she was more indifferent to the sauce than my outright dislike. YMMV)

Then we're into the dessert courses.


Marrow Brulee
One of the best desserts I've had. I don't see the complaint that it was overly sweet at all. I could clearly taste the marrow in the creamy custard and it wasn't greasy at all (as I had feared given that it was marrow.) The coarse sea salt on top of the brulee crust was the perfect addition. My wife and I both half-joked about picking up the bone to lick out the last tiny bits.


Maris Otter - barley porridge with cherry preserves, candied pecans, vanilla brown sugar, toffee and micro basil and mint
This was fun to mix and match the toppings and the porridge itself was pretty good and not overly sweet (although some bites did get pretty sweet with the addition of toppings.) My one complaint about this one is the toffee was a really pale toffee and I feel like it would have been better served by a bit more caramelization.


Maple-Bourbon Caramel - poured over "snow" and rolled up on a stick
A fun a whimsical way to end the evening. This one was quite sweet, but was just a bite and a nice way to end.

Our tickets were for 9:30 and we left right at 1. (And we tend to be slow. We saw at least 2 other tables that arrived after us leave before us.) So it seems they've already cut the time down a bit.

I tell you what, this was one of my favorite Next menus (went last Friday). The food, the presentation, the pairings. Just wonderful.

I also tell you what, though, the service there is going a bit downhill. We were unceremoniously rushed out with a bush league "come see the kitchen" move. We've seen the kitchen and have been at the kitchen table. I didn't want to have to stand there and see it out of faux-graciousness. It was awkward. If we had been lingering, which we weren't, I would have understood. We barely had a chance to drink the coffee they brought us (it was a course on the menu, not "hey want some coffee?" coffee) before we were forced up and out. There were tables that had been there before us that were sitting and chatting over coffee as we got dumped out (this we know, because they were acquaintances who we knew had earlier reservations).

I've been a pretty loyal customer there: season tix, been to a couple menus more than once, and so on. Very disappointing. But you also get the sense that maybe they don't care.

That's one of the reasons I didn't renew my season tickets. Too much about them, too little about hospitality/customer service.

It is particularly a bummer, since part of what initially drew me in at Next was the service.

Now they're like rock stars who get big and lose their humility. It's great if you're their friends. Not so much if you're just a fan.

Next is still an excellent restaurant and a good fine dining value, but the honeymoon is over. Personally I don't think I'll renew my subscription next year. My biggest compliant is they've jacked up the prices - remember how Paris 1906 could cost as little as $65? When the menus were less expensive I could overlook some of their shortcomings (no substitutions, wine pairings only, etc), but it's getting harder and harder to do so.

As for the service I think it's getting a little too goofy/jokey. I'm not looking for super formal uptight white glove service, but I think they need to cut back on the rehearsed jokes for a better balance.

By the way - was anyone else miffed when they exposed all the seasons ticket holders email addresses when they sent their Aviary Valentines Day advertisement? That was a shockingly amateurish move.

I agree that something is off at Next.
I have only been to three menus, Paris, Childhood, and the Hunt. I loved the food at all three.
I was there on the First Friday for Paris, remember the service to be fine, giddy even. Childhood had a “everyone is having fun vibe to it”
When I was there for the hunt there were 3 different spots that I couldn’t decide if someone was trying to be funny and failing, or kinda being a jerk.
One of the serves described one of the pairings in what felt like a very condescending way. Then a manager came over “joked with us about being rowdy” though I couldn’t decide if he was joking or not. Lastly we asked about grabbing a drink at The Aviary after dinner, our server said he would mention it. At the end of dinner we got the bill for our drinks, and were whisked out into the night.
I don’t want to be nitpicky but for about 250 a person for dinner, I feel like I shouldn’t have to wonder if servers were being rude or funny.
It makes me think that I should visit a few other restaurants first before I visit Next again. Which is sad, because I was a really big fan of the place.

We just finished our dinner at next for The Hunt and I'll post more in detail later but overall I thought it was fantastic. Didn't really get any hiccups in service that are mentioned above and I thought every course was a hit. This is probably my favorite menu since Childhood and may even exceed that. I really enjoyed this meal and it makes me excited for future meals at Next.

fropones wrote:We just finished our dinner at next for The Hunt and I'll post more in detail later but overall I thought it was fantastic. Didn't really get any hiccups in service that are mentioned above and I thought every course was a hit. This is probably my favorite menu since Childhood and may even exceed that. I really enjoyed this meal and it makes me excited for future meals at Next.

I generally agree with fropones. Though this is only my second meal at Next, I found it to be a much better value than the Sicily menu. There was hardly a course that wasn't exciting, the alcoholic pairings were all spot on, and the service, though nothing spectacular, was attentive, friendly, and good enough for me. I definitely didn't feel rushed, in fact I even ordered a 2nd coffee and chilled for quite a bit after eating.

If Next is the Disneyland of dining experiences, I just had a great time in Frontierland.

The Hunt was my second visit to Next, and I think I understand how to go about it now: abandon preconceptions, don’t take myself too seriously, and go with the ride. I enjoyed the creativity and range of preparations and presentations in the menu for The Hunt. Though not every course worked for me, the highlights made up for the misses. Among my favorites were the mushroom consommé with the hen of the woods, the charcu-tree, the sturgeon and caviar, and the maple-bourbon stick pops.

The alcoholic pairings in particular enhanced many of the courses. They were varied, playful, and expertly matched, which was a pleasurable surprise for unsophisticated me, who has very little appreciation for typical wine pairings. Since the menu has already received a lot of attention on this thread, I thought I’d provide an overview of the pairings.

• Movia Lunar, Slovenia 2008, paired with the Hen of the Woods and Catch of the Great Lakes courses – I really enjoyed this wild-fermented orange wine, which Wikipedia tells me is “made from white wine grape varieties that have spent some maceration time in contact with the grape skins.” This wine was right up my alley, as a big fan of wild fermented sour beers. Cloudy and complex, this got me excited for what was to come.
• Chateau du Tariquet VS Classique, Bas-Armagnac, paired with Charcu-Tree – This brandy was served in a flask, a fun play on the menu’s theme and probably far more smooth and drinkable than anything any hunter I know would have in his pocket.
• Etienne DuPont Cidre bouche Brut, paired with the Cellar Aged Carrots & Onions and Duck Tongue courses – I like French ciders generally, but was not a fan of this one, although it received raves from the rest of the table, mostly for the pronounced “funkiness” – horse blanket, saddle, barnyard, and whatnot. I liked the funk, but thought the cider was too phenolic/medicinal tasting, which my beloved husband tells me I should get over because it is not always a bad thing.
• Peique Godello, Bierzo 2011, paired with Sturgeon & Caviar – This was a solid, dry Spanish white. As I said before, I know nothing about wine, but this worked for me.
• Camille Giroud, Santenay 2009, paired with Woodcock Jolie and Pressed Squab – The squab course was so memorable, this wine took a back seat. However, the woody pinot noir seemed to stand up to what I refer to as the “bloodbath” just fine. We ate and drank like English noblemen, of the crass, not genteel, variety.
• Balcones Brimstone, Cynar, Banks, paired with the Fallen Leaves & Kidney and Brison & Bearnaise courses – This cocktail and the Fallen Leaves course was, to me, the most successful pairing of the meal. The deep, bitter, and complex cocktail with smoked whiskey and artichoke bitters underscored the “forest floor” experience of the course. The birch bark was a great visual presentation for the variety of vegetal textures and earthy flavors. For me, this course hit the mark, from top to bottom.
• Disznoko Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos, Hungary 2005, paired with the Marrow Brulee and Maris Otter courses – This was a light, but not-too-sweet Hungarian dessert wine, with honey tones that went well with both courses. I’m ordinarily not a fan of dessert wine, but I enjoyed this nonetheless.

Regarding the service, I understand the complaints, but I didn’t find it problematic. Yes, there was a guy who kept on making rehearsed jokes that fell flat. Yes, there was another guy who mumbled the descriptions of everything. Yes, it felt like I was being served by culinary students. But whenever we engaged the staff in conversation and asked questions, they proved that they were passionate about the menu and knew what they were talking about. They were gracious and friendly, and there was no discernible flinching when we, in all seriousness, compared eating at Next to Medieval Times (“… but Medieval Times is so expensive! …”) or when some members of our party, ahem, licked the serviceware clean. We were obviously having fun with things, and they had a few laughs too.

Not every Next menu is to my liking, but The Hunt was a wild ride.

Teresa

Teresa wrote:...or when some members of our party, ahem, licked the serviceware clean. We were obviously having fun with things, and they had a few laughs too.

Some of the members of our party licked every course's serviceware. Yes, this is fropones licking a bone.

And I'd do it again, too

fropones wrote:And I'd do it again, too

LOL!

When we were there the other night, we were told about a recent incident in which 2 local bartenders actually created bone luges with course and the Tokaji with which it was served. I'm really sorry to have missed that! It was a great dish because it was savory and sweet in a way that really succeeded (and s+s almost never works for me personally). I loved how you could really smell the roasted marrow up front and how that aroma carried all the way through the entire dish, with the balanced sweetness rounding the finish out very nicely.

I've been to every Next menu (some of them multiple times) and I have to say this meal stood out as exceptional -- one of my 2 favorites (with Paris being the other one). Nearly every course topped the one served before it. Looking back over the menu, it's hard to choose a favorite dish. It was a meal populated by highlight after highlight. Reserve pairings, Joe Catterson's final match-ups before he departed last month) were sensational.

There are plenty of pics upthread but I hope to post a few more in the next few days. Before that, though, I just had to comment on how great this meal was. Days later, I'm still thinking about it constantly.

=R=

Yeah, I want to be clear, I thought the meal was AMAZING. It was sensational.

I just thought the service was off.

disagree wrote:I just thought the service was off.

I couldn't disagree more (you see what I did there? ).

In all seriousness, I thought service was excellent, as it always has been over my experiences at Next. I do find there to be some variations in the service details from meal to meal -- staffers seem to have more individual license -- but the quality of the service has been consistently high.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

disagree wrote:I just thought the service was off.

I couldn't disagree more (you see what I did there? ).

In all seriousness, I thought service was excellent, as it always has been over my experiences at Next. I do find there to be some variations in the service details from meal to meal -- staffers seem to have more individual license -- but the quality of the service has been consistently high.

=R=

I wouldn't have gone as many times as I have (every menu, several more than once!) if I didn't like the service. That's what made my last experience so off-putting.

Quick explanation: I ate near the end of Kyoto and had a fun discussion with Chef Rene about cooking out of the Bouchon Bakery cookbook. He asked me if I had bought the chocolate pearls to make the Oh-Oh's, and I told him I had not. He then offered to give me some that they had leftover. What a guy! Turns out that John (one of the servers (boss server?) had been snacking on them and they were all gone. I was sad. At the end of the night, John brought me a gift-wrapped box and said he didn't want me to go home empty-handed. The box had a piece of charcoal in it. HILARIOUS and completely awesome.

When I ate at the Hunt, up until the end, it was fine. But then we were bum-rushed out, while other tables of 4 seated earlier were lingering over coffee. Not ok. Not for 900 bucks. Now, I am fairly certain the bearded GM wasn't there, so maybe it would've been handled differently had he been. But as it stands, it was really far below their previous standard. The exit is the last memory, you know.

disagree wrote:The exit is the last memory, you know.

Understood. We wondered in advance what it would be like at the end of our meal because we assumed that there'd be a party behind us at the kitchen table. But that didn't appear to be the case. We stayed at the table until about 9:30 and left when we felt like it. No one seemed to be waiting for the table. We didn't feel any pressure at all to vacate.

=R=

disagree wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

disagree wrote:I just thought the service was off.

I couldn't disagree more (you see what I did there? ).

In all seriousness, I thought service was excellent, as it always has been over my experiences at Next. I do find there to be some variations in the service details from meal to meal -- staffers seem to have more individual license -- but the quality of the service has been consistently high.

=R=

I wouldn't have gone as many times as I have (every menu, several more than once!) if I didn't like the service. That's what made my last experience so off-putting.

Quick explanation: I ate near the end of Kyoto and had a fun discussion with Chef Rene about cooking out of the Bouchon Bakery cookbook. He asked me if I had bought the chocolate pearls to make the Oh-Oh's, and I told him I had not. He then offered to give me some that they had leftover. What a guy! Turns out that John (one of the servers (boss server?) had been snacking on them and they were all gone. I was sad. At the end of the night, John brought me a gift-wrapped box and said he didn't want me to go home empty-handed. The box had a piece of charcoal in it. HILARIOUS and completely awesome.

When I ate at the Hunt, up until the end, it was fine. But then we were bum-rushed out, while other tables of 4 seated earlier were lingering over coffee. Not ok. Not for 900 bucks. Now, I am fairly certain the bearded GM wasn't there, so maybe it would've been handled differently had he been. But as it stands, it was really far below their previous standard. The exit is the last memory, you know.

Our service was similar to disagree's. It seems they have consistency issues with service and food. I feel a little cheated that I ate it so early on into the incarnation of this menu and did not find the food very good, but it's kind of luck what you click, I'm just happy my luck seems better for the next two and they are rather late into each menu's cycle. The service started to be less than good for me at Kyoto, when we were rushed off, and at the Hunt I didn't even want to write about the service because I felt so bad about some of the service we had. One waiter in particular seemed so nice, but he was clearly impaired. He poured wine into my non-alcoholic pairing, which I thought was hilarious. But then it appeared he was falling asleep while trying ineptly to pick some some silverware, an incident where we stared at him aghast for about 30 seconds before he woke up. Maybe he was having a bad day- I used to have trouble with a disorder that gave me similar symptoms, including hilariously (or dangerously) falling asleep while standing up (I still don't have a driver's license even though I no longer have symptoms), so I felt terrible for him. But it just didn't seem like the caliber of service I have come to expect from a restaurant like Next.

Perhaps indicative of some of the service issues that others have mentioned, my table was never even offered coffee at the conclusion of our meal.

Welcome (on Bambi’s back)

Welcome carnivores. Or not. As many folks have already observed, this is not a carnivore’s delight; or more precisely, it may be, but it is not limited to red meat—or even meat. As the welcome note from the house explains, this experience is about hunting, fishing, foraging, indeed, all the activities that one might associate with being out of doors in the fall in the Midwest. And that’s a wonderful thing because it not only allows the kitchen more license, it makes for a much more interesting—and satisfying—meal. Looking back, I would have found it a less successful meal if I’d been deprived of say, the very first course or of the cellar-aged carrots. The ability of the kitchen to think outside the box for whatever menu they choose is consistently impressive. Both the Lovely Dining Companion and I were careful to read as little as possible before arriving as possible. So we knew, for example, that this wasn’t a meat-fest and that entire courses (!) might go by without a now-dead protein, but beyond that we didn’t have a notion of individual courses. And I think our experience was the better for that. We enjoyed the thrill of discovering what was coming only as it was being presented to the table. And while, as this abbreviated review will show, the meal was hardly free of items we weren’t fond of (or worse), I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.


Maitake (hen of the woods) mushrooms served with…


…mushroom consommé

Absolutely extraordinary consommé: velvety, rich, layer upon layer of flavor. The mind boggles at the work that must have gone into preparing this “simple” dish. The mushrooms—one per guest—were placed inside a small glass vitrine, laid atop sprigs of rosemary and thyme, with a roasted clove of garlic nestled into the corner. The table sported an old-fashioned walnut pick to assist you in retrieving your ‘shroom. Clever. (Were it not a veggie course, it would have called to mind the classic pheasant under glass—and, indeed, maybe that wasn’t far from their minds….)


Catch of the Great Lakes: smoked lake trout, walleye rillettes, pickled kohlrabi, and pumpernickel “crisps”


Individual serving

Far be it from me to correct the kitchen, but I had always understood that rillettes had a more solid consistency. Thus, a hunk o’ pork poached in fat, shredded, and then preserved with a little of the poaching fat. It might fall apart, but it’s a reasonably “coherent” thing, like a pâté or a paste. This “rillette” was downright soupy, albeit with plenty of chunks of walleye in it. Terminology aside, it was positively lovely: rich and flavorful without being overpowering in the least. A little sloppy to spoon onto the pumpernickel toasts but delicious to the last drop—I know, ‘cause I spooned out every possible drop. The kohlrabi was very lightly pickled—very Japanese, as LDC noted—and that approach allowed the flavor of this rarely served vegetable to shine. That said, I would have appreciated a somewhat stronger pickle to offset the richness of the rillettes.

The lake trout was smoked and then re-wrapped in its own skin. It was a nice effort but surprisingly only okay considering the level at which this kitchen operates. I liked it but I can find better smoked fish without much effort. Still, a wonderful vorspeis. All in all, a very Midwestern course.


Charcu-tree, as presented


rabbit pate


elk jerky


wild boar salume


venison heart


blood sausage

Each one-bite “slider” sat atop of slice of polished deer antler. We were instructed to eat from left to right, supposedly moving from milder to stronger flavors. Maybe. I found virtually all of the items to be pretty mild. I loved the pate and though it seemed like the elk was steeped in a teriyaki marinade, I really enjoyed the depth of flavor in the meat. It was dried just enough to be chewy without being so tough as to make the course an oral workout. The wild boar salume was surprisingly ungamy and even the venison heart lacked much punch. Perhaps a larger chunk of heart would have helped but heart is not—at least in my experience—the strongest flavor around. The blood sausage was positively unexpected: mild, fairly dry, and not tasting very much of blood to my surprise (and, ultimate disappointment).


Cellar-aged carrots and onions

Superb. As noted above, the ageing concentrates the sugars and flavors and these carrots offered a tiny vision of what might be in store for the vegan menu. We both loved them and had to restrain ourselves from licking the plates clean. If carrots tasted like this all the time, kids would be clamoring for their carrots. The onions, on the other hand, ultimately reminded me of nothing quite so much as the little cardboard Durkee can of french-fried onions. These were not—to my palate—noticeably more flavorful.


Puffed duck tongue/diced apple salad with cider vinegar and rainbow sorrel (L) with scrambled duck egg wrapped in radicchio (R)

Not quite sure what to make of the scrambled egg portion of this course; beautifully scrambled egg wrapped in radicchio. No more, no less. Although the presentation was clearly quite different, the duck tongue put in mind of the LTH holiday party a number of years ago at Ed’s Potsticker House—remember the tray heaped with thousands (okay, dozens, I guess) of duck tongues? Ah well. The tongue was a bit chewy, a big crunchy, and didn’t seem to carry a lot of flavor. That was where the diced apple salad etc. was supposed to come in. I wasn’t sure what to expect and, having finished it all, wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. The course just didn’t wow me. (I apologize for the picture here—the duck tongue is what sits atop the little pile on the left looking almost like a walnut.)


Sturgeon, deep fried sunchoke, caviar beurre blanc and spruce oil

Candelabra? Check; gold-rimmed plates on gold-rimmed chargers? Check. Caviar? Check. Inexpressible ostentation? Check. Embarrassing guest begging on his knees for more? Okay, I couldn’t. But don’t think I didn’t give it some serious thought. I will say that the actual piece of sturgeon was a trifle…stringy. But the flavor! Rich, decadent, fully warranting the lit candles and the atmosphere of opulence. And talk about gilding the lily: caviar with beurre blanc. God bless the LDC for demurring when the server offered her another spoonful of sauce. (My only regret here is that I was so overwhelmed that I neglected to notice the spruce oil. I’m hard put to imagine how it would have worked and, in the event, the beurre blanc and caviar was so…over the top, that I just plumb forgot about it. Pity.)


Woodcock Jolie including offal “empanada” [not pictured] and slice of pickled turnip with a huckleberry/hazelnut vinaigrette salad

Not so much, actually. I thought the woodcock suffered by virtue of its stuffing. What I mean by that is that more woodcock and less stuffing would have highlighted the woodcock more. I would have enjoyed tasting the game instead of the stuffing in this case. This is the more surprising since I did enjoy the stuffing (offal—the liver and heart) as presented in an “empanada” (though by the time it arrived and I got to it, it had steamed a bit and lost some of its crispness.)


Pressed Squab: breast plus head


Squab carcass


Side dish of steel-cut oats with foie gras and duck fat

It was hard not to have the breast meat and not think of the duck at Paris 1906. That said, the breast was the highlight of the dish. I’ve never had brains and, frankly, was quite looking forward to that portion of the dish (not having realized that you’re presented with the entire head literally sawed in half). I was quite disappointed therefore that the brains didn’t even total a quarter-teaspoon. And the carcass served on the side had very little meat, most of which was roasted to the point of being either inedible or very dry. I wouldn’t have expected much of it but for the server’s enthusiastic urging to “pick it up with your hands” and get all the meat you can because we’ll be providing hot towels after you’ve finished playing Fred Flintstone. I liked the chance to Fred (or, in my case, Barney) and think that it contributed positively to the feel of “The Hunt”; it just would have been nicer if there were more than scraps on the bones.

I have to comment on the oat side dish. Blech! It’s hard to add much to that except to note that (a) I love steel-cut oats for their texture and flavor. These were wonderful for their texture. But mixing ‘em up with foie, duck fat, and other things that I fortunately cannot recall resulted in a dish so unappetizing that I could not bring myself to finish it—a truly rare event. Slightly sour, a little bitter, the combination just didn’t work for me. At all. Blech!


Fallen Leaves & Kidney: vegetable-based charcuterie (fried kale, roasted salsify) with veal kidney, mustard

The kidneys were disappointing. I’ll admit right up front that I’ve never had them before, but I can’t imagine that they should be on the charred, dry-ish side. Most of the flavor was gone. The vegetables were lovely (including the rather surprising parsnip skin—no, what you see in the picture isn’t a parsnip but rather the carefully removed skin, fried) and a nice textural counterpoint to the kidneys.


Bison & Béarnaise…


…with leek and sauce

A large black rock the size of a small bowling ball ensconced in a presentation box of sorts. The rock must have been baking at some temperature ‘cause you could almost sense the heat…you didn’t need to get near it to feel it pulsing. Two thin slices of bison for you to “grill” your own and a small plate with a cooked leek in …. Sauce. I agree with eli, above, that there was a sour aspect to this sauce that was off-putting. The bison was very nice, though this course, more than any other, struck me as gimmicky. Still, hard not to like it, notwithstanding the “less than the sum of the parts” feeling I got. (The bison looks overcooked because it is; I realized too late that I forgot to snap a picture so I stuck it back on the rock for photographic verisimilitude—ah, the sacrifices one makes….)


Marrow brûlée

Lovely. As Ron noted above, one of the nice things about this dish was that you could smell and taste the bone marrow component. It added both an unctuousness to the mouth feel and a richness and depth to the taste. Unexpected and quite enjoyable.


Maris Otter (a/k/a barley porridge)


Toppings, L to R: toffee; wild mint/greens; candied pecans; tart cherry preserves; brown butter sugar

Nice; pleasant; otherwise unexceptional. (By the way, “maris otter” is the name of the kind of barley used in this dish. Apparently (according to the infallible Wikipedia) it is usually used by brewers to produce malt. Who knew?)


Tire d’érable

A classic. I go back and forth in my reaction to adding bourbon to the maple syrup. Why tinker with a classic? But I haven’t figured out what I think and there’s certainly no denying the tastiness of what we got. The other question I can’t answer, though, is why was our server so damned eager to take the snow away? She refused to leave it on the table while we waited for the syrup to harden up a bit more, insisting in some vague way that we might “do” something (harm ourselves? Others? Throw snowballs?) if she left the snow unattended on our table. Huh?

Many thanks to Teresa for her very helpful course-by-course description of the wine pairings. The more I have eaten tasting menus anywhere, the more I have found that I just cannot do the pairings anymore. To pay the attention each selection deserves—both on its own and as a pairing choice—I’d be there far too long. Plus, as Mr. Hammond opined in an unrelated thread, it’s too much alcohol. Notwithstanding the fact that I’ve loved some of the pairings that I’ve enjoyed over the years, I just can’t do it anymore. I’d rather do what I did at Sixteen last time we were there: look carefully at the dishes and select two glasses that will “cover” a reasonable number of courses. While I will no doubt miss some treasures this way, I’ll also be able to stand up after the meal and even remember what I had.

So I opted for the non-alcoholic pairings:

Smoked spruce, grapefruit, pepperberry—easily my favorite of all of these. While there was nothing that I actively disliked, a few drinks were pleasant but no more. By and large, the drinks served the food well, though in a few instances I wasn’t entirely sure I agreed that the match was right.

Duche de Longueville (Normandy apple cider)—perfectly fine cider but a little sweet for my taste. Regrettably, nothing particularly special.

Quince, bay, satsuma
Pleasant. The marriage worked but I would have been a trifle happier to taste a more balanced drink.

Bear root, urfa (pepper), prickly pear—very likeable. The prickly pear was the most forward of the flavors and, like most of the other drinks, the peppery/spicy component was noticeable. I enjoyed this, in large part I think because I happen to like prickly pear.

Beet, blood orange, prune—this was designed to look like blood. It did. But the beet was so overwhelming that I could barely taste any of the other elements, including pomegranate, which is ordinarily pretty distinctive. Assuming that the combination would have worked (of which I am not convinced), it would have benefited from a more careful balancing of elements. Certainly the acid from the blood orange was overwhelmed and basically missing. Even prune—which is a fairly distinctive flavor that I happen to enjoy—was blown away by the heavy hand with the beets. I was quite disappointed in fact and though I had extra servings of some of the others listed above, I couldn’t finish this.

Finally, I was asked if I was interested in “a coffee drink.” Sure, of course. No more was said until a beautiful cup of what appeared to be cappuccino appeared. I’m not a cappuccino fan but the crema was perfect and it was just too pretty not to at least try. Wow! In a word: superb. This, according to the souvenir menu was “Passion House Nicaragua Las Brisas.” I was later told that no, it wasn’t cappuccino at all. It was coffee made with buttermilk (one version), or coffee made with the leftover special butter sourced for the kitchen table. I don’t know what the truth is but it was one absolutely dynamite cup of coffee. Ultrasmooth, ultrarich.

Service: Uneven but nothing like some of the complaints above. We noticed two interrelated things. First—and we’ve noticed this before: there seems to be remarkable turnover in service personnel. Although we recognized a number of people from our last visit, there were a significant number of new people as well. Which probably contributes to the second issue: great variation in the presentation. What we were told and what the table right next to us (which was generally about two courses behind) was told were similar only in generalities. We received a survey of ingredients; they generally received a fairly detailed description of the ingredients plus a description of the motivation/meaning of the dish. Luck of the draw in part, but also reflecting—to our sense—a general diminution in quality of service. Timing is fine; presentation and clearing of plates is fine. But explanation is suffering as is graciousness, by which I mean that the servers no longer seem to spend any more time than is absolutely necessary. Whereas in menus past, the server would spend a bit of time and you felt a connection on some level, now it’s much more a business-only proposition: “Here’s your food, here’s what’s in it; sorry, I’ve got to move on to the next table now. Don’t have time to chat.” If that continues, I’ll be very disappointed.

We were also very sorry to see a significant change in the quality of the “souvenir” menu. It used to have real detail which, among other things, was a nice reminder of all aspects of the course. What we got after the meal was abysmally concise: what, for example, was the course that is listed—in its entirety—as “Catch of the Great Lakes”? I remember today but when I look at this menu again in two months, what will I remember unless I go to my review? Far too general—even the drink descriptions were lacking. Sad. If you’re already going to the trouble of designing and printing a souvenir menu, it doesn’t take a lot of extra time and/or attention to construct a complete useful reminder of the great meal you had.

A side note occurred to me as I reconsidered the meal: given the (wisely) expansive definition that Next used for “The Hunt,” I was surprised that one particular forager’s dream wasn’t represented at all: truffles. No truffles, no oil. Still. For all my criticisms above, I think this is probably my favorite meal after Paris 1906.

Last note: as we’re bundling into our coats, hats, mittens, and so forth, we notice a couple waiting to be de-coated, de-hatted, and de-mittened. Who should be waiting for his table as we’re leaving but someone who looked very much like Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park (or his twin brother).

P.S. For those to whom it is of importance: we were a two-top and took just a bit under three hours.

Gypsy Boy wrote:What we were told and what the table right next to us (which was generally about two courses behind) was told were similar only in generalities. We received a survey of ingredients; they generally received a fairly detailed description of the ingredients plus a description of the motivation/meaning of the dish.

This happened to us - but the oddest part was the same person would deliver courses to different tables and give totally different descriptions. So, the carrot course, we were told next to nothing - nothing about the aging process at all. The same server giving the same dish to the table next to us gave a lengthy description. Then with the sturgeon, we were given a long description while the same table next to us were given a rundown of ingredients and that's it. I don't know what to make of it.

You know what is really crazy?

There are and have been tables available for this menu on their website for a few days now.

If you want to go, it seems like now is the time.

Bspar wrote:You know what is really crazy?

There are and have been tables available for this menu on their website for a few days now.

If you want to go, it seems like now is the time.

I noticed this about a month ago -- its good to finally see the top of this market. When they first started, I paid $130 per person all in (including tip, tax, gratuity, and alcohol). That was a tremendous value, and one of the reasons that Next was such a success. It was one of the selling points to the ticket system, that they could sell meals between $45-75 per person due to being paid ahead of time. Now they have changed the business model and are competing for a different customer. There are a lot of comparable restaurants in Chicago at the $250 per person price range

You are so very right.

$65 For Paris at non-peak times was cool.

$35 tickets (on table a week?) to Childhood was an amazing gift to the community.

It seems like demand might have actually caught up. I bet the front of the menus are still going to be pretty nuts, in terms of ticket getting.

Is there anyone out there who really wants to go to Next, lives in Chicago, and can spare the cash who has not been to Next at this point?

A friend of mine had a reservation for 4 at 10:15 this past Friday that he realized about a week or so beforehand that he could not use. After unsuccessfully asking all of his friends and his friends of friends if they were interested in the tickets or knew anyone who was, he found himself the day of with four tickets he couldn't use.

He paid $556 for the 4-top (water pairing) and at about 8 in the morning on Thursday, he posted on Next's Facebook page offering the tickets. He got zero emails.

Around 11:30 on Friday morning, he posted on craigslist that he'd take $300 or best offer.
That afternoon, he posted again on Next's Facebook page.

At around 6:00PM on Friday, he finally got one email - from someone on craigslist willing to pay $200.

Obviously, the time was not ideal and it was a relatively last-minute sale, but a year or so ago, I don't think he would have had a problem selling for face price. And a brief look on Next's Facebook page shows that others are trying to unload tickets for far less than face as well.

I'd be a fool to declare that Next is close to being in trouble (after all, Next sold an identical table that day as part of their "same night table" habit), but a drop-off in demand seems pretty obvious at this point.

It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds.