Four More Menus at Next Revealed!

By Anthony Todd in Food on Aug 17, 2011 2:30PM

The big secret of the Chicago food world (aside from how far our chefs have gotten on reality TV shows) has been what the next special menus would be at Grant Achatz's Next. After Paris 1906 and Thai, where would they go ... well, next? Achatz revealed plans for four more menus to Time Out's Heather Shouse yesterday.

The list begins with a strange one: children's poetry. At first, the menu was going to be based on Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends, but due to copyright issues they decided to go with a more generic sense of whimsy, asking themselves "What do you remember from when you’re young?"

After childhood, they move to Kyoto in the spring of 2012 and Sicily in the summer of 2012, which inspired our favorite tweets of yesterday, from Feast editor Carly Fisher:

"The most important takeaway from upcoming Next menu is incorporation of Sicily, which means he's totally doing a Sophia-Golden Girls menu. So, with Next Sicily, will you have servers coming out introducing dishes as "Picture it! Sicily: 1900" followed by a terrible anecdote? If so, I will refresh my browser until my arm falls off."

A sentiment we definitely share. Future ideas include reproducing menus from El Bulli and from Achatz's first day at the French Laundry. Looks like the hype (and the great food) will be continuing indefinitely. If you want to try the Thai menu, it runs through October 9.