Chicago Food Geeks Blow Up Twitter with #FutureNextThemes

By Anthony Todd in Food on Aug 18, 2011 2:30PM

We must admit, we were not at our computer last night. So, we missed the initial conflagration of "Future Next Themes" - a flood of food writers, chefs and diners proposing ridiculous themes for the next menu of Next. A couple of days ago, Time Out gave us the next 4 menus for Next restaurant, including "Childhood," an idea that everyone seems to both love and feel a deep need to mock.

Kicked off by Michael Nagrant, the meme seemed to release a flood of pent-up pretension-bursting, as new ideas for Next flooded the interwebs. Here are some of our favorites, some hilarious, some snarky and some plain old disgusting.

Michael Nagrant
- Chi-Chi's 1984
- A Tour of Wisconsin butter burgers and Frozen Custard circa 1997
- Shit My Mom Made (Really Badly)
- Oh! The Things You Can Do with Sysco
- The Black Sheep: The Glory Weeks
- Donner Party Delicacies
- Coke, Cigarettes, and Amphetamines: A Night of Eating like Hunter S. Thompson
- From Lipton with Love: A Survey of Super Bowl Party Foods

Our own Benjamin Lipsman
- Day after man discovered fire
- New York City Blackout 2003
- Death Row Last Meals

The Local Beet
- Can only shop at the gas station @ Congress & Dearborn
- Wrigley Field Skybox
- A night at the diner with Edward Hopper
- The foods of Canada outside of Quebec and Vancouver

Michael Gebert
- Next: The Three Months in 1991 I Did Nothing But Cook Out Of My Mom's Old Moosewood Cookbook
- Next: We Could Serve Monkey Ass On a Clamshell And The Critics Would Love It
- Next: The Struggle for Mastery in Europe: 1848-1918 by A.J.P. Taylor

Wendy Aeschlimann
- The rations of England WWII
- A Tasting Menu: Oprah's Diet 1986-2011
- The food of Plimouth Plantation circa 1650
- Iowa State Fair Food 2011

If you saw any others we missed, post them in the comments! And follow all of these fine folks on twitter!