Next produced a new advertisement for their latest menu; you can be guaranteed to get a table if you have about $4000. more ›

Leading the charge, unsurprisingly, is Alinea, with an average check total of $736. that places Grant Achatz's restaurant at fourth on the list. more ›

2012 started off with a shocker of an announcement by Charlie Trotter. The chef who helped lay down the foundation for Chicago's modern restaurant scene announced he would be taking a "sabbatical" from cooking and closing down his eponymous restaurant at the end of August. more ›

The biggest food story of the year was Next. We were there for the opening, the inevitable parodies and much much more. more ›

Looks like renting the whole restaurant didn't work out. The upside? Now you can get in without 40 friends and a bankroll as large as a small country. more ›

If you have a lot of cash and a lot of faith, you may be able to skip the process of getting tickets to Next as they announced the sale of season tickets. more ›

Suddenly renting out Fish Bar seems tame, by comparison. more ›

Now that Next Restaurant is onto their Childhood menu, all the hype about their amazing take on turn-of-the-century French cuisine has faded. Now you can make all of the courses from that menu at home with the "Next: Paris 1906" cookbook for iPad. more ›

Get a first glimpse of the new menu. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

Yesterday, a strange, heart warming or terrifying (depending on how you look at it) story hit Gawker about the London riots. Rioters attempted to invade a Michelin 2-star restaurant, and the staff, normally concerned with crystal and linens, fought them off with rolling pins. Things are getting scary over there, folks, and we hope that it ends as soon as possible. Frankly, the restaurant angle seemed a bit too much like a bad movie - so of course that's exactly what it put us in mind of! It got us thinking: if we had to ride out something really bad, say a zombie invasion, which restaurant would we want to hide in? Which chefs would we count on to defend us? more ›

We love food, we love maps, and we love public transit. Therefore, this chart by HartmanSalt gave us a lot of pleasure. It maps out the entire food industry in one place, from chefs (Chicagoans Homaro Cantu, Grant Achatz and Charlie Trotter made the list) to grocery store owners, food media moguls and cookbook authors. It's even interactive! Hover over any name for more information. If someone made one of these for Chicago, we'd have to do a little happy dance. Go forth and waste some time. via The Stew. more ›

Well, this seems inevitable. The insane amounts of hype and anticipation around Next restaurant's new Thai menu led to a collapse of their computer systems last night when tickets finally went on sale. What Time Out's David Tamarkin called an "explosion of bourgeoise anger and first-world vitriol" (and we call just another example of why anonymous internet commenting leads people to be idiots) happened on the Next Facebook page, reminding us that you're only popular until you're not. more ›

If you didn't happen to get one of the reservations (that sold out in 2 seconds) for Next's new Thai menu, we've got a Monday treat for you. A video, released by the restaurant on Friday, which goes behind the scenes and shows off many of the new dishes. Like everything released by the Next/Aviary team, it's absolutely gorgeous - and will make you want to stuff your face full of cilantro, if you're anything like us. more ›

- Next's new menu, an interpretation of Thai cuisine, starts this weekend. Tickets went on sale yesterday at 4:45, and, according to Next's Facebook page, "every table was in held mode within 2 seconds...." So, if you didn't happen to get one, what can you do? The tickets released were only for this weekend, so you have plenty of time to eat their Thai food. Our suggestions? Follow them on Facebook, and be flexible - if Paris 1906 is any indication, after a couple of weeks there were plenty of night-of tables. Also, they have a new logo and the new menu is up on their website. more ›

Did you get a chance to dine at Next while it was still in Paris 1906 mode? If so, good for you. If not, we understand - it was expensive and reservations were hard to get. But, it was still one of the best meals of our lives. So, we're ecstatic to see that Grant Achatz and co. are releasing a book documenting the whole experience! more ›

Earlier this week, we mentioned Grant Achatz's new super hard-to-get-into bar, underneath the Aviary. With only 14 seats, and entry by invitation or reservation only, we opined that we'd probably never get in. Our commenters mostly said "Good riddance." Time Out Chicago now has the entire menu, and while we still think we'll never get in, now we're a little bit sad about it. more ›

If you think the Aviary is hard to get into, you are in for a shock - the new, exclusive bar underneath the Aviary just opened, and it's pretty much clear that we're not getting in any time soon. Grubstreet tipped us off to a tweet from Achatz yesterday with a picture of the space and a brief description. "Opening tonight...14 seat speakeasy-style bar under the Aviary," said Achatz. more ›

(formerly Perennial, now with extra Virant goodness) is open tonight. Last night was the first night of operation, and it won't start taking reservations till May 23, but tonight or tomorrow night might be a good chance to get a sneak peek at Paul Virant's new menu for the Lincoln Park restaurant. more ›

This just in - The Aviary, Grant Achatz's new cocktail bar adjacent to Next, will start taking reservations. However, any restaurant connected with Next (which has a fairly complex system of ticketing) can't take just any reservations; there has to be a twist. If you want to drink their gastronomically complex cocktails, you can email reservations@theaviary.com between 10 AM and 4 PM on the day you want to drink with your party size and contact information. Don't clear your calendar, since only 10 emails will be randomly selected each day. Hints that this would happen have been coming on Facebook for a while, as it seems the crowding and seating situation at The Aviary isn't as organized as the owners would like it to be. more ›

Anthony's experience at the Aviary aside, we're still very interested in seeing how Grant Achatz, Craig Schoettler and company have up their sleeves now that the lounge is open and serving drinks. Drinks in the $15-$25 price range, according to Grub Street Chicago. For those of you who need the hard sell, maybe Aviary's opening night video is the answer. more ›

Looks like the Aviary is finally ready for its closeup. Grant Achatz made the announcement via twitter that the cocktail lounge will open at 6 p.m. tomorrow. Line up now, people; the Aviary does not take reservations. more ›

Last week, I was berated, quite aggressively, by the greatest chef in the Western world. In some circles of foodie-ism, that might be some sort of perverse claim to fame, like finding and saving Anthony Bourdain's used cigarette, but in my world, it was frightening and unpleasant. More importantly, it forced me to reflect on the food/media world in which I live, the hype that sustains restaurants, and the fundamental responsibilities of chefs, restaurant owners and service staff. Oh, and I got to peek inside The Aviary. Want the whole story? more ›

Next isn't Alinea. That might seem an obvious statement, but it's the most important premise to keep in mind when dining at Grant Achatz's new project. If you go in expecting modernist gastronomical fireworks, you may be disappointed. And that would be a shame, because the cuisine at Next has its own pleasures in store. more ›

Gaze longingly at some shots from dinner at Next last night. We even managed a trip inside the kitchen to get a few shots backstage - you might not have seen these. Review and commentary (and believe me, I have plenty to say, good and bad) will come on Monday, but until then, take a look at the exquisitely-plated food and keep clicking refresh on your email inbox for tickets. more ›

The ticket frenzy for Next started yesterday. First, their system had trouble kicking out tickets, as it was incompatible with Internet Explorer. Then, people had trouble getting through to the Next website! We can attest to the fact that some people did get in, and others made reservations - we'll be headed there very very soon. But, what if you didn't sign up in advance or you don't want to wait till May? AV Club reports that some tickets are going on Craigslist for up to $3000. We've got some helpful tips so that you don't get burned. more ›

We've been a tiny bit cynical about the level of hype surrounding Next, possibly because no one we know will get to actually eat there until the year 2015. It's likely that this cynicism stems from a combination of sour grapes (we want in!) and faux-disdain (whatever, I can make Escoffier dishes in eggshells at home). Yeah. It's officially over. The opening video for Next makes us want to go camp outside the restaurant and beg Grant Achatz to adopt us or take us as his secret lover - whatever, as long as we get tickets. Until then, we'll have to settle for watching it over and over and over again. more ›

We're willing to beg, borrow, steal or commit minor acts of vandalism to get into Next, even as a paying customer after opening day. A contributor to LTH Forum, "yellow truffle," was invited to a preview dinner there, and posted an entire gallery of wonderful pictures, along with his comments. more ›

From the Twitterverse comes news from Alinea's Grant Achatz that, if all goes well, Next will open on April 6. As for its companion cocktail lounge the Aviary, Achatz said it will likely open later. "We want 2 make it great," he noted. Could there be some more dry runs in the offing? more ›