Restaurant News: (More) Meat Comes To Boystown, Next Starts Private Dining

By Anthony Todd in Food on Oct 18, 2013 4:20PM

Photo via Twitter.

- As if Next wasn't an exclusive enough experience, now they've added a new layer of fancy. According to owner Nick Kokonas, Next has just opened a private dining room. As he explained on twitter, the private dining room (in the basement) was converted from their old office and part of the liquor storage space for The Aviary. There's a hallway that connects it to The Office - perhaps another part of the exclusive experience? Eater reports that it'll be used for test dinners for now, and details on how to reserve it will be released next week.

- The puns are so easy for this one, they're not really that much fun. Meat, a new restaurant focused on shoving skewers through food (see, we're resisting) is coming to Boystown. Owned by the same group behind minibar, Chicago Magazine reports that the restaurant will feature 12-14 different types of meat skewers. "For Meat, skewers aren’t just a menu category; they’re a way of life." As, we suspect, they are for most of their customers. Damn it, we could't resist.

- The minibar group isn't the only Lakeview restaurant group that is expanding - the folks behind Wood (to which Phil Vettel just gave a glowing review) are heading to restaurant row. Crain's reports that they've taken over the space next to Blackbird and are planning to open a Basque restaurant. "Expect to see dishes such as ajo blanco, a chilled white soup with marcona almonds, grapes, Jonah crab and Blis trout roe; red shrimp a la plancha with globe artichokes, saffron butter, candied olives and preserved lemon; foie gras flan with sherry vinegar caramel and poached quince; and calcots, charred Spanish green onions with romesco guindilla peppers and piment d'Anglet" Crain's reports. We're much more excited for this than for skewers.