Grant Achatz Announces New Restaurant Project "Next" and Bar "Aviary"

With just a few minutes to go until the kick off of the 2010 James Beard Foundation Awards, Grant Achatz announced his next two projects via Twitter. One will be a pop-up called "Next" specializing in four menus per year all based around a time and a place. The video anouncement hints at the following destinations/time periods: Paris 1912, Hong Kong 2036, Sicily 1949, Sao Paulo 1968, Ayutthaya 1767 and Cajun 1977. All of these dinners will be ticketed events. The official release, via the restaurant's website:

Next Restaurant will explore world cuisine. It is being developed by chef Grant Achatz, Nick Kokonas, and the creative team that built Alinea, including Crucial Detail designer Martin Kastner, Architect Steve Rugo, and Interior Designer Tom Stringer.

Next Restaurant will serve four menus per year from great moments in culinary history – or the future. Our team of chefs will investigate, test, refine, and present authentic menu interpretations from cultures, places and times. Depending on the cuisine, meals will be 5 to 6 courses and will include food, beverage pairings, and service.

Our goal each season is to present the best possible menu from each culinary inspiration. We want to take diners on a journey to the foods we find exciting, delicious, and important.

Prix fixe menus will be $40 to $75, with a $25 supplement for wine pairings. Tickets will be made like a "theater or sporting event" via the restaurant's website. Nick Kokonas told GS Chicago that "Next will be four star dining at three star prices."

As for the bar, Aviary:

We will have chefs and a kitchen producing drinks. The drinks will be innovative, beautiful, and consistent. Some will be classics, others will be informed by the menu at Next, still others will be something else entirely.

Aviary will be a walk-in affair, akin to any other bar. All signs point to 2010 openings for both, no location has been announced yet.

NEXT AND AVIARY VIDEO ANNOUNCEMENT:

· Next Restaurant [Official Site]
· All Grant Achatz Coverage on Eater [-ENA-]
[Photo via: Metropolis Mag]