Next Restaurant
Fine dining restaurant · West Town ·
Rotating concept restaurant with inventive tasting menus and presentations
Rotating concept restaurant with inventive tasting menus and presentations
"More than a decade later, Grant Achatz’s Next continues to reinvent itself. The menu changes every few months, offering experiences that transport diners to places like Kyoto and 1908 Paris, or pay homage to culinary icons such as Julia Child and Massimo Bottura. It’s rare to find a place that feels entirely new every time, but that’s exactly what Next delivers. Hidden subterranean bar the Office supplies post-meal tipples. Reservations are available via Tock." - Jeffy Mai
"Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas’ highly anticipated follow-up to Alinea arrived in 2011 amid much buzz for several reasons. First is its unique concept: the entire restaurant changes its theme every “season,” offering a completely new menu and design three times a year. Secondly, diners have to prepay upfront for the cost of the meal by purchasing tickets on Kokonas’s reservation system, Tock. Despite the massive expectations, the restaurant managed to live up to the hype and was deemed the Best New Restaurant in 2012. Former executive chef Dave Beran followed that up with a Best Chef: Great Lakes win in 2014, and his successor, Jenner Tomaska (who opened his own restaurant, Esmé, last year with his wife Katrina Bravo, another Alinea Group veteran), was nominated for 2018’s Rising Star Chef award. Kokonas has since left Alinea." - Naomi Waxman
"One of the group's remaining Fulton Market venues that leadership says will not be relocated, this restaurant is set to feature a 2026 menu partly informed by AI: the chef created a fictional persona named "Jill" in ChatGPT and used the output to develop recipes reflecting that character's influences. The venue has also been a launching pad for chefs who have gone on to open their own successful restaurants." - Ashok Selvam
"A restaurant known for its rotating themes, currently hosting a pop-up menu that pays homage to Charlie Trotter's culinary legacy, featuring dishes inspired by his work." - Ashok Selvam
"For four months only, diners at Next in Chicago can step into a meticulously crafted homage to Charlie Trotter, led by Grant Achatz with front-of-house storytelling by Trotter’s son, Dylan. From September 8 to December 31, 2024, the experience leans into legacy over nostalgia: menus riff on Trotter’s cookbooks and old menus while Achatz aims to replicate dishes as closely as possible out of respect for the source. The room is set with memorabilia—old photos, menus, and special dishware—offering a rare glimpse into a pre-social-media dining era where evenings were ephemeral and remembered in stories. Dylan will share personal insights into his father’s philosophy, character, and heart, giving guests who never dined at Charlie Trotter’s the chance to feel a piece of it today. Expect an experience shaped with thoughtfulness and a lot of heart that honors someone who influenced much of what we see in dining now." - Michael He