After a particularly brutal few weeks of work, Jean and I took advantage of our recent “empty nester” status and traveled up to Chicago for an evening of food and wine, ostensibly to celebrate our 34th anniversary. On this occasion, we revisited Next, Grant Achatz’s other restaurant during its “Paris 1906” menu season. While I have gone on record here as stating that I have no desire to dine at Alinea, I have no such reservations (pun intended*) about Next. Their 8-course tasting menu homage to Escoffier featured prominent use of black truffles and had several truly spectacular dishes. We also opted for their “Prestige” wine pairing (the second of three tiers of cost), all featuring wines of France, natch. Alas, they weren’t entirely forthcoming with details about the wines served, so I’ve tried to interpolate where I can.
The menu: HORS d'OEUVRES Oeuf benedictine Tete de porc Gougere Mousse du salmon froid en banquette
POTAGE A LA TORTUE CLAIRE
FILETS DE HALIBUT RACHEL truffe, vin blanc, white asparagus
SUPREME DE VOLAILLE FINANCIERE poulet, sauce financiere, brioche
CARRE D'AGNEU AVEC SAUCE CHORON ris d'agneu, sauce choron, duchesse potatoes
SALADE IRMA bitter greens, cucumber, lemon vinaigrette
BOMBE CEYLAN coffee pate a bombe, rum ice cream, gelatine cherries
MIGNARDISES candied almond beet pate de fruit pistachio nougat salted caramel
With the hors d’oeuvres, they served a 2010 Drappier Grande Sendrée Brut which was slightly oxidative in character, though not to an extent to bother my oxidatively sensitive spouse, but also delightfully lemony and fresh. Of the hors d’ouvres, the ouef bendictine and salmon mousse barquette were the standouts, the former perhaps even eclipsing the Arpege egg I ate at Manresa an eon ago.
With the phenomenal turtle soup (made with snapping turtle they hastened to inform us), they served the 2016 Fosse-Seche Saumur Blanc ‘Arcane’ which was bone dry and tasting of slightly bruised apples with zippy acidity. Jean, not normally a big fan of Chenin, loved it. I don’t have a whole lot of experience with Saumur Blanc, my one previous exposure having been Clos Rougeard ‘Breze.’ The sommelier was pleasantly surprised that we knew Chenin, especially when we mentioned the Huet in our cellar.
The filets of halibut amounted to a terrine of alternating layers of gelatinated halibut and gelatinated black truffle, which was one of the highlights of the meal. With this, they served a Chassagne-Montrachet, but I caught neither year or producer. It went passably well with the dish, standing up even to the truffle, but still was white Burgundy (meh).
The Financier chicken was another well-crafted dish with both mushrooms and truffle. With this, they served a 2017 Genot-Boulanger Chambolle-Musigny, which was painfully young , smelling of pine needles and oak, but showing some very pretty red fruit. Personally, I felt that an earthier Burgundy would have set off the dish better.
The lamb dish was notable primarily for the lamb rilette at bottom, which was outrageously tasty. They served with this the 2019 Georges Vernay Cote-Rotie which was shockingly light bodied with soft tannins, though the alcohol stick out a bit. I’ve only had the Condrieu from this producer before, though we were informed of a generational change there, with mother and daughter now in charge. We were informed that there was
10% Viognier added for its floral character, but the somm didn’t know whether it was a traditional co-fermentation or not (and looked puzzled by my question).The Bombe and mignardises at the end made for a fine finish to a great meal. We also chose the Chartreuse off the digestif trolley because why not? We chatted about the scarcity for a bit with the server, who assured us that they get all that they need (what a shocker!).
This meal did live up to expectations, as we hoped it would, though again I felt that the wine pairings could have been better thought out. (FTR, the next tier up started with Krug — we were informed that they were all “highly rated wines,” a complete turnoff for us)
- in case you’re not familiar, Next operates on a “ticket “ model: you purchase tickets for a date and time that are all-inclusive of food, wine, tax and tip. They’re non-refundable and you pay up front. I noted to a Jean that I didn’t need to bring a wallet, really.
Your intrepid reporter, Mark Lipton