Alinea: The Story Thus Far

<img align=right src="http://egullet.com/imgs/spacer.gif" width="5" height="199"><img align=right src="http://egullet.com/imgs/alinea/photo_4a.jpg">Sometime this week, at an undisclosed location in the city of Chicago, Chef Grant
Achatz begins the next leg of his journey to open his new restaurant, <a href="http://www.alinea-restaurant.com">Alinea</a>.
Grant will christen the 'food lab' where the menu for Alinea will be developed. eGullet will be trailing Grant and his team throughout
the process -- not just in the food lab but through every facet of the
launch. Over the next six months, we will follow the Alinea team as they discover,
develop, design and execute their plan. We'll document behind-the-scenes communications,
forwarded directly to us by the Alinea team. We will be on the scene, bringing
regular updates to the eGullet community. And Grant will join us in this special
Alinea forum to discuss the process of opening Alinea. eGullet members will have
the opportunity to ask Grant, and several other members of the Alinea team, questions
about the development of the restaurant. 
 A Perfect Pairing?
 
By the time he was 12 years old, Grant Achatz knew that he would someday run his own restaurant.
The story of Alinea is the story of Grant's personal development as a chef and
a leader. Grant was brought up in a restaurant family. He bypassed a college education
in favor of culinary school, after which he ascended rapidly to the position of
sous chef for Thomas Keller at The French Laundry in Yountville, California. In
2001, Grant took the helm of Trio in Evanston, Illinois, which had previously
turned out such noted chefs as Gale Gand, Rick Tramanto (Tru) and Shawn McClain
(Spring, Green Zebra). In 2003 Grant won the James Beard Foundation's "Rising
Star Chef" award, and other prestigious awards followed. By 2004, Grant was recognized
as one of the most influential and unique voices on the international culinary
scene.
 
In January 2004, Grant met Nick Kokonas, a successful entrepreneur who was so obsessed with haute cuisine that he had traveled
the world in search of it. After globe-trekking specifically to eat at such culinary
meccas as Alfonso 1890, Taillevent, Arpège, Arzak, and the French
Laundry, Nick was in near disbelief when he realized that the "best food in the
world was 10 minutes from my house." Nick had not previously considered
backing a restaurant, even though he has both relatives and friends in
the industry. But in Grant, he saw an opportunity to help create something great.
 
Through Grant's cuisine, a bond formed between the two men. So inspired was Nick
by Grant's culinary ideas that he returned to Trio almost monthly. Finally, he
challenged two of his friends, one from New York and the other from San Francisco,
to fly to Chicago and experience Trio. He wanted to prove definitively to his
skeptical, coastal buddies that Trio was the best and most important restaurant
in the country, assuring them that "if the meal at Trio isn't the best meal you've
ever had, I'll pay for your meals and your flights." Nick won his bet: his friends were blown
away.
 
Later that night, after service, Grant joined Nick and his guests at their
table. The men chatted about a variety of topics and in the '14 wines' haze of
the late evening, they discussed <a href=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0897331346/egulletcom-20
>Blue Trout and Black Truffles: The Peregrinations of an Epicure</a>, Joseph Wechsberg's gastronomic memoir. The next day, Grant emailed Nick to ask again about the title of the book they had discussed. Not only did Nick remind him, but, within a few days, sent Grant a copy of Wechsberg's book. A friendship was born.
 
<img align=left src="http://egullet.com/imgs/alinea/photo_3a.jpg"><img align=left src="http://egullet.com/imgs/spacer.gif" width="5" height="199"> Shortly thereafter, Grant sent
Nick his business plan for Alinea, sending an email after evening service. By the following morning
Nick had read it and replied with his own enthusiastic amendments. With a burgeoning
friendship already in place, trust developing between the two men and proof
they could work together crystallizing before their eyes, it became clear that
they would become a team. Says Grant, "I think most people, in a lot of ways,
look for themselves in other people in order to match with and I think to a large
degree, the reason why we get along so well is that our personalities align very
well."
 
Nick felt the same way. "It's one of those situations where everything
just lined up right. I had the interest, I'd started a number of different businesses
and I felt like it would be an opportunity to work with someone who I'd get along
with very well. I wouldn't want to build a restaurant just to build a restaurant
and I doubt I'll ever develop some other restaurant. I think this is the right
situation at the right time."
 
Grant adds, "I think we're both very driven and
passionate people. So for me, it was about finding someone I could trust, someone
that I knew was going to think like me, be as motivated or more motivated than
me. Those things were very, very important--and something I hadn't seen--or something
I didn't believe in--that I saw in Nick." Nick continues, "I think a lot people
come to a chef with their pre-existing vision of the restaurant they want to build.
I didn't even want to build a restaurant before I saw his vision, so it wasn't
like I was saying 'I'm building this restaurant and I want you to be my chef'
-- it was more like 'I think you should build a restaurant, what can I do to help
you build it?'" Grant would have the additional supportive backing he'd need and
Nick would have another venture -- and one he solidly believed in -- in which
to direct his business acumen.
 
It's All About The Container
 
Anyone who's eaten
Grant's cuisine at Trio knows that he is intensely concerned with food and the
optimal ways to prepare and serve it. His dishes innovate in flavor; they challenge,
tease and delight the senses. But Grant is also driven to innovate in service
and technique, constantly seeking new vehicles to deliver sensations to the diner.
He works closely with a trusted collaborator, Martin Kastner of Crucial Detail
in San Diego, CA to create original service pieces for many of his dishes. And
as Grant has searched for additional ways to expand the continuity of the dining
experience, it has become clear to him that it starts before the diner even gets
to the restaurant's front door.
 
According to Grant, "You can pull it back as far as you
want. The experience is going to start before someone even picks up the phone
to make a reservation to this restaurant. It's going to be about their perceptions;
why are they picking up the phone to make a reservation? What did they see? What
did they read? What's leading them up to that point? They call to make a reservation,
that's another experience. The drive to get to this neighborhood is another experience.
The minute they open their door and take one step out of their car, now they're
surrounded by another experience."
 
<img align=left src="http://egullet.com/imgs/alinea/photo_1a.jpg"><img align=left src="http://egullet.com/imgs/spacer.gif" width="5" height="199">Advancing the functional elements of how food
is served is an innate part of the cooking process for Grant, who seeks to render
the traditional boundaries of dining obsolete. When asked what he will be able
to accomplish at Alinea that he couldn't accomplish at Trio, Grant says, "the
obvious is to create the container in which we create the experience. I think

that's the very exciting thing for me that I've never been able to have a part
in." For Grant, a restaurant's physical space represents the ultimate container
and the ultimate personal challenge. The result should break new ground in the
world of fine dining.
 
Grant and Nick are intense and competitive. In both their
minds, "crafting a complete experience" is the primary focus of Alinea. According
to Nick, "the whole idea is to produce an experience where the food lines up with

the décor, which lines up with the flow through the restaurant and from the moment
you get, literally, to the front door of the place and you walk in, your experience
should mirror in some respects--and complement in others--the whole process you're
going to go through when you start eating." Grant takes it a step further. "It's
about having a central beacon from which everything else emanates and therefore,
it's seamless. The whole experience is crafted on one finite point and if everything
emanates from that point, then there's no chance that the experience can be interrupted."
 The search for Alinea's space further reflects not only their shared philosophy
but also their separate intensities. Says Nick, "One of the things we felt really
strongly about, and we both came to it, was that we wanted it to be a 'stand alone'
building because if you're in something else you can't help but take on some of
that identity. And it's really difficult to find the right size building in the
right kind of location, with the right kind of construction that was suitable
for the identity of Alinea."
 
Nick and Grant drove down every street within a chosen
geographical band, armed with a giant map and a set of green, yellow and red markers.
Once they had found a set of acceptable streets, they asked a realtor to show
them every space available on them.
 
"Once we did find the building," says Grant,
"whichever space we would have chosen, we would have analyzed and considered each
different aspect to provoke a certain emotion, a very controlled emotion depending
on how we wanted it arranged. But I also think that we wanted the neighborhood
to feel a certain way, the street to feel a certain way. Is it like Michigan Avenue
where I have people 4-deep, walking straight down the sidewalk, non-stop, all

day and all night or is it more of a tranquil environment outside? All those things
were spinning around and once you identify the golden egg, then you have to go
find it."
 
<img align=right src="http://egullet.com/imgs/spacer.gif" width="5" height="199"><img align=right src="http://egullet.com/imgs/alinea/photo_2a.jpg"> While they would probably never admit it, each innovation, each step
they take together in building their venture serves as yet another a opportunity
for the Alinea team to challenge the restaurant's competitors. Their attention
to all the details provides countless opportunities to distinguish Alinea from
other restaurants.
 
Here the two men can share in the creation, combining their
diverse skills and experiences into a unified and shared vision. Alinea will be
their baby. They want it to be the best --not just the best food -- but the best
everything. They even want the experience of calling for a reservation to be a
memorable one.
 
The Path From Here 
 
In that spirit, the Alinea food lab opens this
week. Grant refuses to promote even one of his legendary creations to 'signature
dish' status. Instead of populating Alinea's menu with previous favorites from
Trio or 'trial' dishes that have been only roughly tested, Grant and his team
will take six months to devise, develop and perfect the dishes and delivery modes
that will appear on Alinea's opening menu. When the idea of maintaining a kitchen

staff for six months before the restaurant's opening was presented to its investors,
in spite of the additional expense, "it seemed like a no-brainer" according to

Nick. Grant is an equity partner--a true chef/owner--in the venture and there
is a solid consensus among all the backers about the priority of his vision.
 <div align="center">*     *     *     *    
* </div>
 
In addition to being one of today's foremost chefs and culinary innovators, Grant Achatz is a long-time member of eGullet, and a lively, provocative contributor to our discussion forums. Read his March, 2003 eGullet Q&A here.
 
Photos courtesy Alinea
eGullet member, yellow_truffle, also contributed to this report

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