nick.kokonas

All of the illumination in the light tubes in each dining room, as well as the lights in the entrance hall, are LED's. They can provide a full spectrum of RGB color, similar in scope to using the color-wheel on a computer graphics program. They may also be programmed to transition throughout an evening. For now, we have left them a fairly neutral color, though it has changed a bit from the opening. In the future, we will be modifying the color schemes to highlight floral arrangements, seasonal changes, and perhaps even create variance throughout the evening. All of that technology is already in place... we just did not want to call attention to it in an obvious way. The fact that you did not notice them during your dinner is perfect.... next time you come in, they will no doubt be a bit different. The audio-spotlight has proven trickier to implement. It is a really great technology, but the audio 'bounces' off hard surfaces and is very linear -- think of a raquetball going from floor, to ceiling, to floor at an angle. In Alinea, there are many hard surfaces. This creates a series of acoustic challenges that we have not yet fully solved. Pointing the spotlight at one table, or at the stairway, for example, 'bleeds' some sound into other areas as the audio bounces off of the wood, metal, or granite, and is then reflected again off of the ceiling. We do own the spotlights and will incorporate them when we are able to do so in an effective manner.

With respect to reservations and the phone system: We had planned for several lines and a voicemail system. This system was intended to handle a normal call load. Early on, pre-opening, it worked just fine. Several days before we opened, we began to experience a very, very high volume of calls -- literally hundreds per day. Partly, I may have planned poorly for the sheer number of calls and did not order enough phone roll lines. Unfortunately, remedying this situation puts us at the hands of Telco. Inc. which states that we cannot add lines quickly or easily. One would think this would work as smoothly as the internet by now, but, alas, it does not. I certainly understand and appreciate the frustrations of trying to simply book a dinner. We have added an additional voice mail line and check it hourly. Those calls are returned, to the best of our ability, the same day they are received. If an individual does not receive a call-back it is very often the case that they either did not leave a number or were not clear in their instructions -- you would be amazed at how often this is the case. I want to assure you that we are doing our very best to operate with the system we currently have in place, and that we are working hard to upgrade. In the meantime, we appreciate the interest and your call, and we are trying very, very hard to accomodate you at Alinea.

Dingo, The investor you speak of is the friend of an investor and key player in the plan. It was very comfortable and did not require a broad effort to market the plan.

On Monday, February 7th, Alinea will begin taking reservations for the period of May 4 - 28. The reservation line will be open from 2 - 6 pm cst. 312-867-0110 . Alinea will be open Wed. - Sun for dinner only. Also, you may email GM Joe Catterson at Joe@alinearestaurant.com between now and then. Please include your name, daytime phone number(s), and requested dates and times. We will then call you by Monday afternoon, before the reservation line opens. We have already received many, many emails from eGullet members and we sincerely appreciate the interest and have enjoyed your questions and comments. We look forward to meeting and serving you all.

Thank you all for your questions. Sorry for the delayed response... Everything is moving along very well with the development of Alinea. There are so many different aspects of development occurring simultaneously that it is hard to summarize the progress... but here is an attempt. The Restaurant Build-Out While there were early fits-and-starts in construction, it is now progressing at a rapid pace. The entire interior of the building was gutted down to the concrete and brick, and we have replaced all of the HVAC, electrical, and plumbing. We are adding several stairways, ducts, etc, so major concrete cutting and steel reinforcement of the structure was done. At this point we are pressing forward with the kitchen installation, framing, and finish work. Web Site We have finished development of Phase II of the Alinea website and are simply awaiting some photographic scans to be completed before we launch it -- likely by the end of January. Unlike the trailer, this will be a site that includes photos of the food, detailed menus, and bios of the staff and the creative team. As construction finishes, we will add interior and exterior shots of the restaurant itself, as well as update the content as Alinea evolves. Reservations We have decided to open the reservation book on February 7th for dates beginning in May. We believe that we will likely be open before then, but certain time constraining issues remain vague at best... licensing, permitting, etc. If we do open before May, we will post that information on our website, and of course, here on eGullet. If you have emailed us at the info@alinearestaurant.com email, or called our reservation line, you will be receiving an email this week with more details, and will be getting another email in early February before the reservation book opens. Chef Achatz and the team continue to develop new dishes weekly, some of which will be posted on our website. In addition, the menu and wine list design are complete, the interior furnishings are all in production, and the staff is largely in place. It is an exciting thing for all of us to see how plans made nearly one year ago have begun to take real form.

Not all milk comes from cows... even in Wisconsin. Check out Lovetree Farmstead Cheese here I have had a few of theirs and they are quite unique and really of great quality. With the internet, great cheese is only a click away. The best cheddar I have had comes from Grafton Village Cheese in Vermont. They ship nationally.

I am both an investor and Chef Achatz business partner. While that may seem like a conflict of interest, it actually serves to move everyone's interests together. The investors interests and Chef Achatz' interests are exactly the same. We have a small group of committed investors who will see every aspect of the restaurant's financial picture every quarter. With one exception, we have all done business together in the past, including both successes and, well, less than successes. In addition, we are going to be keeping detailed information on both financial health and customer preferences. All of this will be viewable by investors on a weekly basis. If everyone is informed, there are no surprises.

also, that article, or one very similar, appeared in Gourmet. And it is just a normal sander...

All of the spreadsheets for the restaurant were done long ago and are updated regularly as we get closer to opening and real-life numbers replace estimates. The calculations you mentioned were certainly carefully considered. Obviously, we would prefer that the "research" period you mention be kept to a minimum! I don't know anyone who prefers "modest losses" to gains of any kind.

I too feel that in many high-end restaurants, especially in America, the coffee service is considered an afterthought rather than a seemless part of the meal. Alinea has been speaking with 2 coffee purveyors about providing an assortment of unique, top-notch artisinal coffees. Service too will be well thought out, will include a choice of brewing methods (to include at least espresso and french press), and will be handled as an integral part of the overall beverage service. Chef Achatz and our Sommelier / GM Joe Catterson have been actively working on this aspect of Alinea for a few months. In addition, Martin Kastner of Crucial Detail has prototyped several service pieces for the coffee service. As the serviceware, purveyors and methods are settled on we will provide more details.

That is probably the only thing that I disagree with strongly... While I believe in Chef G, Alinea, and the team, we continue to treat it as a very high-risk venture, and continue to spend prudently. When all is said and done, I hope that we have planned well enough that everyone believes we have spent substantially more money in creating Alinea than we actually have. There is the risk that with the attention we are getting that there could be a backlash, or at least a risk of unrealistically high expectations (I know that RonnieSuburban has addressed that elsewhere). All we can do is work hard and try hard. But any venture like this is risky.

I was unclear about this, but I meant with the Venture Capitalist's own personal money, not with the Venture fund. In other words, if you are an individual VC, do you invest in real estate on the side to round out your personal holdings? Of course you do. I have given no details as to how the business deal itself is structured. In fact, it is a combination of shares and what you described, more or less. There are several other advantages to doing a partial debt financing as well (but I will leave those private). In fact, though, we did not want to "wash out" the investors as you state. That might be the most profitable way for management, but it does little to engender long-term good will from the investors. I certainly understand that they would make their return and be pleased, but if Alinea is successful I want all the investors to reap rewards beyond a simple preferred return or debt repayment. That is just a personal business philosophy, rather than a rule. Thanks for the vote of confidence...

Wow, I thought that the business plan thread was dead! I am not quite sure where to begin, so a bit of background. I am indeed the generalist that Project accuses me of being, but I have at times been a specialist. For 10 years I was a derivatives trader, both on exchange floors and off, trading options on equities and futures products, as well as more esoteric financial products. In addition, during that time, I was involved as an early stage investor in a web company (invested in 1997 or so) that was very successful and was sold in March, 2000. I currently serve on the boards of two local IT companies: one a Lucent Spin-off that offers a supply chain management tool to large manufacturing companies -- a manufacturing intelligence program (see: www.gsqa.com ), the other is an online immigration law firm that is really an IT company that supplies a software process to individuals and human resource departments of large companies like American Airlines (see: www.visanow.com ). The point is, I have been involved in several different types of businesses. I will take your points one at a time: 1) The business plan: Since I was not approaching VC's or Sand Hill type folks, I could do away with the pithy elevator pitch. I was already inside and had the ear of folks that knew and trusted me. I opted to be as thorough as possible. Plus, I was committing a significant amount of money myself, something that many start-ups do not have when walking into a VC (or the scale is different, ie they are looking for $25 million and currently have $200k of their own money). So this was not like a venture or private equity pitch at all. At no time was I ever worried about finding the money to build the restaurant. 2) Our research had more in common with research on a real estate deal than on speculative software or hardware constructs. Unlike research by Darpa and the like (which could be fairly termed speculative), I can indeed point to the average price per square foot triple net lease in the Gold Coast area of Chicago and tell the investors that over the last two years it was $55 per square foot. That is a fact, not speculation. Both are called research, but they are very different. 3) I see no difference between any ongoing production venture and Alinea when it comes to creativity. Intel spends billions per year trying to be innovative and creative. They try to hire creative engineers. I think it is the same here. 4) That assumes that the business will be sold, go public, or throw off cash... so the stage becomes important so everyone can figure out their potential dilution on future stages and calculate their return given the three possible exits. In this case, we will have no further investment (if all goes well) and we will in no case sell Alinea. So we are planning only for earnings. In this case, Alinea is more like buying an old-line manufacturing firm than a tech company. 5) Chef Achatz is more of a generalist than anyone would believe. Giving him proper credit, he is a gifted specialist as a Chef and the business is being built around that completely (there will be an Achatz key-man insurance policy in place). But he is also a manager, designer, and businessman.... an owner as well as a chef. He has been integral to every aspect of the business plan and its execution. When I said my work will be 97% done, I meant by that that my greatest utility will not lie in running the operations of the restaurant. However, on the investment, build-out, design, and planning side, I am pretty handy to have around. I will still be active as needed once Alinea is open. 6) Alinea itself is not scalable... no one is going public or selling this place. There is certainly a price cap and a finite number of diners we can serve. That is the nature of the business. I do know of a few high-end chefs that ended up with more than one restaurant, however (Ducasse, Keller, Vongreichten, Boulud)... 7) That is the current thinking. It was very different in 1998, and will likely be revised again in the future. I don't think that the VC's themselves always believe in these investment trends, and the good ones ignore them completely and keep an open mind. I don't think that is true. It simply means that there are many different ways to make money... I don't think that there are differences of opinion, just different types of businesses. Do these VC's never make a real estate investment with their mega-bucks just because it isn't scalable or doesn't fit their criterion for tech investments? Of course not. I should like to add that I agree with everything that noambenami said as well... in the future we may want to use him/her as our business-plan spokesperson!

Chef Achatz and some of the Alinea staff were happy to participate in the 6th Annual Food and Wine Entertaining Showcase, held yesterday at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Chef G and Martin Kastner used the expanded "antenna" serviceware piece that was improved upon with the addition of Bird's Eye Maple bases added since the Harvest Moon event. It holds 20 antennas at once, each with its own base mechanism. Crispy Strawberry / Foie Gras / Licorice Root was prepared and served to at least 500 patrons. It was very well received. It was also wonderful to watch the guests interact with the serviceware. People were gently instructed to push the "puck" away from them, thereby lowering the strawberry into perfect position. This interaction produced great reactions ranging from surprise, to delight, to confusion, to giddiness. One lady ate 3 in a row -- boom boom boom -- and then demanded to know "who is the person responsible for this -- I need to know!". Here you can see the antennas at various heights and the motion involved These events have provided welcome relief from the insular nature of the jobs we are currently working on. After all, it is really all about the food and the patrons... Left to Right: Martin, Nick, John, Grant, Curtis, Ryan

...does such coverage make you feel any additional pressure? I thought it was particularly exciting to see Alinea make the 2004 list when it won't even open until 2005 =R= ← Unfortunately, Travel and Leisure got the reservation line wrong -- they must have simply called information and gotten our office number. The actual reservation line number is: 312-867-0110

Actually, Ron, The Food and Wine event at the MCA is tomorrow night. Chef has prepared a beautiful one-bite -- we will report after the event. Unfortunately it keeps getting written in the press that we will be opening in early January -- I think we are beholden to an early, off the record report that was published and then keeps getting referenced. While that was our goal a long time ago, the ambitious design for the interior and the usual red tape will likely mean that we open late in the first quarter of 2005. Is Feb possible?... sure it is. But we have every intention of opening only when everything is polished and all of the proper permits are in place. Some of those are variables beyond our immediate control. Now that construction is proceeding, we will get a clearer picture of the opening date in the next few weeks and will likely open the reservation line once we can be reasonably certain of our opening week. Thanks for your patience!

The wonderful thing about presenting food on the antennas is that Chef G is able to craft exactly how the diner will receive the bite. So the surprise to me and many of the guests that I watched enjoy this dish was this sweet pear component coupled with the fennel-licorice taste up front -- it was the first, prominent taste. Then as the sweetness diminished you were left with a finish of scallop/seafood flavor. It was a well layered taste experience. I enjoyed more than one... as did many of the guests.

Here is the picture you requested: Chef Achatz developed this dish for this benefit. It was conceived and prepared by Chef G and the Alinea team in the "lab".

We have in place intellectual property rights agreements with some of the creative professionals involved with Alinea. In addition, where warranted and appropriate, we will be seeking design patents, or trademarks, or copyrights, depending on the category of IP we are trying to protect. Obviously, we have taken an "open source" type of approach to the whole project, sharing much of our information with the public via eGullet, and with the press when they have inquired. It should be noted, though it is off topic, that we have turned down a number of opportunities and projects that would likely have paid money in the short term, but could have diminished Alinea in the long term. Since my professional background is not from the food service industry, I am not aware what constitutes typical industry practices.

Thanks Ron... I figured someone would find a picture for us.. just not that fast (and I did Google it!)... Well, Chef's is quite different than that -- they are similar in that they are both (I assume) "pulled" sugar -- or in our case moulded sugar. Is there anything inside the Andres Bulb...?

This brings up an interesting point I think, and one that has been debated ad infinitum elsewhere: what is the value of originality and can you be truly original. I read about the Jose Andres Caramel Light Bulb and brought it to Chef Achatz attention. The irony to us is that we had no knowledge of its existence and yet Chef Achatz independently conceived of a similar dish and the team was working to make it happen. No doubt, had Chef Achatz not acknowledged the existence of the "other" orb, he would have been accused of being derivitive or worse. So one is made sensitive by the nature of this medium - - the internet and its instant information -- and the nature of the critic and of creativity itself. Also, it should be noted, we still have not seen this other orb, and do not know if it is indeed similar to Chef Achatz' Orb of Dried Creme Brulee. Perhaps someone else could inform us on this matter. I have even seen it happen with my ideas... as most likely you have as well. I have had a few notions of how to technically realize some of Chef's ideas only to find out that someone has done that already. At the end of the day, we may feel like we are a beaten to the punch... but then again, it is easy to point out, how many caramel orbs have you seen? I may not be expressing my point very well here, but it is this: two artists within the same craft often arrive at similar ideas at or near the same time. Neither should be diminished by this... if anything it is empowering. It certainly has precendents that I can think of in other mediums - -- most obviously visual arts. So in my book, this is an excellent, well achieved amouse that should remain on the Alinea tasting menu.... but ultimately this is always for Chef Achatz to decide... and I do not know his decision on this...

Chef's original plan outlined his vision for his restaurant, contained the overview of his professional history, and included 3 distinct sets of financial projections based on seating, check average, etc. etc. I was pretty surprised to see a plan done as well as it was given this was not Chef's area of expertise. I am sure Chef Achatz can add some detail to how he wrote and conceived his plan. We added significantly to the plan after that. As I mentioned elsewhere, we created an overall budget to build the restaurant and a seperate "goal case" spreadsheet to figure out how to best structure the business and pay the investors. The build-out budget included line items such as furnishings that were then broken down further within the category -- for example, 80 Custom Dining Chairs, 36 Silk Decorative pillows etc. This was done across the board in 16 distinct categories comprising 409 distinct line items. A similar spreadsheet was created for the operation of the restaurant. Both of these were presented to investors. I am not sure that any part of the plan was significantly more volatile than the other. To a certain extent, we worked backwards from what we thought we could raise and what we could afford to spend on the build-out given reasonable projections. When we didn't know a number, we investigated it. So it was more of a lumbering, slow fill in the blanks than it was a stab, guess, and modify. Frankly, at this point, I can't even remember some of our early assumptions very well. Perhaps Chef can add some thoughts on that as well.

As an outside observer I feel very privileged to be afforded the opportunity to watch Chef Achatz work in the Alinea Food Lab. While I am intricately involved in the business of Alinea, obviously I am not a chef and will have no involvement in the creation of the dishes. As an amateur I have a unique perspective on Chef Achatz’ creative process, and the craft of cooking at such a high level. Several things are striking. Perhaps most surprising is that there are no shortcuts, nor are there significant differences in speed between Chefs Achatz, Duffy and Peters and a passionate, skilled home cook. I watched Chef Peters peel grapes for nearly 2 hours, sweating at the brow, holding the grapes up closely to his eyes to be sure that he had removed all of the peel. This was accomplished with a pairing knife. Occasionally, one of the grapes would fall from the vine – which was intended to remain attached – and thereby render that grape useless. This all seemed like a terrible bother to me… peeled, unpeeled, what’s the difference? I thought this expenditure of tedious effort was for a minor difference in taste that would hardly be noticed. I mentioned this to Chef Peters. “Have you ever tasted a peeled grape, Nick,” Chef said. “I don’t really know,” I replied as he handed me one of the fallen grapes and picked a fresh one off the vine. I tried the grape with the peel first. Then I tried the peeled grape. The difference was not subtle. The peeled grape was sweeter, fruitier, and lacked any bitterness or tannic taste. I must have given a curious look, because he just laughed, smiled at me, and went back to peeling grapes. Now I understood why. Chef Peters' Peeled and Coated Grapes Obviously, I think there is a great difference in speed and skill between Chef Peters and me. It would have taken me all day to peel those grapes, and they would have looked lousy. But my point is, I could peel 10 of them well – and serve them to guests – and it would be a lot of time and effort, just as it is for Chef Peters. There is no fancy grape-peeling gadget (at least, not that we know of…), and despite the difficulty, Chef Peters happily struggles through because it tastes better. And that is enough. Watching Chef Achatz plate the Shellfish Sponge dish today was another eye opener. For several hours this morning he created the components to the dish. One of the key components, mussels, was cooked and then the mussel was removed. Then, Chef G spent another half hour removing small portions of the mussel to feature just the cutlet – a sort of filet of mussel. Meanwhile, after reducing, gelatin in the form of alginate was added to the mussel broth and whipped for 30 minutes into the sponge. All of the complimentary flavor components were also cooked or cut delicately into their final form. In and of themselves, none of these steps were significantly different than what I do for a typical dinner. I braise, I reduce, I sear. OK, I admit I don’t use much alginate, but once I see how that is done, I can blend in some alginate too if I need to. I can even use a kitchen-aid mixer! But then, assembled before him are all of these components. And a mold ring. And 5 minutes later, using just a spoon and an offset spatula, there is this beautiful plate. It was nothing short of amazing, and it reminded me immediately why I am involved in this whole venture. Grant plating the Seafood Sponge dish... this does NOT look easy! CHef Achatz' "Seafood Sponge" as seen from above All of this ends up sounding like a Monday-morning-quarterback watching a football game. Hey, he says, I can throw a ball, too. And it definitely feels that way. In the end, you know you can’t do it, but you think, just maybe, you can. And that is the fun of watching the process up close. The illusion of simplicity is right before you – there are no tricks – and yet, there exists this finely honed craft hidden just below the surface. ____________________________________________________ Very separate from the actual execution of the dishes is the process of conceptualizing them. In this regard, Chef Achatz considers everyone’s input and is one of those people who truly listens to what one has to say. Today, one of the questions he had was, “what is pure bitter – how can we achieve pure bitter?” It sounds simple, but the contrast was: pure sweet is sugar, pure sour is citric acid, and pure salty is salt… so what is pure bitter? In these exchanges Chef Achatz will listen to everyone. He is exceptional at taking in a divergence of thought and honing the concepts down to the salient idea. In this case, everyone had some input ranging from “burn anything and it’s bitter” to specifics like coffee, unsweetened chocolate, a tea of hops. As a first effort, Chef Duffy burned sugar (intentionally..), and then diluted that with water, then reduced it. The final dish might be self-encapsulated flavors of sweet, salty, sour and bitter… then again it may not. But the process is one of pure creation… of shouting out ideas without fear of judgment. And here, in the purely conceptual realm, everyone is an equal player. __________________________________________________________________ There are several techniques I will certainly take away from watching the chefs and use in my own home cooking…. The most obvious is cooking Sous Vide. I know that sous vide cooking has been covered extensively on eGullet, so I will not delve into the details. But it is a wonderful cooking method that can be achieved with a FoodSaver, a digital thermometer, and a pot of water. It is difficult to overcook items if the water temperature is properly regulated, and the flavor lives up to the ideal of chefs like Achatz, Keller, and Trotter: a purity of flavor based on the foodstuff itself. On that same note, I am constantly struck by the fact that the best sauces I have ever had have but one main ingredient in them – the thing itself. So at this point if I wanted to make a grapefruit sauce, or a pea soup, or a tart lemon sauce, I would cryovac the grapefruit, cook it sous-vide for a few hours, and blend it smooth (peel and all) with a little cold water. At the end I might add some sugar or salt. That’s it. Chef Achatz spices the vermouth for the mussels, while halved passion fruit cook sous vide It is astonishing to see this method and then to taste the final product. Yet, despite the relative simplicity of the cooking method itself, and the ability to craft one component of the dish well, I am left amazed by Chef Achatz' ability to create a unified whole out of 10-15 flavor components. Ultimately, this is the real skill, the art, which eludes the rank amateur. I am left with a note, Chef G ends up with a composition.

Chef G and the team are giving a cooking demostration this evening at the Chopping Block in Chicago.... There is an electronic thermometer probe that you can see sticking out of the right hand side of the pot. The temperature is monitored and a slow steady flame keeps it very constant. With a large pot of water, this is easy to achieve. In each of the platings, including the final one which is a bowl, the broccoli stems are under the brioche. ... and don't worry Chef G and eGulleters, that is the first, last, and only food question I will answer!

At the risk of starting a flood, I will say that nothing is stopping you from sending your request for information or resume to info@alinearestaurant.com . A "few" others have already... Every single email gets personal attention. Officially, the next phase of our website will likely go live in December. It is likely then that Chef Achatz will begin sorting through all of the employment requests.