Alinea: A Weird Idea That Works

As I was waiting around the British Air lounge in San Francisco on my way to Germany, I read a story in the October issue of Gourmet Magazine that pronounced Alinea in Chicago as the best restaurant in the U.S.  It brought back memories of the meal that I had there with David Kelley of IDEO and d.school fame, just about a year ago.  I am not sure it is the best place I ever ate, but they did create an astounding experience and were without pretension at all.  Our little room -- with about  5 tables -- not only had a couple of dedicated waiters it also had its own sommelier, who explained each wine we had. And it really was weird food, As David put it, if he would give Alinea a 10 for his weirdest meal, his next next weirdest meal would be no more than a 6.  How weird? Well, I saved the menu from October 6th 2005 (which they say changes constantly), and the 12 courses (each just two or three bites) started with what described as olive oil -- but was domino-sized disc frozen at 100 degrees below zero.  I also recall a lobster Cheeto (almost as good as regular Cheeto) that came with one dish, and the final dish was a spoonful of dry caramel.  They had things like fish, lamb, pork and bison (which was excellent), each weird and delightful in its own way. The greatest thing about the experience was the staff, who -- with great knowledge and just the right touch of silliness -- gave us a mini-lecture about what we were eating, how it was prepared, and how to eat it for each course(many dishes did not use traditional utensils...like the five little stuffed hearts of palm that were each placed on little pedestals that you picked-up and then used as launching pads or I guess like shot glasses to toss the food into your mouth). I sent the 29 year-old chef and owner Grant Achatz a copy of Weird Ideas That Work -- I never heard back from him, but the title certainly fits the place. 

If I had to choose a place to go for my last meal, I would still probably pick the French Laundry in Napa, but Alinea might be second. The only thing that I recall that wasn't wonderful was a house made sweet wine that reminded my of a bad imitation of Mogen David concord grape wine.

The experience also stands out because David and I spent the next day at a McDonald's research and development lab near  Chicago that has several full-sized working McDonald's kitchen and restaurant. It is called the Core Innovation Center and it is a place where they constantly experiment with new technologies, configurations, and service solutions -- you can read a bit about it in this Economist story.  We made our own burgers for lunch the next day and ate them standing-up in the kitchen, while talking to the inventor of an amazing burger-cooking machine that used a kind of conveyor belt to remove frozen burgers from one compartment and then cook them in another compartment, cranking them out a rate of one every few seconds -- which we then assembled with our favorite toppings.  As David said, each meal was equally enjoyable and the contrast between the two made each seem so wonderful.

Comments

[Bob Sutton]

I am ready to go! Sounds fantastic

[nraynaud]

Maybe you should come to "Clos des sens" ( http://www.closdessens.com/default_en.htm ) in the middle of nowhere, France. This guy (Laurent Petit) is truly weird, he uses to work with industrial cooking processes tha he distords or with a famous chemist. But service in his retaurant, is more relax than you can be used to, the trned in France is relaxing the protocol.