Next: Now Playing Until September 9

I just got back from a quick trip to Chicago. While there, I seriously lucked out and got to go to Grant Achatz’s restaurant Next for a preview dinner with my brother.

My brother is a wine salesman and both a charmed and charming human being. His job completely suits him and also provides the kind of perks that satisfy his love of sensual pleasures, particularly the gastronomic kind.

He has won trips to Chile and Madrid and gone on winery tours up and down the West Coast and in France. He has been providing wine for one course of the Next menus since it opened in April 2011. Two days ago he got the invite for a table for two for the preview of their next menu, “Sicily,” and since his wife is a vegetarian and no substitutions are allowed, I got to accompany him!

Grant Achatz is one of the most famous chefs in the world. His first restaurant, Alinea, is consistently ranked one of the top five restaurants in the world and the best restaurant in the United States. It’s known for its almost hyper-modern food, “molecular gastronomy.” What I’d heard about it was stories of foams and liquid courses and pillows that exuded a scent to complement the dish when the plate was set on it. The science of flavor guides the intricate dishes.

Next has a different concept. The creative team devises a menu based on a particular time and/or place and that menu has a run– is served every night for three months. Tickets are bought for the meal, and these tickets are insanely difficult to get. The run for this year’s season ran out in 8 seconds and there is a waiting list of 6,000. And here I was going to eat there as a guest. Previous menus have included “Paris, 1908,” “Thailand” (his take on Thai street food) and “Childhood.” This is only the fifth menu since it opened in April 2011.

We arrived at about 5:20 for our 5:30 seating time to a door that said only, “Sicily.” There was no name of the restaurant and the wall is just dark patterned glass. There was no one else waiting and the place was locked. We knew we were in the right place, because my brother had once been to Achatz’s bar around the corner, the Aviary, that serves complicated cocktails. A third place is in the space, called The Office, in the basement.  It is based on a speakeasy concept, open only to season subscribers who have tickets for all the meals in that year. You get in by sending a text, and someone comes and unlocks the door for you.

We were wondering if we hadn’t been given the secret word for Next when someone opened the door. It turned out that we were first, and the doors opened right at 5:30 to let in the two of us and one other party of four. It was a half hour before we felt truly joined, and the place was not in full swing until we were leaving at 8 p.m. (Cleverly, when they open the door you see it’s a sort of two-way mirror and the word “Next” is clearly visible from only inside the restaurant door.)

In our dinner, there were many dishes, all of them intricate and complex and tasty. They were also quite straightforward. No foams (though one lovely cream) or funky textures.

It was a grand meal, served on beautiful plates with the best possible service. A different wine accompanied each course, and I should have paced myself a little better on the wine, not used to drinking over a 2 1/2 hour period. The wine was also interesting– all of it from Italy, of course, each one very distinct. A Prosecco, a smooth white, a bright white that was actually cloudy, a smooth and complex red, a final dessert wine.

The courses were served “family style,” both of our portions on a single plate we served ourselves from like tapas. We began with antipasti, which included an intense serving of veggies referred to as “a deconstructed salad,” a bowl of flavorful chick-pea chips and breaded rice balls filled with a sort of pate made of lamb’s tongue (very yummy, served with the only tomato sauce of the night). There was also an artichoke cooked directly in the fire, smoky and tender. We used our hands, which was fine since they brought warm towels with this dish for the ash we were sure to get on our fingers.

There were two pastas, one of which was our favorite dish, tiny gemelli pasta in a light cream sauce flavored with roe and with shaved roe on top. I’m not doing it justice in this description. It wasn’t fishy or salty, and you could taste everything– the roe and the cream and the pasta itself. The other pasta was a dish with little rehydrated red currants and veggies that was tart and sweet and delicious as well.

The main dish, which is pictured here, was a very large piece of swordfish with a mint pesto. The roasted garlic head and, um, maybe a green onion? served only as garnish. The fish was so rich that the two of us had trouble finishing it, and Dave took a break to put some water on his face!

One problem with the dinner was that we didn’t see a card or menu beforehand, so had no idea how much more was to come. We’d heard tales of 35 courses at Alinea, and though we knew it wouldn’t be that, we wondered if we were in for 4 hours of this!

After the fish was pork shoulder, cooked slowly for 8 hours. It was actually refreshing after the swordfish! Alongside it was a dish focusing on zucchini and lovely breaded cauliflower (such an underrated vegetable). It also had cherry tomatoes, which gave it a rich saucy flavor, but it was the zucchini ribbons I liked best, simply dressed with a vinaigrette that was complex and whose ingredients were unrecognizable.

After that, blood orange granita to prepare us for dessert. The dessert course was an Easter cake with light cream filling and fondant, followed by a platter with raspberry jam ravioli, miniature cannoli, sesame bars and a strawberry and cherry apiece.

We were full, but we floated out of there, somewhat starstruck by the whole experience.