Dec. 02--If there's one headline to be gleaned from Next's announcement of its 2015 menu, it's this: They're comparably affordable to previous iterations of the shape-shifting West Loop restaurant (953 W. Fulton Market).
The base price for menus past (not including wine and service) has creeped up to nearly $300 a person. For Next's first two 2015 menus, Parisian bistro and Spanish tapas, the price per diner begins at $80 and $70 respectively. Its third menu, beginning next September, will be its priciest: A Northern hemisphere wine-focused menu titled "Terroir" that starts at $295 a person.
The story behind its January-April menu, Parisian bistro, has an interesting time parallel. When Next opened in 2011, its first iteration was Paris 1906 and based on the grand French cuisine of Auguste Escoffier. In 1910, weeks of heavy rainfall caused the Seine river to rise by 28 feet and caused catastrophic flooding in Paris. When businesses resumed, the indulgent, multi-coursed, Tour D'Argent-style of gastronomy gave way to a more modest genre of chalkboard bistro dining. Similarly, four years after Next opened its doors, the restaurant will put on a five-to-seven course bistro menu that changes weekly. Prices for this will range from $80 to $120, with optional supplements available at the restaurant. ("Say you want to swap out a sole dish for the seafood tower," owner Nick Kokonas said.)
"Part of the appeal of doing the bistro menu first, is that in January, what do I feel like eating? A hearty stew." Kokonas said. "I want to spend 90 minutes eating and go back into hibernation."
Its Spanish tapas menu, beginning in May, will be Next at its "loosest." The restaurant has a sidewalk permit that allows food to be served outdoors, and weather permitting, the dining experience might begin there. Kokonas said the menu will be 20 or so courses of small bites, where food and wine are dropped at the table with no set chronology, "much more of a freeflow experience."
Its Terroir iteration in September will be the prestige menu, and as such, cost as much ($295 to $355 per head). The food aspect has not yet been worked out, but the dishes will be tied to the geography of the wines' origin, all from the Northern Hemisphere. Non-alcoholic and non-wine pairings are not available for this menu.
Tickets will be available to purchase for season ticket holders starting this Thursday, with individual tickets released around the first of the year. Opening night for the bistro menu will likely be the first Wednesday in January.
kpang@tribpub.com
Twitter @pang
