Jan. 27--Next restaurant, which morphs from one cuisine to another three times each year, has always promised, and always delivered, a culinary adventure. With "Bistro," the 13th menu in Next's glittering four-year career, it is the customer who chooses the adventure.
"Bistro" features a six-course menu, priced (before beverage, tax and service fee) between $80 and $120, depending on the day. That makes Bistro the least-expensive menu in Next's history, but one must add an asterisk. In at least four of the six courses, substitute dishes are available, nearly all of them involving an upcharge.
The idea of substitutions is a new one for Next, which up until now has featured menus with little to no flexibility. "Bistro," by contrast, is virtually an a la carte menu; there is a set, six-course menu and an additional page of substitutions, which also are listed (in a cute bistro homage) on chalkboards hung about the dining room.
It's certainly possible to stay with the standard menu, something to which executive chef Dave Beran says he and chef/owner Grant Achatz paid close attention. "We wanted to be sure customers could stay with that menu and not feel cheated," Beran said. "We wanted to make the standard menu delicious."
I think they succeeded. The regular menu features, among other things, a pitch-perfect skate wing with capers and brown butter. The plat principal on the menu is a nicely composed leg of lamb over byaldi (a layered composition of zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, onions and peppers, very much akin to ratatouille) with a lamb sauce bolstered by olive butter; I wouldn't swap this for anything, though if variety beckons, the veal and sweetbread blanquette is delicious (and makes merely a $13 dent in the bill).
That said, for as good as the second-course lentil soup is (and the soup, fortified with crumbled bacon and thick slices of date, is wonderful), how can a table of four resist the urge to swap in a couple of other dishes, notably the silken slices of pig-head terrine ($17) surrounded by liquefied pork aspic, or the medallion of foie gras torchon ($19) sprinkled with pepper and river salt? One also might opt for the three-tier seafood tower (a dish that would have been right at home on last year's "Chicago Steak" menu), which contains all the expected crab-lobster-oyster components but is most notable for its caviar-topped scallop ceviche, mackerel sashimi and perfectly smoked mussels and clams. At $130 for two (but shareable by more), it's an indulgent upgrade.
The evening begins for all with an oeuf a la Beran, a gentle echo of the hard-boiled or pickled eggs found on bistro bar tops. Of course this is a much more refined specimen, a solitary eggshell containing a lovely bit of egg custard, ground chicharrones and thyme-scented breadcrumbs, whipped chicken-jus sabayon and a topping of chives and lemon zest; the crown of the eggshell has been removed so cleanly it looks as though it had been sabered open. The fourth course, the premier plat, is when the upgrades really become tough to pass up. The guinea hen, accompanied by braised radishes and pommes Anna, is probably the single best dish on the entire menu. From its crisp, golden skin to its sigh-inducing, butter-soft meat, this bird is simply perfect. You'll pay $66 (for two, though it's almost enough for four) for this option. You will not be unhappy.
Other worthy stand-ins include the vol-au-vent, a domed pastry container filled with lobster and artichokes in sherry cream sauce, and turbot, coddled in a cocotte with mushrooms and sunchokes in a fennel-scented broth.
A final extravagance is the whole roasted duck ($126 for two), carved tableside and finished with a sauce that includes the duck essence extracted by placing that carcass in a vintage duck press (also performed tableside). It's a painstaking process, and Beran performs this ceremony only a few times each night.
There typically will be two desserts offered. The baba au rhum is a classic, a circle of rum syrup-soaked sweet dough matched to an array of dry fruits and whipped cream; I suspect this dessert will stick around for a while. The second, a fruit tart, is already on its second iteration, currently an apple brown butter tart that's very enjoyable. As winter departs, expect ice creams to join the selection.
Unlike many other Next creations, "Bistro" bears no time stamp. The art nouveau design flourishes on the menu and the vintage French jazz in the background would seem to place the menu somewhere in the 1920s, but it's not a point of emphasis.
Wine matches are, as usual, beyond reproach, and the progression of beverages is likely to include a cocktail or two, notably a fine Death in the Afternoon (made with Champagne and absinthe) and a delicious nonalcoholic mix of blood orange, carrot and honeybush (an herbal tea from South Africa) that tastes as vibrant as it looks.
As always, service was exemplary. As always, as has been the case since my very first Next visit, my identity was known to all and sundry. And, owing to the brief life of Next's menus ("Bistro" runs through May 10), this evaluation, like all my Next reviews, is based on a single visit.
Chef Rick Bayless once told me that Topolobampo, not Frontera Grill, was the restaurant he had in mind for his Chicago debut in 1987. But as a virtual unknown with little reputation backing him, Bayless opted for the less-intimidating Frontera Grill. And we know how that worked out; Frontera (and, two years later, Topolobampo) have been Chicago mainstays ever since.
In a similar way, "Bistro" was intended to be Next's 2011 debut menu. But because there was so much Alinea-fueled cred attached to the Next project, a splashier menu was deemed necessary. Thus "Paris 1906" was born, and what a fortuitous change of heart that turned out to be; that menu still holds fond memories for me, and, I suspect, quite a few others. What we might have tasted back then is here, no doubt substantially revised, today.
pvettel@tribpub.com
Twitter @philvettel
Next
953 W. Fulton Market
nextrestaurant.com
Tribune rating: Four stars
Open: Dinner Wednesday-Sunday
Prices: Dinner with beverage pairings, tax and service charge approximately $260
Credit cards: A, DS, M, V
Reservations: Tickets sold online only
Noise: Conversation-friendly
Other: Wheelchair accessible, valet parking
Ratings key: Four stars, outstanding; three stars, excellent; two stars, very good; one star, good; no stars: unsatisfactory. The reviewer makes every effort to remain anonymous. Meals are paid for by the Tribune.
