worth the trip, to say the least!
On Alinea: I think Grant Achatz is a genius. He is also clearly mad as a hatter, or maybe just did ALOT of LSD in culinary school. There were several utterly perfect things (for my palate, at any rate), notably the caviar at the beginning, the potato truffle shot and the do-it-yourself pork belly...there were also absolute and total misses such as the lobster chai and the bubblegum shot, but the presentation of everything was breathtaking. The staff had the same vibe as the servers who work for Thomas Keller; since Grant was at the French Laundry for 4 years, this isn't a surprise, but the stop-and-start timing of the courses was. I think overall that is the biggest criticism I have of the entire experience...there were definitely gaps and points where I was looking around going 'is that ours?' whenever someone entered the room with a tray.
Full details of the dinner can be found here: Dinner at Alinea, courtesy of coraline, in case you didn't see it there. With the chocolate mousse dessert, she neglected to mention that the two servers who did the tabletop construction were Dave Beran, the chef de cuisine, and Grant Achatz himself.
The wine, which is also not something that she talked about, is worth a mention--I think it may have been the most consistently right-on pairing with a tasting menu I have ever had, and I will write it up in a separate post when I am at home with my notes in front of me.
Full details of the dinner can be found here: Dinner at Alinea, courtesy of coraline, in case you didn't see it there. With the chocolate mousse dessert, she neglected to mention that the two servers who did the tabletop construction were Dave Beran, the chef de cuisine, and Grant Achatz himself.
The wine, which is also not something that she talked about, is worth a mention--I think it may have been the most consistently right-on pairing with a tasting menu I have ever had, and I will write it up in a separate post when I am at home with my notes in front of me.