Next Restaurant - Childhood Menu Fall 2011

I admit, it's been a while since I've posted to the ol' blog. But after being asked about it a lot, I knew that my first post back after a long hiatus had to be special. And my trip to Next Restaurant is up for the challenge.

So, upon arriving to Next Restaurant (953 W. Fulton Market), the whole group was pretty excited to see that the name of the current menu was situated squarely on the door. While 4 of us arrived together, we anxiously waited for the rest of our party of 6 to show. For any of you that have eaten with me, you know how I get excited by new food and great restaurants - well multiply that by 6 for the people I was with, and you'll get a feeling for how anxious we were to get this dinner started.

We were fortunate enough to get the kitchen table for the night (thanks Jenn!), and luckily it was a round table with ample room (and you guys know how much I like to spread out when I eat). Upon sitting down, we noticed a slightly used cigar, an almost-finished crossword puzzle, and some polished off drinks, or so it seemed...

Had someone forgotten to clear the table when we sat down? That seemed to be the popular thought as we we sat there discussing. However, as our server came around, he let us know that this would be our first course - "Garnishes from Dad's Cocktail." A play on how we as children would sneak around and try dad's almost finished drinks. I mean I never did this as a child but then again I don't think my dad ever had any of these...ever. From left to right - Bloody Mary, Manhattan, and a Martini. All were tasty, and you could tell they would have been fairly potent if we had the entire drink.

Next up: Present time!

So most of us carefully opened up our mini-gifts whereas at least one of us just ripped it open. I was personally afraid of hurting whatever delicious morsel was inside so I gently unwrapped mine. I don't think I've ever opened anything so carefully in my life. Inside we found...

PB&J! Certainly nothing like the traditional PB&J any of us had growing up, but it definitely contained all of the same ingredients (although I could have used a lil more J). Also, the filling was eager to squirt out, enough so that our server reminded us to politely keep our mouths completely closed as we bit into it to prevent spillage. One of us did not heed this warning (and it wasn't me this time).

What did our parents feed us when we were sick as kids? Jook! Oh wait, I guess the more appropriate thing here in 'Merica would be old-fashioned chicken noodle soup:

Chicken "noodles" with carrots and celery

Here, Chefs Achatz and Beran simply refer to it as "Chicken Soup" as the "noodles are the chicken, and the chicken is the noodle."  That's right - that weird noodle looking thing is chicken.

Once they added the broth (which was wonderfully warm and almost creamy), it was really the best. Delicious! I even contemplated picking up the bowl to finish it off, but luckily a tip of the bowl helped get the last bit of broth out of there and into my mouth.

Hmmm, paintbrushes? Hands on time!

We were given everything we needed to turn this...

Tartar sauce, balsamic reduction (really hard to paint with), lemon puree, cucumbers, beer batter, potato net, flower and assorted greens. 

...into this (compliments of the very talented Chef Dave Beran):

4th grade art class really came in handy!

This course was designed around fish-n-chips...and the catch of the day was a walleye fish (caught in that potato net, and that's me fishing) which was cooked to utter perfection. Definitely the most fun of the dishes tonight, and possibly my favorite. As you can see, I loved every bit of it:

Still with me? Good, we're about 25% done. So next up was something that I think everyone loves. Mac & cheese!

The mac & cheese was presented in a "merry-go-round of garnishes" which included things I don't fully remember - but from the top going clockwise: an Iberico-like ham from some sort of a sheep wooly pig, apple, powdered hot dog, bread crumbs, heart of tomato, some sort of noodle with noodle coloring (an homage to Kraft Macaroni & Cheese), and parmesan cheese. Also one of my favorites.

A wooden log? Why it's an Autumn Scene, of course!

Ok let's be real here. At this point, my palate was pretty confused. There were some fried greens in here, a giant piece of carrot, some sort of a salty paste thing...it was good, but I didn't really make out much of the individual flavors. But this was fun to look at!

Now, save for a few people I know, what's a Childhood without hamburgers?

Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun! So this was a short rib with a sesame seed bun sauce, ketchup and mustard inspired sauce, a not-so-visible tomato and other various condiments mixed in. This thing smelled like a McDonald's burger through and through - but it tasted quite a bit better. Hopefully that goes without saying.

Oh and don't forget to eat your vegetables!

These are basically hollowed-out brussel sprouts. Clockwise from the top black sprout: black truffle, bacon, bearnaise sause, something vegetable mustard cream, chestnut puree. I'd say that the first three, in that order, were my favorites. I mean black truffle! Bacon!!! Pure fat!!! Delicious.

What do you get when you combine a wild-bird consomme, random animals from the frontier, foie gras, and a Jello Mold? Apparently you get this:

Let's just throw on some creme fraiche on top to round things out a bit...I think that this probably wasn't the most popular dish amongst the crowd tonight. But in the famous (paraphrased) words of Joey from Friends: Meat? Good. Creme fraiche? Gooooood. Foie gras? GOOOOOOOOODDD! This dish also came with some bread to spread on along with some veggies, prunes, fried walnuts, and a shallot puree:

Ok, everyone HAD to have owned a variant of what's coming up next, or you were just deprived as a child:

Lunchboxes! Not everyone had a Dukes of Hazzard box I'm sure though. Anyways, inside was a treasure trove of deliciousness:

Parsnip pudding, wagyu beef jerky, apple-brandy fruit leather, truffled Oreo, homemade funyun. And in the thermos? A mixed berry drink! Take that Hi-C.

Special dedication to the truffled oreo - this is what happens when you smash together black AND white truffle into Oreo form:

SO. FREAKIN'. GOOD.

Ah! Scissors? Are we supposed to run around with them until we get yelled at for running around with sharp objects?

PIXY STIX!, two of us shouted in almost-perfect harmony. So I guess the scissors make sense. These were made from freeze-dried strawberries, raspberries, and hibiscus (from bottom to top). Just as good, fun, and messy as I remember! And to wash it all down:

Bubblegum float! Inside was a creme fraiche ice cream, basically like sweet, semi-frozen cream cheese as one of us put it. Super-sweet, I think this tipped me over into DIABEETUS LAND. Anyways, the taste of bubblegum was immediate and it made its presence known. More dessert courses, you say? Coming right up!

Yay, donuts! And 'foie'sting! (say frosting like kids that can't prounouce "Rs".) So that would be apple-cider donuts with a foie-gras frosting. We had a certified donut fiend at the table, and she was in love.

Fire!

This was a "campfire on the table". The logs were sweet potato, and we had some other fixin's that combined made up a pretty mean sweet potato pie. Amazingly, I was stuffed at this point. Still with me? Final course ahead...

Hot cocoa with some sort of tea that gets thrown in. A perfect way to end the meal.

The full menu provided to us after the meal:

The satisfied diners with the awesome Chef Dave Beran:

Special thanks to Kev for the super-memory or recordings of the dishes that helped with some key edits.