So after much anticipation and moments of panic, I got the e-mail of the decade today: You are now able to purchase tickets to Next. After months of waiting, today was the moment of truth! After all duplicate e-mails were removed, there were a little over 19,000 people who registered for tickets to Next, whose grand opening was tonight. I was more than geeked up over it and drove by twice today. Once around 5 pm to see a staff meeting going on and another time around 9 pm to see taxi action and diners in front. How exciting! I still feel giddy thinking about how we got in...I still can't believe it! I was really optimistic considering I think I signed up around June of 2010 but with so many people trying to get in and tickets being released on a first come, first serve basis, you never know where you are in relation to everyone else. The first 1000 tickets were released today and I was more than lucky to score tickets as sometime a little after 3 pm, about an hour after people started to get notified, the server crashed and few people were able to get in. Tickets stopped selling 4 pm, just 2 hours later. They were taking the server down around 7 pm to repair and fix the problems, and the next batch of tickets will go on sale tomorrow.
Here are a few fun facts about Next:
10. Epicurious.com named Next the top restaurant of 2010, and it hasn't even opened yet!
9. The New York Times said that Next might be the most hotly anticipated restaurant opening in the country. There is also a secret bar that will open behind Aviary, the bar to accompany Next (how do I get in to that????).
8. The menu will rotate every 3 months to a new cuisine and time period. The first one is Paris 1906. Rumor has it that the next one will be Bangkok 2060. I'd love to get in as I've eaten in Bangkok and had some amazing food there. I'd love to see his spin on what the cuisine will be like several decades down the road.
7. Next is offering tickets in order of people who signed up to receive notification. You pay for your tickets ahead of dining so there is no bill at the end of the night, no substitutions or changes. The menu will cost anywhere from $65-$110/person before tax and gratuity for an 8-course meal. Less expensive options are during the week; more expensive options are for prime time weekend nights. Pairings are $48 for wine, $22 for non-alcoholic beverages. There is no ordering of wine by the glass or bottle. All food allergies need to be put in at time of ordering.
6. On a search of craiglist, I found one ticket going for $1200 for a Friday night for 2 with wine pairings. The face value cost of this should be roughly $400. As you can tell, tickets are transferable but they are advising diners to be aware of scalpers and counterfeits.
5. There is 1 seating each evening for a chef's table of 6 which features an extravagant 16-course meal with the reserve wine pairings. Rumor has it that many of the chefs will come out to serve several of the courses.
4. The idea for Next came from the fact that Alinea, Grant Achatz's signature restaurant, has to staff 4 "reservationists" just to answer phones and tell people "Sorry, we're booked that evening, and that evening, and yes, THAT evening too." You get the picture! For my graduation from culinary school, my husband called 60 days in advance for reservations on my graduation day. He was told that there were no openings but he could certainly be put on the waiting list. When asked how many were on the waiting list, he was told 57. When asked how many seats there were, he was told (going off of memory here) approximately 60. Yeah, pick your jaw up from off the floor.
3. The lucky 1000 today were sent an e-mail, asked to go to the Next ticket website to input their e-mail to then be sent a unique password. Upon entering, the available dates, times, and options were made available.
2. There will be approximately 7500 tickets sold to the first menu run. There will be one or two table that will be left open each evening for VIPs, and there is an e-mail to try for any same day openings (such as last minute cancellations). Hotel concierges are fretting about how they will secure tables for guests as they are not receiving any special accommodations currently.
1. I am going!!! Booked for the exclusive chef's table on a Saturday night, the most premium table and time slot. Ticket price: $406.35 per person. Yes, might seem nuts but I think this ticket will be worth it! I'll let you know on May 28, 2011.
Paris 1906 menu - Escoffier at the Ritz
Hors d’Oeuvres
Potage à la Tortue Claire
907
Fillet de Sole Daumont
1950
Suprêmes de Poisson
3130
Caneton Rouennais a la Presse
3476
Gratin de Pommes de Terre à la Dauphinoise
4200
Salade Irma
3839
Bombe Ceylan
4826
Mignardises
(Note: The numbers represent the recipe number from Auguste Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire, a $70 book which I proudly own from school but never use. Escoffier is attributed with developing modern French cuisine and coming up with the restaurant brigade system, i.e. chef de cuisine, sous chef, etc. His book was first published in French in 1903.)
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