Aviary is Haunted

[aviaryishaunted]

Visited Aviary last week because Stephanie Andrews was working her last shift. And was surprised when she served a personal retrospective of cocktail milestones from her two years at Aviary, including the Two in One (the very first cocktail she served), the Ginger (another cocktail from the opening menu), the Piña Colada with disappearing barbarpapa (served as a compliment to the el Bulli menu across the hall), the Dune Buggy (a super-sized version of her first cocktail on the menu), and several others. Ahab definitely will miss Stephanie -- she was one of the longest-tenured and best -- but this was one hell of a curtain call. And he cannot wait to see what she does next. For as the swift monster drags you deeper and deeper into the frantic shoal, you bid adieu to circumspect life and only exist in a delirious throb.

[aviaryishaunted]

When you get to be a regular, you flatter yourself by thinking you know the staff who serve you. They learn your name, and you learn theirs. There's friendly banter. Jokes. Stories. After a while perhaps, it feels like you have history. That doesn't mean you know them, of course. Not really. So it was with me and Jason Cevallos, who manned the bar downstairs, from its opening until recently. He made me many delicious cocktails, and I spent a lot of time chatting with him, undoubtedly bugging him while he was busy working. I can't say I really knew him though. But that doesn't make the awful news of his passing any easier to take. Jason was a talented, interesting, and profoundly decent man, and I'm going to miss him. amj

[aviaryishaunted]

Epilogue

Since I've decided to kill Ahab and shutter AiH, it made sense to resume the first person. If you're one of the two or three readers since the very beginning, you may recall Ahab initially was an inconsistent presence anyway. It took a while to find his voice. And to work out the shtick with the Moby Dick quotes.

I made the decision to stop on September 25 -- an awful day for me personally -- but there were a few draft posts queued and some loose ends to address before I could close shop. Besides, it felt churlish to end this silly little experiment just days after Nick Kokonas graciously reached out to me.

About this silly experiment, some of you have asked -- and I'm sure most of the rest of you have wondered -- why blog pseudonymously about Aviary for 2.5 years?

You may recall before Aviary actually opened Chef Grant Achatz talked about the Office, suggesting it'd be invitation only and the public wouldn't get to see it. Taking that as a challenge, I decided to chronicle my quest to get downstairs. As it turned out, Chef Achatz exaggerated the exclusivity more than a little bit because I made it there quickly. But I was bored with my then job and other blogs of the moment, and so I kept at it. For half a thousand posts.

Seeing that in black and white, I acknowledge it's more than a little ridiculous. Until recently though, I had fun writing this. I hope others enjoyed it as well.

The drama's done. Why then here does any one step forth?—Because one did survive the wreck... On the second day, a sail drew near, nearer, and picked me up at last. It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.

[aviaryishaunted]

AIH, the tale of the tape

After 540 posts (and 503 Moby Dick quotes), here are a few of Ahab's personal favorites.

The first time Aviary was up for a James Beard, Ahab's odds were dead on.

Remember the brief Alton Brown - Nick Kokonas twitter feud? This was a peace offering, right?

To be sure, Ahab's sense of humor is idiosyncratic, but Aviary is well-vested.

That time Ahab polluted Emily Van Zandt's Google results for all time. Again, apologies.

He's a huge Chef Paul Kahan fan, but Ahab is loyal.

In retrospect, this was the best night ever.

A look back at Aviary's opening menu. With annotations.

Forget the raves, you've got to read Yelp's negative reviews.

Unleashing his inner Encyclopedia Brown, Ahab uncovered a secret Jay Z - Justin Timberlake after party.

And where did the quotes come from? Not here certainly.

Ahab stooped to clear it; he did clear it; but the flying turn caught him round the neck, and voicelessly as Turkish mutes bowstring their victim, he was shot out of the boat, ere the crew knew he was gone.

[aviaryishaunted]

On February 19, 2013, the Chicago-Kent College of Law's Intellectual Property Law Society hosted its annual Gastro IP symposium, which featured a panel discussion including, among others, Nick Kokonas. And after badgering emailing the outgoing and incoming IPLS presidents over the past several months, the video is finally online.

Kokonas offered some interesting comments within the context of the panel's discussion of the application of intellectual property law to restaurants and dining. For example, he explained the brain trust hasn't been too concerned others will copy Chef Grant Achatz. In fact, the mothership even started with what Kokonas characterized as an open source approach:

Early on in 2004, we basically decided to put our business plan online. My general feeling was good luck copying it. It requires a tremendous amount of labor, and it’s very different than a company like DuPont. If anything, being open source for us allows people to share what we do across the Internet, allows them to become passionate about what we do, to try it at home and to see it’s not impossible but it’s not simple either.

(It would interesting to look at the business plan today, almost a decade later. Some day, perhaps on some other blog.)

Expanding on this theme, Kokonas later remarked:

You can go home and cook a black truffle explosion. I can teach you how to do it. I’ve made it. It’s possible. It tastes really, really good, even though you made it at home. But what you didn’t get it is everything else all around it. I gave a talk not so long ago at TEDx called “designing experience.” And what you can’t believe perhaps is that the food is a necessary but not sufficient condition to having a great restaurant. And we have great food and great chefs in our restaurants but we also train our staff constantly. Every day at four o’clock, there’s a meeting, and we know exactly who is walking through the door and what their preferences are. And it’s all about the entire dining experience. It’s part of what you are paying for. It’s a huge part of what you are paying for, beyond the food. So, as I always say, that information is out there. I’ll give you any recipe you want, and you can go home and cook it, spend the eight hours it takes to make one of those little bites. And it will be a relatively unfufilling experience for you. You can try to build a restaurant that has all those other things to go along with it, but you’re going to have to work really hard and get up really early in the morning to do it and to compete with us.

Accordingly, even when there's shameless copying without attribution, Kokonas said the brain trust prefers to handle it without resorting to formal legal means:

There have been times have people have crossed essentially what I consider an ethical line, not necessarily a legal one, though that too sometimes probably. And at those times we have tried to enforce our rights even though we haven’t patented something or trademarked it necessarily. But we could talk about that a bit later. But we have had a couple of unique cases like that where we’ve won with the help of the internet rather than in a court of law.

Kokonas also mentioned an anecdote that was new to Ahab, namely that the brain trust had been approached a group in London wanting to do a "greatest hits" menu featuring dishes from el Bulli, Mugartiz, Alinea, and others. The group offered to pay $4 per dish per diner, totaling $1600 or more per night, simply for the brain trust's approval, but they declined:

Because (a) there was no way they could possibly make money and pay out that much money to the chefs and they would never last even though they were very well-financed and (b) they would cut corners and people would think that’s us. So, I guess from a monetary standpoint it’s a stupid decision but at the same time your brand and everything that we’re doing moving forward relies on that. And there’s a core integrity issue too. Part of what we do is make money and part of what we do… we try to give people great pleasure. It’s fun and delicious. So part of what we’re doing is not the monetary. The money is wonderful side aspect of doing something really well. I would argue that’s true of absolutely everything.

Which is interesting given that Aviary's sibling adjacent did its own el Bulli "greatest hits" menu early in its run.

Every one knows the fine story of Perseus and Andromeda; how the lovely Andromeda, the daughter of a king, was tied to a rock on the sea-coast, and as Leviathan was in the very act of carrying her off, Perseus, the prince of whalemen, intrepidly advancing, harpooned the monster, and delivered and married the maid.

[aviaryishaunted]

Aviary @ Home

Until Nick Kokonas decides to release the $20 Aviary digital book or the $250 Taschen-style art book printed in Japan — Ahab will take two copies, by the way — here is the definitive guide:

Bitter

Scots Pine

Hot Chocolate

Martinez and Seven-Layer Hurricane

Dark & Stormy and Tom Collins

Two Turtle Doves

Molly Arlington

Ginger

Deconstructed Bloody Mary

Additionally, ordering the Porthole from Martin Kastner unlocks four more Aviary recipes, the Blueberry, Cranberry, Chai, and Cider.

UPDATE: An illustrious, long-time reader asks where to get started. Ahab suggests the Bitter. Although the list of ingredients is intimidating, there are more commonly available substitutes, and it doesn’t involve a lot of esoteric techniques or equipment. Unless you count the barrel stave, and if you do, Ahab recommends you contact David Michalowski.

So that overawed by the rumors and portents concerning him, not a few of the fishermen recalled, in reference to Moby Dick, the earlier days of the Sperm Whale fishery, when it was oftentimes hard to induce long practised Right whalemen to embark in the perils of this new and daring warfare; such men protesting that although other leviathans might be hopefully pursued, yet to chase and point lance at such an apparition as the Sperm Whale was not for mortal man.

[aviaryishaunted]

Ahab speculates it will be an Asian-themed cocktail bar, but the muse thinks the brain trust's new project is more likely a beer-themed venue. Certainly, there's evidence to support that hypothesis. For a cutting edge cocktail bar, Aviary devotes considerable attention to its beer offerings. Its beer collaborations. Its beer events. And on his day off today, Chef Micah Melton is hanging out in New York with Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø of Evil Twin Brewing. (H/t Donnavie Kohl.)

In man, breathing is incessantly going on—one breath only serving for two or three pulsations; so that whatever other business he has to attend to, waking or sleeping, breathe he must, or die he will. But the Sperm Whale only breathes about one seventh or Sunday of his time.

[aviaryishaunted]

Even more than the odd hours, the love of pork, and the tattoos, what seems to bond cooks is a love of Fernet, the bitter, herbal Italian spirit. Ahab is an outsider but he's had more than a few shots with kitchen crews in various places (including with an Aviary alumnus.) As befits a cocktail bar staffed mainly by cooks, Fernet Branca now is on tap downstairs.

Oh! ye whose dead lie buried beneath the green grass; who standing among flowers can say—here, HERE lies my beloved; ye know not the desolation that broods in bosoms like these. What bitter blanks in those black-bordered marbles which cover no ashes! What despair in those immovable inscriptions! What deadly voids and unbidden infidelities in the lines that seem to gnaw upon all Faith, and refuse resurrections to the beings who have placelessly perished without a grave. As well might those tablets stand in the cave of Elephanta as here.

[aviaryishaunted]

Just don't toast Fuckerberg's bagels

The brain trust has mentioned its customer database a few times. Most recently, Nick Kokonas explained to Crains:

We've kept a database of every ticket for every table since we opened. The idea at first was simply to identify (guests) visually and thus greet them by name, like saying hello to an old friend you are greeting in your home.

But since Kokonas made his fortune in trading, it was a foregone conclusion they'd be doing more than simple stuff like wishing guests a timely happy birthday. Indeed, in the interview, Kokonas mused about mining social media to enhance the customer experience:

Perhaps we can offer you a burgundy substitute for one course instead of the normal wine pairing if we see that half of your Twitter posts are about red burgundy. We don't tell you we're doing so. The 'good stuff' just happens and it's magical.

Which sounds a little bit creepy but also suggests they're hoping to provide every customer -- except the pseudonymous ones, obviously -- the sort of regular treatment about which Frank Bruni rhapsodized.

In March, the brain trust solicited applications for a business analyst intern, and last week Kokonas explained that, among other things, the interns (plural) revamped the database over the Summer:

The interns spent much of their time redoing our CRM in a custom manner… we now have well over 100,000 customers and the accompanying notes in a single database across all three restaurants...

If any answer of his answers from the interview demanded follow-up, this was it. From the sound of it, this project involved more than merely upgrading to SAP 6.0. What the heck do you suppose they're doing? Could the sort of customization Kokonas mentioned to Crains be coming to Aviary? (The opportunities to customize the experience at Alinea and Next are relatively limited; only Aviary offers a truly varied menu.) Whatever the brain trust's plans, it seems there's still work to do because they're taking applications for a full-time business analyst.

Chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the great whale himself. Such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity. Then the wild and distant seas where he rolled his island bulk; the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale; these, with all the attending marvels of a thousand Patagonian sights and sounds, helped to sway me to my wish.

[aviaryishaunted]

Weeks ago, Christian Seel linked a "nice spread" on Aviary in Chilled magazine. Of course, the article wasn't available online, which necessitated a weeks-long quest to track down a dead tree copy. Do you know how difficult that was to find in this benighted, post-literate, digital age?

Ultimately, Ahab was forced to order a six-month subscription to the magazine. (The second time that's happened, in fact.) As it turned out, however, the new subscription actually started with the next issue. After some pleading, the nice folks at Chilled finally agreed to send the relevant issue. Out of pity, one imagines.

After such a long set up, the punchline is the article isn't very good. In the most general terms, writer (and actress) Ariana Fekett talks about the "pioneering" ice program, the hard-working staff, the willingness to experiment, and popular cocktails like the Baked Apple, which hasn't been served for more than six months. For fellow completists, you can read the article here.

But Ahab; oh he's a hard driver. Look, driven one leg to death, and spavined the other for life, and now wears out bone legs by the cord. Halloa, there, you Smut! bear a hand there with those screws, and let's finish it before the resurrection fellow comes a-calling with his horn for all legs, true or false, as brewery-men go round collecting old beer barrels, to fill 'em up again. What a leg this is! It looks like a real live leg, filed down to nothing but the core; he'll be standing on this to-morrow; he'll be taking altitudes on it.

[aviaryishaunted]

Since the Pipeworks Brewing tasting back in August, Aviary has been mum about whether / when there will be any future events. But an announcement could be coming soon. Chef Michael Anthony from Gramery Tavern has a cookbook coming out October 29, and he mentioned he's coming to Aviary to promote it.

This highlights one of the possible downsides of cloning Aviary, assuming the brain trust successfully concludes its ongoing negotiations with the high-end hotel group, as Nick Kokonas disclosed the other day. If there's an Aviary in New York, for example, perhaps there would be less reason for someone life Chef Anthony to travel here to promote his book. And maybe that means something like the next 21st Century Limited doesn't happen.

For three hundred and sixty miles, gentlemen, through the entire breadth of the state of New York; through numerous populous cities and most thriving villages; through long, dismal, uninhabited swamps, and affluent, cultivated fields, unrivalled for fertility; by billiard-room and bar-room; through the holy-of-holies of great forests; on Roman arches over Indian rivers; through sun and shade; by happy hearts or broken; through all the wide contrasting scenery of those noble Mohawk counties; and especially, by rows of snow-white chapels, whose spires stand almost like milestones, flows one continual stream of Venetianly corrupt and often lawless life.

[aviaryishaunted]

Now that the hullabaloo has passed and traffic here has returned to more customary levels, it's time to start examining more closely the Nick Kokonas interview, starting with his comments about the new project:

Also: we are planning another drinks only place here in Chicago… though it won’t be what you expect at all. Hoping to open by the end of next year.

In a follow-up conversation with RedEye, Kokonas confirmed "the team currently is looking for a location for a new 'drinking establishment.'" But what exactly is the new bar? The press may not be free to speculate, but it's an essential part of Ahab's stock in trade. So, here goes.

Between Aviary and downstairs, the modernist and classic ends of the cocktail spectrum are covered already. Presumably, the new project will have a different focus. And Ahab wonders if it will be Asian inspired. Chef Grant Achatz has been spending a lot of time in Japan. Earlier this year, Gardner Dunn from of Suntory Yamazaki visited Aviary for an informal Japanese whiskey seminar. And ever since the Kyoto menu, Kokonas has mused about opening a noodle bar.

Of course, an actual ramen bar seems unlikely. Brendan Sodikoff is about to open High Five Ramen in River North. It will be filled with dark wood, leather, and crystal chandeliers and he'll drop "ramen" from the name after the first week, but Ahab doubts the brain trust will follow in Sodikoff's tracks. Besides, Kokonas said the project will be "drinks only." Still, a bar focused on Asian spirits and cocktails seems like an intriguing possibility.

Tell me, when this same Pequod here had her three masts overboard in that typhoon on Japan, that same voyage when thou went mate with Captain Ahab, did'st thou not think of Death and the Judgment then?

[aviaryishaunted]

After his answers to Ahab's cheeky questions went live, Nick Kokonas warned, "get ready for some press." He wasn't kidding. On an average day, this "mysterious blog" receives 25-30 unique visitors, but following stories by Red Eye, Eater, Chicagoist, and Zagat, this happened:

What's fascinating is all the stories in the mainstream press focused on the scoop that the brain trust is planning another cocktail bar they are hoping will open in Chicago next year. Cool news, no question. But Kokonas disclosed a lot of other fascinating information, giving Ahab plenty to discuss in the coming days.

Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries—stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever.

[aviaryishaunted]

Since Ahab's no journalist (shaddup!), he didn't expect a few questions tossed into the ether to draw any sort of official response. But Nick Kokonas "likes doing the unexpected in unexpected places." He reached out via email this morning with some interesting, informative answers. Hold on to your hats, this is a long one...

Back of the envelope math and industry gossip suggest that financially Aviary is less of a runaway success than its sibling adjacent. Is that accurate? Are private events and the collaborations sufficient to make up for slower nights early in the week?

It's pretty funny when people who don't know us or our operation wildly speculate. And by funny I mean:  anyone can talk about anything, but why do journalists publish it?   So here are real numbers off the top of my head:

Wed:  155 Thurs: 180 Friday:  285 Saturday:  310 Sunday:  105 Those are average cover counts for a typical week around this time of year. So 1,035 people per week is very strong in my mind. Unlike Alinea or Next who have strictly limited cover counts, Aviary is essentially an a la carte restaurant for drinks (and more and more food too). That means on a night we do 150 people it doesn't seem overflowing... and even when we do 350 on a Saturday that flows throughout the night from 6 PM, unlike, say, a nightclub that gets a single rush late.   You can pretty easily extrapolate an annual gross revenue from those numbers to find that for a 75 seat lounge we are doing well... exceeding our business plan by a healthy percentage.

Reportedly, Alinea had an 8-18% profit margin on gross receipts back in 2011. What has been the impact of tickets on Alinea’s business? And do you expect the introduction of tickets to boost Aviary’s profitability?

That's a huge difference, 8 to 18%? Where do you get such numbers? Oh yeah, I may have said that. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

Tickets have greatly improved several aspects of running Alinea:  1)  no no-shows means that our average cover count has gone up by a little over 2 people per night. Doesn't sound like much? Multiply that out by a year. 2)  planning is much simpler... we know how many are coming in every week and can order accordingly. 3) cash flows are more predictable.

We want to put Aviary on tickets for one reason only and it is a different reason:  I often hear that people want to go after work on a Wednesday night but think either that they need a reservation (they don't) or that they will have to wait in line (they won't). So it's a bit like knowing a highway has construction, so everyone stays off the highway. People know Aviary is busy, so they stay away. Tickets will give them a quick way to check online and book a slot.

We're going to do Aviary tickets a bit differently. You can either:

-- pre-pay $20 per person that will be credited to your bill when you leave. This will guarantee you a table right as you walk in, no line, no waiting. This amount will vary by day of the week... for example, Saturdays will be higher.

--  pre-pay for the prix fixe drink and/or drink + food menus.

We will still have over half the seats reserved for walk-ins.

Whatever happened to cloning Aviary? Talk last year was South Beach. Maybe New York. Dubai even. And then nothing. Is that dead?

We are in negotiations with a high-end hotel group to open in several cities over the next few years. That said, I have no idea if it will come to fruition. We are very careful about opening up far from home while maintaining quality and innovation standards. We've turned down lucrative deals over content, not money. I think we've found the right situation and am hoping that we can iron out the details over the next month or two. These things do not move quickly with big international companies. As well, we've figured out that there really are only 1 or 2 groups that are truly committed to culinary excellence.   Also:  we are planning another drinks only place here in Chicago... though it won't be what you expect at all. Hoping to open by the end of next year.

What’s the average Aviary order? Aside from the kitchen table, do customers try the three- five- and seven-drink flights or mostly order a la carte? This data must exist, right? What else was the business analyst intern doing this summer?

About 80% of people stick to a la carte.  We've made the flights a more prominent part of the menus and experience, though, and more and more people are ordering them. The interns spent much of their time redoing our CRM in a custom manner... we now have well over 100,000 customers and the accompanying notes in a single database across all three restaurants.  They also audited all of our suppliers billings. Redid our inventory control. It all proved so useful that we hired one of the interns full time (she came out of a hedge fund) to join our CFO Steven Bernacki in pushing us into the late 20th century and beyond. Yes, that means that despite our tech approach to many things some of our operations were stuck in 1985. That's been changed completely as Steve and I have pushed the management style forward.

As much as the cocktails, the Aviary experience was defined by the menu of bites. Until recently anyway. What motivated the decision to offer a more substantial, plated menu? What are you expecting from Chef Andrew Brochu? And what has been the feedback so far? (Besides bring back chowder.)

Basically we now have a Michelin starred chef (who spent years at Alinea) creating the menus at Aviary. So why stick to the basics?   The other reason is that many people would come in for a drink and want to stick around, but were leaving to go eat elsewhere. We have the capacity to make amazing food... we just need to offer it in a larger portion size. So now we are starting to do that... the response has been great. You really can come in and eat dinner now... it's just that the drinks will always take center stage.

There’s been tremendous turnover of Aviary’s staff. Chef Micah Melton and Charlotte are the last two standing from the opening team. Has the turnover been more or less than expected?

We've been open more than 2 years so that's pretty much expected. If you go around town you'll see former employees running other restaurants and bars. Only so many management positions exist, so for their own personal growth they spend 18-24 months and then move on. We encourage that actually... and a few of our employees eventually find their way back to us as we open new places or have new positions.  That's the case, for example, of Chris Gerber, our FOH GM at Aviary who worked with Grant at Trio and then spent years at Alinea.

Whatever happened to Next’s digital cookbooks? After Paris 1906, there was bupkis. Any plans to resume digital publishing? And if so, will there be an Aviary book? Incidentally, what does Christian Seel do all day?

Thai is done. Childhood is basically done. The rest we have all the content for but haven't laid out. We are not satisfied with a single digital publishing model -- iTunes is great but only part of the ecosystem. So we are trying to decide the best way to do it. Aviary book? Would you rather see a $20 digital book or a $ 250 taschen-style art book printed in Japan? Both? Ok.

Finally, how does one get on the guest list for the after party the next time Jay Z is in town?

In fact, no one did get on the guest list except for people invited by the host (who will remain anon) or Jay. It was a very low-key affair. As you can imagine, after jumping around in 90 degree heat for a few hours the musicians are tired and hungry. Sorry to burst your bubble, but it's not all crazy time: he's got 99 problems but a hang-over ain't one.

Thanks very much to Nick Kokonas for overlooking Ahab's snark and patiently answering his questions. This more than makes up for the blogroll on the website.

Unfitness to pursue our research in the unfathomable waters. Impenetrable veil covering our knowledge of the cetacea. A field strewn with thorns. All these incomplete indications but serve to torture us naturalists.

[aviaryishaunted]

One down; seven to go

Turns out the brain trust is willing to answer one of Ahab's questions. Nick Kokonas confirmed they have not abandoned the digital cookbook concept. They are "[j]ust trying to improve design and utilize wider distribution digitally."

Aye, aye, like many more thou told'st direful truth as touching thyself, O Parsee; but, Ahab, there thy shot fell short. Good-bye, mast-head—keep a good eye upon the whale, the while I'm gone.

[aviaryishaunted]

Interviews of the brain trust always are personally frustrating because the interesting questions, in Ahab's opinion, never get asked. (Cf. Food is the New Rock.) Here are eight on Ahab's mind at the moment:

Back of the envelope math and industry gossip suggest that financially Aviary is less of a runaway success than its sibling adjacent. Is that accurate? Are private events and the collaborations sufficient to make up for slower nights early in the week?

Reportedly, Alinea had an 8-18% profit margin on gross receipts back in 2011. What has been the impact of tickets on Alinea's business? And do you expect the introduction of tickets to boost Aviary's profitability?

Whatever happened to cloning Aviary? Talk last year was South Beach. Maybe New York. Dubai even. And then nothing. Is that dead?

What's the average Aviary order? Aside from the kitchen table, do customers try the three- five- and seven-drink flights or mostly order a la carte? This data must exist, right? What else was the business analyst intern doing this summer?

As much as the cocktails, the Aviary experience was defined by the menu of bites. Until recently anyway. What motivated the decision to offer a more substantial, plated menu? What are you expecting from Chef Andrew Brochu? And what has been the feedback so far? (Besides bring back chowder.)

There's been tremendous turnover of Aviary's staff. Chef Micah Melton and Charlotte are the last two standing from the opening team. Has the turnover been more or less than expected?

Whatever happened to Next's digital cookbooks? After Paris 1906, there was bupkis. Any plans to resume digital publishing? And if so, will there be an Aviary book? Incidentally, what does Christian Seel do all day?

Finally, how does one get on the guest list for the after party the next time Jay Z is in town?

Since it's unlikely he will have the opportunity to ask them personally, Ahab invites enterprising journalists who have Chef Grant Achatz, Nick Kokonas, Beverage Director Charles Joly, and/or Chef Melton on speed dial to use them. Not that the brain trust actually would answer these, mind you.

Go and gaze upon the iron emblematical harpoons round yonder lofty mansion, and your question will be answered.

[aviaryishaunted]

A few weeks ago, while he was in Los Angeles for its eponymous Food & Wine Festival, Food is the New Rock interviewed Chef Grant Achatz. Eater claims it summarized all the best lines, but you can't trust them to listen critically. For instance, Eater notes Chef Achatz's comments about the transience of the restaurant experience:

"At the end of a day, at the end of a long service where we do 80 covers or 100 covers or whatever we do, we're like ah shit, tomorrow we have to start from complete scratch. And that to me, that's the equivalent of bands doing show after show after show versus where that producer says that album is done, put it in the box. Then, everybody in the world is going to hear that the exact same way every time they queue it up, you know. I wish we could do that. Because then we could hone in on perfection and then be like, "'That's perfect. Stamp that. Let everyone hear that one.'"

Interesting but also strange coming from the chef who constantly reinvents the Alinea menu and reboots Next's entire concept every four months. The chef who told Nick Kokonas (as recounted in “Life on the Line”) that he could never open a French restaurant because he'd quickly grow bored.

Besides, Eater ignores the Aviary trivia. Chef Achatz reveals that the brain trust bought an antique gramophone for downstairs, but he bogarted it because he liked it so much. Making matters worse, after the gramophone was pictured in the WSJ (scroll down to see a photo), people started sending him records:

"I had a flood of people sending me …"

"Grammaphone, like records?"

"That's the coolest thing ever."

"Yes. Obviously it was very unexpected but when it happened, I was like this is great. And they were playable."

Oh, perhaps you hav'n't got any. No matter though, I know many chaps that hav'n't got any,—good luck to 'em; and they are all the better off for it. A soul's a sort of a fifth wheel to a wagon.