Life, on the Line by Grant Achatz (book club reads .txt) 📕

We headed to Evanston to a small store near my house and searched for papers, folios, and boxes. Then we went to the Container Store to find something to put the food in. We settled on some small vials that were sealable and didn’t seem overly lablike.

We headed to Nick’s house and reformatted the business plan to fit the unusual paper size—eight inches by eight inches square. I wrote a quick cover letter, and a few hours later we had our prototype investor package: a fancy brown fabric box that had a simple “alinea” symbol on the cover in a gothic-looking script. Inside the box, on the top of the lid, were five small, neatly labeled vials filled with a dehydrated five-course meal: “Dry Martini” on the left, leading all the way through a “Lamb Essence,” and finally a “Powdered Crème Brûlée.”

Inside were three sections: an executive summary detailing my personal history, the goals for Alinea, and a brief overview of how we intended to manage the build-out; a series of spreadsheets detailing the operation of the restaurant and the structure and payout of the investment; and a press kit consisting of reproductions of some key articles about Trio.

Nick had already spoken to every one of the potential investors personally and assured me that they were all people who would be able to contribute something beyond only money. He stressed over and over, “We only want investors who are smart and for whom this is an inconsequential investment.” I had assumed we would have to find dozens of people who would each contribute $10,000. He was targeting the fewest number possible. “This entire package is unnecessary to get the investment. We could just send an e-mail. But I think this shows that we are very serious about doing something different and unusual. These guys see business plans all the time. I guarantee not one of them looked like this. But this won’t get us the money. Yes, these guys are also my friends, but they’ll negotiate a better rate of return. I would be disappointed if they didn’t. It’s critical that everyone looks at this as a business, not a restaurant.”

Still, I felt all alone in a corner and had no money of my own to contribute. One frequent patron of Trio had always told me that he would invest if I ever started a restaurant. So Dr. Mark Davis, a surgeon from southern Illinois, was included in the list at my insistence.

We cleaned up our presentation and then started an assembly line on Nick’s dining room table. Dagmara cut the paper down to size, Nick printed everything out, and I boxed it all up. We shipped them out that night.

“So that’s it? Then we wait?” I asked.

“No. I think we follow this up with a dinner,” Nick said.

“We can’t do a dinner at Trio, that wouldn’t be right.”

“No. I’m thinking we do a dinner off-site somewhere. Sort of an introduction to the concept.”

“The first Alinea dinner . . .”

“Yep. We send out an invite to anyone who comes back interested. And that’s where we close it and get commitments.”

I had no idea how to do such a dinner logistically. I would have to create a dozen new dishes while running Trio, and then create those outside the Trio kitchen.

“When?” I asked.

“Two weeks from now. We can do it here. In addition to the numbers we need to make everyone realize that they are part of something great, and to make sure they get to know and trust you outside the restaurant setting.”

We set a date for May 4, 2004.

ALINEA INVESTORS DINNER

4th May, 2004

AMUSE

CRISPY STRAWBERRY/ WASABI

DRY MARTINIS

SAUCISSON A L’AIL / APPLE / MUSTARD SEED

SPOONFUL OF BORSCHT

PUREE OF FOIE GRAS / HONEYDEW MELON SPONGE

CARROT SODA / LEMON DROPS

DUCK SKIN HUNAN STYLE

CELERY SORBET / CAVIAR

DINNER

CHILLED SOUP OF SPRING LETTUCES / BLUEBERRIES / CRÈME FRAICHE

POACHED MAINE LOBSTER / COMPLEMENTARY FLAVORS

RIBEYE OF PRIME BEEF/VARIETY OF EGGS

CRISPY CHOCOLATE / LIQUID CAKE

MINTS

Chefs Curtis Duffy and John Peters backed up their cars into Nick’s driveway. “Here they are,” I said.

We had already moved all of the furniture out of Nick’s family room, and Dagmara helped Chris Gerber arrange a single long table down the middle of the room. Low vases filled with herbs were centerpieces that would become part of the aroma for the meal. Chairs were rented and Nick ran off on last-minute trips to Crate & Barrel for extra wine and martini glasses.

As Curtis and John started to unload the car, Nick’s jaw dropped. “Holy shit. Did you guys bring all of Trio over here?” Our equipment was neatly stacked, wrapped in plastic wrap, and labeled. Nick’s kitchen filled in an instant.

Though investors from New York and San Francisco couldn’t make it, everyone from the Chicago area arrived—five investors and their wives, as well as Tom Stringer and Steve Rugo. We enjoyed a glass of champagne and I gave a simple toast: “I have dreamed my whole life of putting together something like this. I appreciate you all coming here today to help launch this project to build Alinea. I hope you’ll enjoy this evening.” I raised my glass. “To new ideas and a new train of thought.”

Chris served food and occasionally Nick would run in to lend a hand. Curtis, John, and I put out the first Alinea dinner.

“Chef. It was brilliant,” Nick said afterward.

“It was a mess,” I said. “But the best we could do here. Was it worth it?”

“I can’t imagine that this is not inevitable now, Grant.”

Nick was right.

We were able to line up the investors in the weeks that followed with minor tweaking of the deal he put together. All told, $1.6 million was committed to Alinea, including $500,000 from Nick personally. It was a figure that blew my mind.

The pressure had ratcheted up. Sure, I had reconceptualized Trio, but I had never built a restaurant from scratch. It was a daunting prospect,