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

next Monday, but at the very least we will be assured to save significant money and our staff will be wearing truly elegant suits. Basically, we will be able to buy all of their suits at wholesale, and Grant will get a seasonal line of clothing for free. I will send another e-mail to you all when we confirm the details of their offer. And thanks to Zegna customer and Alinea investor Dr. Mark Davis for making the introduction—you must have bought a lot of suits there, Mark!

Second, as promised, CookTek has delivered a set of induction burners for free. We signed no agreement to market for them, though we will feature them on our website and will be testing their products. I am sure they will make mention of it in their corporate literature, which is fine by us, so long as they do so respectfully. SEE FIGURE 30

LOTS OF INDUCTION BTU’S

PolyScience has been a real find. Not only have they lent us without charge various laboratory-quality water baths that we will use in the Alinea kitchen, but also Philip Preston, their CEO, has designed and manufactured the coldplate or antigriddle to Grant’s specifications. Basically, it cools a griddle to -40 Celsius, enabling Grant to create unique textures with various foods. He is a great resource for us and will no doubt aid Grant in creating new cooking methods and techniques for the Alinea kitchen.

COLDPLATE IS FREEZING PUREED MANGO WITH CRÈME FRAÎCHE DOLLOPS. SEE FIGURE 31

Alinea Investor Update

April 10, 2005

THE WINE PROGRAM—AND A NEW INVESTOR

As many of you know, we had dinner last month with Roy Welland. Roy is the owner of Cru restaurant in New York (recently nominated for the James Beard Best New Restaurant Award). In addition, Roy has put together what can only be described as one of the premier wine collections of the world. He and his wine director Robert Bohr have agreed to consign an amazing list of fine and rare wines to Alinea. Robert has spent a great deal of time and effort constructing an offering that will immediately have an impact on the Chicago fine dining scene, and will put Alinea alongside the best Chicago has to offer. Coupled with Joe Catterson’s uncanny ability to craft wine flights, and his ability with our allotted budget to round out the list with fine American wines and unique allocations that he is getting locally, we will have a truly spectacular wine experience available to our patrons.

Since we need to raise more money, it seemed equitable to offer Roy the opportunity to invest in Alinea. In addition to aligning his interests with ours, Roy is a highly successful entrepreneur in a variety of disciplines—he will certainly be an asset to the Alinea Investor Group. Investor Keith Goggin has done business with Roy on the floor of the American Stock Exchange for years and has during that time expressed to Nick his high opinion of Roy and his character.

Roy has accepted our invitation to invest in Alinea, and wishes to contribute 10 percent of the total raise. Of course, such an addition is subject to your approval, and we ask that you e-mail me such approval as soon as possible. Also, we ask that our investors keep the provenance of the wine completely private—for many reasons, we do not wish to disclose how or where we acquired such a collection, especially since this has been a wellkept secret and is sure to surprise many patrons and the press.

Welcome Mr. Welland—and thanks Keith for the concept and introduction.

CONSTRUCTION

Construction is moving apace now and nearly every day brings major changes.

We passed all of our rough-out inspections a few weeks ago.

The entire interior is now insulated and dry walled, and this, quite obviously, has really given shape to the rooms. The entire restaurant is taped, mudded, sanded, primed and ready for tile and final paint. The kitchen tile is complete . . . and the entire kitchen will be installed by SML starting tomorrow. By this time next week, the kitchen should be completely done! It was quite a sight to see it all coming in off the 18-wheeler this morning at 8 a.m. SEE FIGURE 32

THE NORTH WALL OF THE KITCHEN IS NEARLY COMPLETE.

THE DOWNSTAIRS DINING ROOM TAKES SHAPE. PART OF THE STAIRWAY (UNPAINTED) CAN BE SEEN AT RIGHT.

SEE FIGURE 33 Right now we are pressing very hard to be finished with everything by April 22nd. This will allow us a short (!) window of time to have the inspections and the liquor task force through prior to opening. I have spoken to the city about this dilemma and they appear to be willing to help. It will not be easy to make it, but everyone involved, from the architect to the designer to the contractor, are taking the attitude that there is no other choice. Crews are working extended shifts seven days a week to make it in time. As always, we will know better as time goes by, but for now, we are optimistic and sticking to our schedule.

RESERVATIONS

We continue to receive phone calls every day for bookings in May and June. We are still a month from opening and May is filling up very well. Every Saturday and nearly every Friday in May are booked to capacity—about 1,000 guests for the month. The media frenzy is about to begin, which will solidify the remaining positions open. Below is a list of press that will land before the opening.

1. Chicago Tribune “Aroma in Cuisine” cover story in good eating section.

2. Chicago Tribune April 15th story about deadlines “last chance to make your Alinea reservation now if you want a table”

3. Chicago Tribune cover page feature in the “Tempo” section.

4. Chicago Tribune friday “Dining” section “Chefs Cooking For Other Chefs”

5. Chicago Tribune friday “Dining” section “The Alinea Timeline”

6. Chicago Magazine “Alinea