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

7. Where Magazine cover of Spring Dining Issue

8. Met Home Design 100 Issue “#66 . . . Restaurant to go to”

9. Metropolis Feature on Martin/Alinea Service Pieces

10. RES—Sweden, high-end travel magazine (similar to Travel + Leisure)

11. Arena Magazine UK-based men’s-interest mag (similar to GQ)

12. Playboy short feature on Alinea’s opening

13. Bon Appétit story on Alinea and Moto using technology

14. Nation’s Restaurant News feature on Alex Stupak (pastry chef)

15. Travel + Leisure small paragraph on where to go in Chicago

16. Food Arts small pieces on Alinea’s opening

17. BusinessWeek small piece on opening of Alinea.

Soon after opening we have some major hits lined up:

1. Gourmet feature on Martin/Alinea Service pieces.

2. Gourmet feature on Alinea (acclaimed writer Bill Rice has come out of retirement to write this feature)

3. NY Times’ Melissa Clarke is dining at the restaurant on opening night.

4. Michael Ruhlman has devoted an entire chapter to me in his upcoming sequel to The Soul of a Chef to be released in the fall.

5. Acclaimed NYC photographer Alan “Battman” Batt’s book series.

6. Food & Wine magazine story on technology in professional kitchens.

7. Wine Spectator editor dining at restaurant on June 18th

As you can see, Alinea will consistently be in the public eye over the next six months. As we all know, this will dramatically help put people in the seats. The latter list does not include the inevitable reviews from the Tribune, Chicago magazine, CS, North Shore, Chicago Reader, Newcity, and the Sun-Times.

PREVIEW NIGHTS

The preview nights are still scheduled for Saturday, April 29th and Sunday, April 30th. There have been some questions as to who is invited to these nights and if investors can bring guests.

These nights are a chance for the Alinea staff to simulate a normal service night. As such, they are critical to polishing the kitchen and front-of-house staff’s training prior to opening to the public. Just as a normal night, you will be assigned a reservation time, and, since we have so many groups of two, we will also group some folks together into 4-tops and sixes. As it stands now, just with investors, their spouses, and those individuals who have contributed to the design of Alinea, or have graciously provided goods or services as partners of the restaurant (Zegna, CookTek, PolyScience), we are at 42 people per night. Therefore, we will not be able to accommodate any guests on these nights.

We will be having an investors-only champagne toast late Friday night prior to the preview nights. This will occur after the Alinea staff goes home . . . and hopefully things are in good enough shape that we are able to host a small gathering this evening. We look forward to giving you the personal and in-depth tour of the restaurant at that time.

We have intentionally undersold the first week of operations (in case we don’t make the deadline, and because of the desire to put on a superb face to press the NY Times, Tribune, and Bon Appétit—all of whom are dining at Alinea in the first two days). Therefore, if you are coming from out of town and wish to have a guest fly in, we will be able to accommodate a limited number of reservations on Thursday and Friday of opening week. Please let us know.

Finally, we were looking back over some papers from early in this process and found the Investor’s Dinner Menu from last year. The date: May 4th, 2004. One year to the date!

THE BEGINNING . . .

We expect that this will be the final formal investor update. Nearly one year has gone by since most of us gathered at Nick’s house to embark on the “new train of thought.” While much has been accomplished during that time, we understand that we are just now approaching the beginning of Alinea, the restaurant. We genuinely thank each of you for your financial support, confidence, and assistance that has gone well beyond money. Each of our investors has contributed ideas, time, expertise, and goods that have gone beyond the role of an investor. We intend to remember and honor those contributions.

Thank You,

Grant Achatz

Nick Kokonas

CHAPTER 18

The painting was finished, the drapes hung, and the furniture delivery truck was coming up to the front door, followed shortly behind by Tom Stringer. A small army of men carried in the table bases, wrapped tops, service pieces, lamps, and chairs.

Up until this moment we had no idea what Alinea would look like. Certainly we imagined it in our minds; we had seen and approved each of the designs one by one. But we really didn’t know.

Quickly the tops got screwed into place, the chairs were unwrapped and laid out, and Tom was putting the perfect crease in each of the forty-two (down from “fifty-plus” for budget reasons) pillows that decorated the banquettes. As night fell, the room took on a glow from the LED tube lights and the scene was set. I looked over at Grant and he was shaking his head.

He was standing alone in the upstairs dining room near the window looking across at the stairway and the other rooms. I approached him. “What do you think?”

“It’s beautiful. Everything I hoped and yet very different in some ways. They did a great job . . . and I gave them so much shit,” he said, laughing. “It looks great.”

I pulled out a chair and we sat down at newly numbered Table 25 and rubbed the armrests the way you would the first time you hold on to the steering wheel of a new car. “How does it feel?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Grant said as he looked around. “It feels . . . just . . . surreal. Like this can’t exist.”

“Congrats. Now you get to start doing what you know how to do. And I will fade away.”

Grant looked at me. “I have been thinking about that, actually. I want you around after we open. No one else