Next: Chicago Steak

About the only thing that could make us excited about being back from Hawaii, it's a dinner at Next. The morning started out cold and a bit snowy, but that actually worked in our favor as when we left work a little after 5pm, we actually got down to Next in 48 minutes! We guessed that the snow kept a lot of people at home. Because of the light traffic, we were about 50 minutes early. We were planning on going to either Aviary or La Sirena Clandestina for a pre-dinner drink, but the host was happy to seat us early. And amusingly enough, it was the same table we had last time, so it almost felt like it was "our table". (the fact that it was in the corner, just makes it more appropriate.)

The idea behind the Chicago Steak theme was to transport the diner back to the 1950's era Chicago steakhouse, showcasing big flavors, big portions setting the mood with Sinatra-typed music in the background. The only thing that we thought would have made it more authentic was a smoke machine, but we understand that the smoke/fog may have irritated some diners allergies or other issues.

The meal started off with a shake - a lovely 1950's style martini - half vodka and half white vermouth. It was actually quite tasty. This drink was served with the first three courses.

1st Course: Crudité – Kale, dill pollen, baby fennel. You may think what's so special about some raw veggies, but each individual veggie was lightly dressed with a beautiful vinaigrette. Nice way to start off. When they brought this out they also brought out the bread basket and butter. The butter was amazing, dutch butter with fresh herbs. So decadent and the bread was amazing as well. It was hard not to eat it, even knowing there was so much more food left to come.

2nd Course: Shrimp Cocktail – fermented tomato, horseradish and yellow celery. This had to be the largest shrimp I have ever seen in my life. The cocktail sauce was of course made in house and the garnishes were whimsical. Mark thought this was good. While I thought it was well executed, not being a shrimp or horseradish fan, it wasn't much to my pallette, but I can still appreciate the technique that was used to create it and the beauty of the ingredients used.

3rd Course: This is where Next departed from their usual set menu by giving the diner a choice between three items : Steamed clams with pasta, "Surf & Turf" and Oysters with broccoli salad. We chose to do the Surf & Turf and the Oysters.

The surf and turf was Grilled Mussels, sweetbreads, and tart cherries. The sweetbreads were delicious and crispy. The mussels were luscious and tender, honestly the best mussels I've ever had, but again shellfish is not my favorite. Mark enjoyed them as well.

The oysters were served as Oyster Il Bronzino – broccoli, Island creek oyster, iberico ham. These were amazing - the whole dish was really. The oysters were fresh and delicious, I wish I could have ordered more. Amazing.

4th Course: La Vasseur Salad – Frog’s Legs, watercress, pine nuts. This was literally the BEST salad Mark has ever eaten. The pine nut vinaigrette was amazing. This was mixed and served table side and the server was very engaging and fun to interact with while he was prepping and serving us. This is another dish I wish I could order again. This course and the next one were served with Scholoss Schonborn Estate Riesling Kabinett from the Rheingau vintage 2006. This was a very nice light crisp white wine.

5th Course: Salmon Coulibiac – duxelle, fines herbes, brown butter. This was absolutely amazing. Even to me, who is anti-mushroom. The mushroom duxelle was actually good, the mushrooms were cooked down enough that the texture of mushrooms was not present. Another dish I would actually order again. Yum! May have been the dish of the night.

6th Course: Lobster Thermidor – apple, sherry, thyme focaccia. This dish had mixed reviews at our table. It was absolultely beautiful, a silky creamy mix between lobster thermidor and lobster bisque. I'm not sure if our feelings for this dish weren't influenced by the fact that we were already full and we hadn't even gotten to the steak yet. I thought the bisque flavors were lovely and liked everything about it, except, well the lobster. (again, I'm just not a big shellfish fan). Mark thought there was something acidic (perhaps the sherry) that he didn't enjoy. He also didn't like the thyme foccacia fritters, whereas I did (but then again, I'm a carbaholic). The pairing for this dish was actually a beer. Pipeworks Brewing Co: The One Horned Wonder and His Fanciful Flying Fresno. A double IPA with Citra and Simcoe hops then we added passionfruit puree and rotary evaporated fresno chiles. (Rotary evaporation leaves behind all the capsaicin normally found in chiles. So, the resultant liquid has the essence of a fresno chile and none of the heat.) The beer, while sounding odd, was actually quite good.

7th Course: At long last - the Steak! 30 day dry-aged ribeye with Onion Paysan, Brussels sprouts, two-jacket potatoes and 3 sauces: Capucine, NEXT Steak sauce, Sauce Kokonas. This course alone is a probably the size of a normal course, but no it came 7th! - yes 7th! Totally full, but we couldn't not eat it anyway. The potatoes were amazing, the skin of the potatoes was amazingly crispy, the potatoes inside the skins was creamy and yummy and topped with load of crunchy goodness. The onion paysan was delicious and creamy. The Brussels Sprouts and Spinach were good, but the real star was, of course, the steak. The steak was a beautiful Medium Rare with a scrumptious sear on the edges. They served three sauces with it - capucine, which was like a bernaise sauce with a little horseradish (very little, I actualy liked it), NEXT Steak Sauce which was Next's riff on A1 and Sauce Kokonas (named after one of the owners). All three sauces were good, but if I'm honest, I preferred the steak all by itself - I didn't think it needed anything else. This course definitely did not disappoint. The wine pairing for this dish was Dettori "Tenores" Romangia Rosso, Sardegna 2009, which was a nice red, but maybe a little light for the steak.

8th Course: Champagne float - the first dessert course was Next's grown up take on an ice cream float. The champagne used was bottled especially for Next - Colin "Extra Dry" Premier Cru. The ice cream was a brioche ice cream and was light and creamy and really tasty. The champagne was actually pretty nice. Unfortunately, I think I would have preferred to have had them separately. Not that it was bad, we just didn't love the pairing, but it was interesting. I took pictures of just the ice cream, then after the champagne was added.

9th Course: For this main dessert course, you had a choice again, either Norwegian Omelette with hazelnut, cigar and malt or Cheesecake Brulee with graham cracker, blueberry and vanilla. We got one of each. The Norwegian Omelette is the same thing as a Baked Alaska. I got a pic before and after the pyrotechnics. The cigar flavor in the dish was odd and I didn't really like it, but all the other components, were good. The creme brulee was phenomenal.

10th Course: Chocolate Mint. This was Next's take on the Chicago classic Frango Mints. It was a chocolate and mint mousse with freshly whipped cream. It was quite decadent and tasty, although I would have liked a cookie or something to add a bit of texture. (but of course, I still finished it all). For the drink pairing we had our choice between a caffienated or non-caffienated option. Mark chose the non-caffienated option which was sasparilla, cinnamon and cassia served warm. It was kinda like a warm fruit juice. Mark didn't really like it. I ordrered the caffienated option, which was coffee, honey and single malt scotch. Normally I don't really drink coffee, but this is the second time I've had coffee at Next and it was fabulous! The honey added just the right amount of sweetness to the coffee and the scotch was not overbearing at all.

For us this was quite a successful meal. While we might not have loved every course, the progression, the story and the presentation, care and thoughtfulness put into each dish were amazing. It's really hard to compare menus here to one another. We both still really liked the Hunt, but do we have a soft spot for it because it was our first? We also both like Bocuse D'or as well. And Chicago Steak. And while we liked many of the dishes and especially liked the innovative and unique flavors presented in Vegan, that left us hungry at the end and so, is not a menu that we can say we loved.

I also have to say that the service here is really incomparable. I honestly get the feeling that each and every person working there woke up that day just to make my experience a special one. While I've only been there 4 times, I have never once seen anyone who looks unhappy, exasperated or out of sorts. Everyone has a smile for you. Either these are some of the happiest people in the world, or some of the best trained ones. Either way, it really makes it a pleasure to be there.

Next up is Modern Chinese. Can't wait to go back.