The summer menu at Next is more of a Next theme inside of a Next theme. The overarching menu is South American. The tour part comes from the fact that every 6 weeks during the four month run of this menu the restaurant is going to shift to a new country within South America hitting a total of three countries; Peru, Chile and Argentina.
This Next within Next concept is the brainchild of Jenner Tomaska who just recently became the head chef at Next replacing Dave Beran who had been at the helm since Next opened in 2011. While I was certainly sad to see Chef Beran leave, he's headed to Los Angeles to open his own place, it's probably a good thing. Each menu was unique but at times, you could tell there were themes, conceptions and execution of dishes that were the same. For a restaurant that changes so drastically every four months, fresh blood in the kitchen is probably a good thing.
The beauty of Chicago summers is how hot it is outside, last year for the Tapas menu the restaurant got permission to serve food on the sidewalk and allowed people who didn't have tickets to come sit outside and have a limited selection of ala carte dishes that they were serving inside. In a play off of that, the restaurant is starting your meal out on the sidewalk by shaving ice to order that is made from lemon, wheat, and honey and serving that over peach marmalade and topping it with a dusting of black cardamom.
The first food food of the night was this progression of ceviches. I don't remember exactly what tye of fish they used, however, the dish was eaten left to right as the different flavors were a progression of tastes. The first one was a banana and passion fruit, second was corn and chocolate, third was aji, a type of South American chile and the final was a classic lime and orange. The whole thing was served with the continental drink of South America, outside of Brazil,the pisco sour.
This next dish was a branzino crudo topped with tomato ice, and the restaurants take on leche de tigre, or the juices of ceviche which is said to cure the hangover. In this case they used cacacha,cashew and tomato. This dish was served with a cocktail of Cachaca, grapefruit, garlic and ginger.
This was a tart of Purslane and Grapefruit, with the tart shell made with some aji chiles for a little bit of kick. It was topped with a piece of uni, or sea urchin, which might be my favorite piece of seafood every. However, the tartness of the grapefruit in the tart filling simply overpowered with subtle flavor of the sea urchin. They served this dish with our first wine of the evening a sparkling rose from Mendoza Argentina.
This is the point in the meal where things got a little bit ridiculous. Above our table the whole time was a basket hanging from the ceiling. The waiter brought down the basket, and in it was the table runner and the first part of the dish the corn nuts. In addition to the corn nuts from the kitchen came quinoa salad, corn souffle, an chilean salsa that was tweaked slightly with the addition of chicken hearts and finally there were tuna croquettes. There were two drinks served with this section of the meal, chica, a fermented corn beer and a 2014 sauvignon blanc from Aconcauga, Chile.
Next up was a series of swordfish escabeche. Again, I'm not 100% sure of all the flavor profiles of each, I believe the green was avocado and the dark red on the right was beets and cherry. This was another fun dish that I had seen and heard a lot about online leading into this meal. The wine for this course was the 2014 Bonarda from the Zuccardi Family made in Santa Rosa Argentina.
This was by far the coolest plating of the night. Next loves to pair up with Crucial Detail to create one of a kind serving platters for the restaurant. This was one of their designs. Once the plate comes to your table you tear into the paper and get this wonderful wood smoke aroma. The dish itself is poached salmon, asparagus, lentils, and mushrooms. The wine for this dish was a 2011 chilean pinot noir from Casablanca Valley.
The final savory course of the evening included, garlic rice, a platter of homemade chorizo, pork belly, and figs as well as a clam and ruhbarb salad. It doesn't happen often at Next but I was seriously running out of room by this point. THe chorizo was good, though a bit dry, I think it was supposed to be that wasy but I'm not sure. the pork belly was perfect as were the figs. There was a 2013 chardonnay from the Mendoza area ofo Argentina served with this dish.
Desert time!. The top photo is a summer squash donut served with dulche de leche cream. THe bottom photo is guava and the restaurant's take on sopapillos. The final drink of the evening was a glass of Barsol which is a South American version of madeira or sherry.
This menu was a ton of fun, and it's always good to see close friends as part of it. I think I understand why Phil Vettel, the tribune restaurant critic gave the restaurant its first three star review. All other reviews have been a perfect four stars. There are some kinks to be worked out. Not so much from a service side, but I think chef Tomaska needs some time to really find his voice in a kitchen like Next's. Unfortunately for him he won't get to do that until the first menu of 2017. This fall, Next is recreating a menu from The French Laundry and if any of his dishes were to be changed drastically, while having TFL's name on it, Thomas Keller might personally choke someone.
