Alinea will close its doors for an unspecified amount of time on Jan. 1, 2016 to completely reinvent itself after nearly 11 years of operation.
The world-renowned restaurant will spend the months during the closure to not only overhaul the Lincoln Park storefront at 1723 N Halsted St., but revamp the multi-course menu items it serves, according to the Chicago Tribune.
For Alinea fans, the process may be a test of their patience.
Executive chef Grant Achatz’a partner Nick Kokonas told the Tribune the one question he will never answer is when they can be expected to open again, saying, “The answer is I don’t know.”
Achatz said in an April interview with the newspaper that ‘Alinea 2.0’ will incorporate “older designs of interior design ... as a creative jumping-off point.”
The number of awards and accolades the restaurant has received since its 2005 opening are nearly impossible to count.
In April, Alinea beat out every other restaurant around the globe to be crowned the very best in the world for the fourth consecutive year by Elite Traveler readers.
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“There’s always that underlying understanding that anything less than number one is not what we want to be,” owner and executive chef Grant Achatz told the magazine at the time.
Luckily, anything less than number one is not often where he finds himself.
Achatz credits the constant evolution of dishes that “surprise and confound the senses” for the restaurant’s success and world-renowned fame over the past 10 years since its opening.
“There’s always that constant curiosity and excitement to come up with something new – a new dish, a new technique, a new way to plate the food, a new service to use – that’s just kind of built into our fabric,” he added.
