Alinea

On Saturday night to celebrate my father's birthday we went out to dinner. But not just to any old restaurant- we went to Alinea.

It is sort of like saying that I went to Carleton College. Those people who know about the college are impressed, everyone else says, "Okay, so you went to a small college in Minnesota, big deal!"

People who know about Alinea are definitely impressed that we went, other people think "So you went to fancy restaurant in Chicago. It's just dinner."

It was not just dinner. It was an experience. Alinea was at one point ranked the 10th best restaurant in the world.

So what is it about the restaurant that made it stand out? Impeccable service. Perfect presentation. Delicious foods. Creative foods. Original foods. Foods that surprised you and delighted you. Using all of your senses to experience the food.

Instead of just thinking about it as food, I prefer to think of it as art. Which it is. It is art that I get to eat.

There were twenty-four courses. Which isn't as ridiculous as it sounds. (Except that of course, it is.) Many courses consisted of only a single bite. Occasionally the courses were served together if they happened to compliment each other. The whole thing took over four hours. You left full, but not uncomfortably so.

What were my favorites? The brioche (sort of like a croissant) that was made of foam. Foam is hugely popular these days as anyone who watches Top Chef, or the like, knows. How do they do that? It was foam. Whipped, light, frothy foam. Yet it tasted like bread.

There was one thing that was served on the end of a twig. A real twig, that had leaves on it. And they lit the leaves on fire so that they smoldered a bit and let out that "burning leaves smell" which is so heavenly in the fall.

Who even thinks to do that? And instead of it being cheesy or crazy, it is just impressive and fun.

I definitely couldn't eat like that every day- maybe once a year or it would become too routine.

But if you enjoy fine dining and happen to have a crap load of money laying around, it is something that you should definitely experience once in your lifetime.

This was a dish that they served on a "pillow" that was made of lavender scented air that slowly deflated while you ate.

It is hard to tell from the picture but there are four dessert dishes here. The main one that is on the napkin is one of his signature dishes. I believe it is called Bubble Gum and you actually suck it out of the straw.

Those were sprigs of rosemary that were our centerpieces for most of the evening. One of our later courses actually used them in a dish where each of us had a hot slab of stone that our meat was cooking on and there was a hole in the rock where the rosemary sat and heated up and released its fragrance.

Those are just a few examples of the ridiculousness of this lovely restaurant.