Next Restaurant

A room rebuilt every few months

Seasonality comes first, then the reveal. Next Restaurant sits at Fulton Market in Chicago, owned by the Alinea Group and led by Grant Achatz, and since it opened in 2011 it has rebuilt itself every few months: menu, decor, uniforms, tableware, music and service props all reset around a historical, cultural or thematic idea.

The Japan menu runs through April 26, 2026, and it was shaped by travel through markets, museums, minimalist architecture and listening bars. Achatz built it with executive chef Alan Mileykovsky and general manager Kate Lang, who made the trip with him, and the pedagogy behind it is stubborn on one point: minimal changes to the vision, no substitutions for aversion. That is what makes the format hard. A theme that changes three times a year leaves a kitchen no accumulated habit to lean on.

A tasting menu that changes its tools

The method at Next is reinvention under pressure. A theme does not sit on top of the food; it changes the station. Paris 1906 brought truffled egg custard, sole à la daumont, and caneton rouennais à la presse. The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair menu used Pabst blue ribbon cans, Cracker Jack boxes, Vienna beef cues, mini candy apples, and a Ferris Wheel dessert. Chinese Modern moved through 17 bites over 11 courses, drawing on regional styles and fine-dining technique in the same pass.

The Japan menu follows a quieter grammar. Grace, tranquility, precision, markets, museums, and listening bars are not garnish here; they become pacing instructions. Pairings run in several registers, including a non-alcoholic program blended daily from fresh fruits, vegetables, teas, and other ingredients. The wine program can move from standard bottles to reserve and ultra selections, with the table held to one level when wine pairing is chosen. The structure is formal, but the room’s craft lives in change.

The pass as theatre, the counter as clock

The room in Fulton Market carries the tension of a restaurant that refuses to repeat itself. Service pieces arrive as props only when the dish has earned them: a teacup for chicken soup, a fair map, a crushed can, a spoon scaled to a bite. The pass has to keep memory and accuracy in the same hand, because nostalgia turns thin when the temperature is wrong or the sequence drags.

At its best, the room feels engineered around a reveal rather than a flourish. The guest sees the tableware before the full intention, hears the music inside the theme, and watches the staff reset the meaning of the space course by course. Next holds one Michelin star, and the operational record is sharper: one address has carried Ancient Rome, Silk & Spice, Paris 1906, Mexico City, Tokyo, Chinese Modern, and Japan without letting the format settle into habit.

The next cut is already named

The calendar gives the kitchen its next discipline. Wall Street 1987 follows from May 2 to August 30, with gold leaf ribeye and caviar set against the era’s appetite for excess. Fashion runs from September 5, 2026 to January 10, 2027, turning cuisine toward couture, fabric-like textures, and atelier presentations. For now, the quieter lesson remains on the table through April 26, 2026: Japan.