There may also be a medical reason for the decline in crime. For decades, doctors have known that children with lots of lead in their blood are much more likely to be aggressive, violent and delinquent. In 1974, the Environmental Protection Agency required oil companies to stop putting lead in gasoline. At the same time, lead in paint was banned for any new home (though old buildings still have lead paint, which children can absorb).
Next and Aviary
Was in Chicago last week and had an unbelievable time at Next/Aviary, Grant Achatz’s (chef at Alinea) new restaurant and bar, respectively.
Next changes their menu every 3 months and does a new theme based on a different time and place each time. This menu was Paris 1906 and they copied exact recipes from that period, which made the 8 course meal extremely authentic.
The restaurant also works with tickets instead of reservations. Each ticket is inclusive of taxes and tip and must be purchased online through their elusive ordering system. At the time I got our table, they sold over 100 tables in under 1 minute. Thousands of people wait on the website frantically refreshing the page.
We also got non-alcoholic pairings, reasoning that (a) we don’t know what we’re doing with wine and (b) not many good restaurants serve non-alcoholic pairings, so it’d be a unique experience. They were all really good (and almost definitely more preferable than wine), except for the carrot juice, which we hypothesized was simply the watery remains you find at the bottom of a 1 lb bag of carrots poured into a wine glass.
The highlight course was the duck, which was served family style:
Photo via Dan D.’s Facebook
Afterwards we got drinks at The Aviary, which is a sort of molecular gastronomy for drinks. The menu has about 15 drinks in order from least to most crazy and offers about 10 small bites as snacks. The drinks got good, but not great reviews, but the “coolness” factor was very high on all of them.
We also randomly were seated next to Nick Kokonos, the co-owner of Alinea, Next, and The Aviary. Chef Achatz talked to him briefly and after we said hi to Achatz, Nick talked to us a bit and told us about his background (trading!) and how he transitioned into this business. He seemed like a really nice guy and is a part of now 3 of the best and most influential spots in Chicago eating/drinking, though he still gets a hard time from all the people who can’t manage to refresh the Next website fast enough to score their tickets!
Passover in Boca
Went to a Passover program at the Boca Raton Resort with a few friends and their family. Need to do relaxing/good weather trips like these more often. Great way to refresh.
Passover thing was fantastic. I was gorging myself on food every day, frequently ordering 2-3 entrees for dinner and eating some sort of meal or snack every couple hours.
Next year hope to stay longer and get in a golf round!
