Fire is Alinea’s first new restaurant in eight years | Eater Chicago
"The most casual member of the Alinea Group family will close after an eight-year run in Fulton Market; its last day of service will be Saturday, November 16. Opened in March 2016 as a deliberate departure for Kokonas and Achatz, the concept proved that a casual restaurant need not be ho-hum: loud music, a stage for the kitchen, and signature items like the "gourmet fried chicken" from chef Andrew Brochu helped redefine what belonged on a fine-dining menu in Chicago. The team rode the early wood-fired cooking trend to numerous best-new-restaurant lists in 2017 and earned a Michelin-star rating from 2016 through 2019. The operation was notable for holding back tables for walk-ins (something unheard of for Alinea), and on opening night Kokonas gushed about the fried chicken, which was sourced from D'Artagnan; the chickens were reportedly fed scraps from upscale restaurants like Thomas Keller's Per Se. After co-founder Nick Kokonas sold his ownership stake, Jason Weingarten took over; Weingarten says, "[That restaurant] has — and I wasn’t biased previously — the best fried chicken that I’ve ever had." The brand could be scalable and might find life outside Chicago, according to leadership discussion." - Ashok Selvam
