The 21st Century Limited is Full Steam Ahead

Tonight is going to be the third dinner is a seriers of five; all part of the 21st Century Limited switch with Alinea and Eleven Madison Park.  Grant Achatz and his Chicago Alinea crew drove to town earlier this week and served their first dinner at Eleven Madison Park Wednesday night.  There's been people on Craigslist selling tickets to the affair and Pete Wells, who got to experience the $495 meal on Wednesday, describes in a Diner's Journal article how he bobbed for apples, littered the floor at Eleven Madison Park with dead leaves, and watched Achatz shatter a “Chocolate piñata” over a table he and EMP Chef Daniel Humm just painted to look like "a lost Abstract Expressionist canvas."  Wells goes on to write:

There is real magic happening at Eleven Madison Park.  The collaboration is a culinary first and those lucky enough to experience it are lucky enough to experience it.  Part of the multi-course menu includes urchin and driftwood, Scottish woodcock, pines hoots, huckleberries, and an edible helium filled balloon that tastes like green apple.  Grubstreet has pictures to prove it.  Dinner continues through Sunday.

Daniel Humm and Eleven Madison Park will pack up and make the drive westward for a five night stint at Alinea beginning October 10th.  Tickets have yet to go on sale for the EMP at Alinea portion of the 21st Century Limited.

The Train's Full

Tickets for the first half of the 21st Century Limited switch between Alinea and Eleven Madison Park went on sale Friday via the Limited's Facebook page and sold out in a matter of minutes.  From September 26th to the 30th, Grant Achatz and the team behind his Chicago restaurant Alinea will be cooking at Eleven Madison Park.

The event takes its name from the 20th Century Limited train, which ran passengers back and forth from Chicago to New York from 1902 to 1967.  The $495 ticket price includes a multi-course dinner, reserve wine pairing and, we're guessing, an assortment of flowers.  It was tradition to give men that rode the 20th Century Limited carnations and women flowers and perfume.

No mention yet as to when tickets will go on sale for October 10th to the 14th, when Alinea will host Daniel Humm and the Eleven Madison Park team in Chicago, but something tells us when they do they'll go fast.

The New Dinner Format at Eleven Madison Park Includes Beer from Ithaca Beer Company

“Flower Power”, “Cascazilla”, and “Partly Sunny” are some of the playful names of beer being made in Upstate New York.  They are all being brewed at Ithaca Beer Company.  Dan Mitchell founded the brewery in 1998 and has been committed to making quality craft beer ever since.  Last Friday, September 7^th, the public was given its first chance to taste “Picnic Basket,” the newest addition to Ithaca’s roster.  The difference between “Picnic Basket” and the other beer being made 30 miles south of Syracuse is Picnic Basket Pale Wheat Ale is only available at Eleven Madison Park.

Intrigued by the collaboration between one of the world's greatest restaurants and the small, Upstate brewery that is Ithaca Beer, Digest NY reached out to Eleven Madison Park to learn more.

Click to read more ...

Now Boarding: 21st Century Limited

From 1902 to 1967, New Yorkers and Chicagoans could swap places aboard the express passenger train known as the 20th Century Limited.  Now, chefs Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park and chef Grant Achatz of Alinea are giving you the opportunity to hop a $495 ride on what they're calling the 21st Century Limited.

The Times confirmed reports of the switch-a-roo taking place between Eleven Madison Park and Alinea in September and October.  For five days in September, the 26th through the 30th, Achatz and his Alinea staff will be cooking and serving inside the walls of Eleven Madison Park.  The following month, October 10th through the 14th, Daniel Humm and EMP's staff will be at Alinea.

Tickets will go on sale in the coming weeks via the 21st Century Limited's facebook page.  The price includes wine pairings, but not tax and gratuity.  Of the project's ambition, Humm says, "It's a crazy idea, but that's what's cool."  As for Achatz's approach, "When we bring Alinea to New York, we’re looking at it as a Michelin three-star restaurant that’s popping up in New York,” he said. “I mean, we’re not taking it lightly.”

Is San Pellegrino's World's Best Restaurants List Sparkling or Flat?

San Pelligrino's list of The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2012 came out earlier this week and Copenhagen's Noma keeps its number one spot.  Noma has made the list for seven out of the nine years that it's been a restaurant, and according to the World's Best website, Noma offer's "a dazzling array of one-bite starters that are alone worth the air fare to Denmark."

Per Se, #6, and Eleven Madison Park, #10, are the two NYC restaurants to make the top ten, EMP doing so for the first time.  Grant Achatz's Alinea in Chicago is the other U.S. resto to make the top ten and falls in the #7 spot.

Mexican Cuisine Mastermind Rick Bayless isn't thrilled about the list and digestny wonders if Brooklyn Fare and Marea feel left out.

Wylie Dufresne May Soon Have a Friend in Grant Achatz

Grant Achatz, the brain behind Alinea, Next, and The Aviary, all in Chicago, was recently in New York City scouting possible locations for an offshoot of his fancy cocktails cocktail bar.  That's "The Porthole" pictured above.

"New York has always been intriguing. I think this would be a lot of fun."

So do we.