Alinea (restaurant)


Alinea is a restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, United States. In 2010, Alinea was awarded three stars from the Michelin Guide. As of December 20, 2017, Alinea is the only Chicago restaurant to retain a three-star status, Michelin's highest accolade.

History

The restaurant opened on May 4, 2005, and takes its name from the symbol alinea, which is featured as a logo.
Co-owner Nick Kokonas wrote, of the restaurant's name, "If you're wondering about the name, Alinea literally means "off the line." The restaurant's symbol, more commonly known as the pilcrow, indicates the beginning of a new train of thought, or literally a new paragraph. There's a double meaning: On one hand Alinea represents a new train of thought about food, but we are a restaurant, and everything still has to come "off the line.""
In October 2008, chef and owner Grant Achatz and co-author Kokonas published Alinea, a hardcover coffee-table book featuring more than 100 of the restaurant's recipes.
In November 2010, Alinea was awarded three Michelin stars, making it one of only two such restaurants in Chicago at the time, along with L2O.
In January 2016, the Alinea Group, the owner of Alinea, bought Moto restaurant in Chicago.
On January 1, 2016, Alinea closed temporarily for renovations. The restaurant planned to operate pop-up restaurants worldwide before reopening on May 20, 2016 after an extensive remodel and a complete overhaul of the menu.

Awards

Alinea received the AAA Five Diamond Award, the highest level of recognition given by the AAA, from 2007 to 2017. It ranked ninth on the S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants List, second only to Eleven Madison Park in the US. As of 2017, Alinea is the only Michelin Guide 3-star restaurant in Chicago. Alinea received the 2016 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Restaurant.
On June 14, 2016, Alinea was ranked 15th among the World's 50 Best Restaurants, an increase of 11 spots from 2015. In October 2016, TripAdvisor named it the number one fine dining restaurant in the United States, and one of the 10 best restaurants in the world.
In the 2017 list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants, Alinea was ranked 21st in the world.

Controversies

In July 2020, Alinea, serving from a pop-up rooftop with the regular restaurant closed during the coronavirus pandemic, came under fire for serving a canapé shaped like the COVID-19 virus. Alinea Group co-owner Nick Kokonas stated the appetizer was "meant to provoke discomfort, conversation, and awareness." Not all diners agreed the virus-shaped canapé was appropriate, with comments including "tacky", "disrespectful" and "insensitive."

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