@uhockey: Thanks! I had a look through my menu again and almost half it it contains sweet courses in no particular order: yuba, English pea, hamachi, venison, snow, sweet potato, lemongrass, chocolate. It does seem that generally a sweet course is followed by a savory course, but it’s just too much sweet for me.

@william: Thank you that’s such a kind thing to say. Comments like that encourage me to bring my camera with me instead of leaving it at home. Glad you’re enjoying the writeups. Best of luck and don’t hesitate to shoot me an e-mail.

thank you
william

I think the “point” as it were of the sweet courses in the middle of the menu is to essentially create more of a two-part meal – at least that seemed to be the case during my visit. They’re clearly getting more elaborate with the silicon mat dessert and from what Achatz and Kokonas are saying the next step is going to be to create some sort of interactive eating experience within the restaurant by taking out some tables.

I guess it makes sense that the man signs his autograph’s “Towards Innovation” much like Keller does “It’s all about Finesse.”

In other news – I finally figured out how to make my blog WordPress friendly and yours tops my Blogroll – thanks for the great reviews.

I agree with you about the atmosphere; I found the feel of the dining room and the service to be overly stiff and formal. Interestingly, I recently read an interview with Nick Kokonas in which he hinted that a little shake-up at Alinea could be on the cards to revitalise the whole dining experience and reintroduce the element of surprise.

(By the way, for the short rib course, our server did warn us not to use too much of the smoked salt, so maybe it was just an oversight that you also weren’t warned. Shame, as it was a great dish).