Chicago's Acclaimed Alinea Still Plans Long-Term NYC Pop-Up, Probably in August

Remember last year, when Grant Achatz promised that he would bring his acclaimed Chicago restaurant Alinea to New York as a month-long pop-up? It was supposed to happen this past October, though obviously it never did. At the time, he told Eater that he was putting off the pop-up until further notice, to focus on his many Chicago projects (including a new restaurant and the ever-changing Next).

But the possibility of a pop-up never went away, and now Achatz has a small update on when his three Michelin star restaurant might (might) land in NYC. A lot of factors are involved, he says, but more than anything the timing will depend on when the actual Alinea closes for renovations. He and Nick Kokonas have long been planning to give the restaurant a major overhaul to coincide with its 10th birthday, and though the construction schedule hasn't been finalized, he tells Eater, "We want to pop up in a couple locations during the closure to keep our teams working." By his best guess, that will be around August. Still no word on where that might be, though last year he promised it would be uptown. In any case, it could run as long as six weeks, and if the team sticks to the original plan, it will be an exact replica of the original Alinea.