Achatz Scraps New Year's Eve Party Plan

If you were planning on renting out Next or Aviary for an Adrià-inspired New Year's Eve, it looks like you're out of luck.

For a while there, Achatz was offering to rent out three of his restaurants for a private shindig; "Next for you and 61 friends; Aviary for you and 84 friends; the Office for you and 17 friends."

But it seems like he'll be going the more traditional route, posting on Facebook, "The overwhelming number of requests we received were for individual tables and smaller groups. Therefore we are going to sell tickets to Next and the Aviary much as we do at Alinea... plus a special package combining Alinea and Aviary!"

At Next, you get the nostalgic Childhood menu with wine pairings (early seating, $175 per person, late seating plus midnight champagne is $265 per person).

Aviary offers bites and cocktails from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., for $250 a person, and an Aviary/Alinea package, which offers an early dinner at Alinea, for $700 a plate.

The latter package only has two tables of four available, so really, hurry up. This may be your one shot of getting a tasting of Childhood, and we're sure they'll be getting an "overwhelming" amount of requests. Email NYE@nextrestaurant.com and nye@theaviary.com.

The Daily Byte is a regular column dedicated to covering interesting food news and trends across the country. Click here for previous columns.