Grant Achatz Is Finally Opening In New York

For lauded professional chefs, all culinary roads eventually lead to New York City. Chicago's experimental gastronomic darling Grant Achatz (Alinea, Next) is finally bringing his craft cocktail bar experience, The Aviary, to New York. The Manhattan outpost of The Aviary will open at the Mandarin Oriental this summer. Achatz's business partner Nick Kokonas told Eater that the new location will be "slightly more buttoned-up than Chicago, and the cocktails will reflect the history of the NYC bar [scene]."

The Aviary, which opened in Chicago in 2011, made headlines for its "fine dining"-ization of the craft bar scene. Achatz hired ice chefs to carefully shave and sculpt meltable coolants for the curious cocktail creations. Needless to say, The Aviary is much more than your standard bar, and offers seven-course and five-course small plates and cocktail pairings to guests looking for something more substantial than what you'd find at the bottom of a highball.

At its New York City location, The Aviary will have a sister concept called The Office, although not many more details have been offered about either endeavor.