The Aviary

Last night, my pal Lauren and I went to The Aviary for drinks. It's a Grant Achatz production - the only one I can afford at this point (his other restaurants are Next and Alinea). The drinks are, in a word, life-changing. No tiny detail is overlooked and the service is impeccable while still remaining down to earth and friendly. At one point, Grant Achatz himself walked by our table quite a few times. I got breathless and turned beet red and Lauren wanted to know if I was okay. Then, a few minutes later, both Grant Achatz AND Thomas Keller (of French Laundry, Per Se, Ad Hoc, and Bouchon; and also the first and only chef to ever be awarded simultaneous three star Michelin ratings for two separate restaurants) walked by our table. I got pretty giddy about it, lost control of my 20 foot arms, and knocked over a brand new drink. The servers were so nice about it and immediately cleaned it up and replaced it. Our servers were so cool I would've enjoyed hanging out with them outside of this place - one of them works at Barrelhouse Flat in Lincoln Park and gave us some info about going there. At the end, we were offered a cab by one of our servers (we had 2), which I thought was pretty stellar service, considering their job is to get you drunk!

We arrived about 10 to 6 for our 6:00 reservations and they really do not open their doors until 6 on the dot. They have an outdoor seating area to lounge in until called in to be seated.

Upon being seated, we were brought an amuse bouche of Rooibos tea, lemon juice, orange juice, and coconut water. This was ice cold and very refreshing.

We ordered off the prix fixe menu.

I started with the Cucumber, which was cucumber, gin, tonic, and rosewater ice cubes. This is the kind of drink you need to sip slowly because by the bottom of the glass (as the rosewater cubes melt), the drink's flavors transform into something different.

Lauren ordered the Lychee, which was a fizzy concoction of muddled basil, rum, maraschino, and lychee juice.

The place grew darker as the night went on so the pictures also got darker. Lauren ordered the Peach for her second course, which was scotch based and came in a French Press (!) with fresh fruit. The second course was more of a production than the first course - while explaining the drink to Lauren, our server pressed the fruit at the bottom and strained the liquid into Lauren's glass. 

For my second course, I ordered the Bitter. I wish I had been able to take a picture of it when it arrived. The drink itself arrived in a small decanter with the glass flipped over on top of a piece of oak from a whiskey barrel with smoke trapped inside. While explaining my drink to me, the server flipped over the glass, wafted the smoke near our faces so we could smell it, and then poured the drink. It smelled like a campfire, with roasting marshmallows and the drink did take on a very subtle smoky flavor. With both tequila and cognac in this drink it was very strong but never tasted like straight liquor - very smooth.

Lauren had the Horchata for her third course. We were very excited that they put it in a styrofoam cup. The taste was incredible - first you get the rum and then it turns into creamy cinnamon and the slight heat of the cayenne on your tongue.

For my third course, I ordered the Flip, which had sweet corn in it. The entire drink tasted like sweet corn and was deliciously sweet. The server had informed us the chef had decided "recently" to remove the egg from this drink. When he left, I turned to Lauren and said, "Just how recent do you think that egg was banished? Five minutes ago?" When our server came back to our table I asked him and he said the drink had been on the menu for a couple weeks and the chef had decided oh about two hours ago that the egg was not doing anything for the drink. I certainly didn't miss it and that foam tasted like a sweet corn milkshake. I really enjoyed this one, but by the end it became sweet to the point of cloying and I longed for that first course drink, Cucumber.

This is near the entrance so when you walk in, to your right, behind this "cage" is where all the chefs and mixologists do their work.

This is the view of the kitchen in the window from the outside.