Finest Binge: Introduction

This is the first of 7 entries chronicling a week of great dining experiences: 8 days, 5 meals, ~12 Michelin stars, a few of the world's toughest reservations, and a bit of comparison between America's 2 greatest culinary cities, New York & Chicago.

The concept began simply as a weekend trip.  I had a friend living in New York who planned to move away from the city in February.  Having only been to NYC once before (visiting her last November) and realizing this was probably my last chance to go back with a free place to sleep, we started planning a last hurrah / "pack up the apartment" weekend.
One Monday in January I downloaded an auto-redial app for my phone, blocked off an hour on the work calendar, and the first reservation came: Friday, Brooklyn Fare.  Soon after my friend booked a table at Eleven Madison Park for Saturday night.   Planning non-food activities during the day Friday & Saturday--plus a group going away dinner Sunday night--left us only with lunch Sunday.  Marea would fill that gap.  One serious food weekend was on tap.
Not long after these plans were set, Next season tickets went on sale.  I was number 718 in line; guaranteed a table, but rather deep in the queue.  When the following Friday came up available for Next's elBulli menu, I couldn't turn it down.  Now it became a two city event.  Then--via Twitter--Shin Thompson offered a free dinner for two as the prize for helping him creatively celebrate Valentine's Day.  He liked my idea, and we lined up Bonsoiree for dinner Thursday.  
The schedule was set:

• Friday 2/17: Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare
• 2/18: Eleven Madison Park
• 2/19: Marea
• 2/23: Bonsoiree
• 2/24: Next: elBulli

As these plans are more aggressive than my typical eating habits, I held high expectations--not only of the food, but of the educational benefits from having these meals so closely together.  In the weeks leading up to this beautiful binge, many questions crossed my mind: what new foods & flavors would I encounter?  How high is the bar set by these restaurants?  Will the Chicago & New York scenes feel significantly different?  Will there be challenging dishes I fail to understand?  Is fine dining something I enjoy--will I actually like all of these meals?

This series of blog posts hopes to convey the answers I found and detail the experience of each restaurant.  My New York friend, a culinary school graduate & line cook in the fine-dining realm, accompanied me for all of these meals and provided a professional palate with kitchen insight.

Following this entry I will create a post for each of the 5 meals mentioned above.  Then a summary piece.  I hope these are educational & interesting; it was quite a memorable week and I want to share the experience.  Feel free to comment if you have a question.  Thank you for reading.