Chef Eric Ziebold Had Grant Achatz’s Ticketing Idea 11 Years Before Next Opened

The best ideas come late at night, at the end of a long service and an after-hours sushi-and-scotch buzz. That’s the saying, right? Well, it appears that formula, or something like it, that lead Chef Eric Ziebold of CityZen to a stroke of genius while he was working at The French Laundry in August of 2000. Check out this entry in the kitchen log he wrote after a successful night:

The entry recently fell into the hands of Nick Kokonas at Alinea who shared it with Grant Achatz (and the world at large, via Twitter). “Chef Eric Ziebold had an idea after a tough night,” he wrote.

Of course, Kokonas and Achatz opened Next in 2011 with precisely the same ticketed reservation method in place. In an effort to reduce wasted food (and guarantee a full house every night), Next sells “tickets” in place of reservations, where you pay in advance for a set number of spots to dine. Shortly after opening, they employed a “season ticket-holder” system to reduce the level of scalping, but they also release at least one table a day via Facebook for whomever is waiting patiently to rush the resto day-of.

We’re glad Eric and Nick and Grant are all so chummy about their shared stroke of genius. We have a sneaking suspicion that if certain shoutier chefs had been involved, we’d be reporting law suits about stolen ideas and hacked reservations systems.

[Twitter]

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