Nick Kokonas

Last updated

Nick Kokonas is an American restaurant businessman and author. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Born and raised in Northbrook IL, only child of Greek parents, Kokonas graduated from Colgate University with a degree in philosophy. [1]

Career

Prior to meeting Grant Achatz and forming their business partnership, Kokonas was the owner of a financial firm for 10 years, and was an investor and entrepreneur. [1]

Kokonas's restaurants Next, Alinea, and The Aviary served as a testing and development ground for his proprietary ticketing system called Tock. [2] Kokonas's system allows for dynamic pricing for restaurant tickets/reservations. Some of the earliest adopters include, Thomas Keller's The French Laundry and Per Se and Daniel Patterson's Coi. [2] In 2021 Tock was acquired by Squarespace for over $400 million. [3]

Alinea has been named the best restaurant in North America by publications as diverse as Gourmet Magazine, the World's 50 Best, and Trip Advisor. [4] [5] Next, a shape-shifting restaurant with new menus every 3 or 4 months, won a James Beard award for Best New Restaurant in America and was given a 4-star rating from the Chicago Tribune for each of 21 different menus. [6]

Kokonas has been a frequent and often cited guest on podcasts including the Tim Ferriss Show, where his first appearance was the top listened to show for that year. [7]

Personal life

Kokonas and his wife, Dagmara, have two sons. [8]

Published works

Related Research Articles

Charlie Trotter was an American chef and restaurateur. His best-known restaurant, Charlie Trotter's, was open in Chicago from 1987 to 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homaro Cantu</span> American chef and inventor (1976–2015)

Homaro "Omar" Cantu Jr. was an American chef and inventor known for his use of molecular gastronomy. As a child, Cantu was fascinated with science and engineering. While working in a fast food restaurant, he discovered the similarities between science and cooking and decided to become a chef. In 1999, he was hired by his idol, Chicago chef Charlie Trotter. In 2003, Cantu became the first chef of Moto, which he later purchased.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grant Achatz</span> American chef and restaurateur

Grant Achatz is an American chef and restaurateur often recognized for his contributions to molecular gastronomy or progressive cuisine. Achatz has won numerous awards from prominent culinary institutions and publications, including the Food and Wine's "best new chefs" award in 1998, "Rising Star Chef of the Year Award" for 1999, "Best Chef in the United States" for 1998 and a 2003 "Who's Who Inductee" from the James Beard Foundation. His Chicago restaurant Alinea has won numerous accolades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alinea (restaurant)</span> Fine dining restaurant in Chicago, Illinois

Alinea is a restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, United States. In 2010, Alinea was awarded three stars by the Michelin Guide. Since the closing on December 20, 2017, of Grace, Alinea remains one of only two Chicago restaurants, with the other one being Smyth, added in 2023, with three Michelin stars. Alinea charges $175–225 for its second-floor salon menu, and $285–345 for its first floor gallery menu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moto (restaurant)</span> Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, United States

Moto was a molecular gastronomy restaurant in the Fulton River District of Chicago, Illinois known for creating "high-tech" dishes which incorporate elements such as carbonated fruit, edible paper, lasers, and liquid nitrogen for freezing food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Ferriss</span> American entrepreneur, investor, author, and podcaster (born 1977)

Timothy Ferriss is an American entrepreneur, investor, author, podcaster, and lifestyle guru. He is known for his 4-Hour self-help book series—including The 4-Hour Work Week, The 4-Hour Body, and The 4-Hour Chef—that focused on lifestyle optimizations, but he has since reconsidered this approach. He also supports scientific research into psychedelic treatments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Arndt</span> American blogger and photographer

Gary Arndt is an American blogger and photographer. He is the author of the travel blog Everything Everywhere and a former Minneapolis entrepreneur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Wechsberg</span>

Joseph Wechsberg was a Jewish Czech writer, journalist and musician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schwa (restaurant)</span> Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, USA

Schwa is an upscale restaurant run by chef-owner Michael Carlson and chef de cuisine Papi Chulo. It is located on Ashland Avenue in Wicker Park, Chicago, and is known for its unconventional approach to foodservice. Simple table settings match the building's drab exterior and its tiny 26-seat interior. The restaurant employs no support staff of any kind. Chefs interact directly with customers and are encouraged to act as silly as they wish, as long as they produce top quality food.

Michael Carlson is a chef and restaurateur from Chicago, Illinois. After dropping out of culinary school, Carlson got his start in the industry working under Paul Bartolotta. From there he studied abroad in Italy under Valentino Marcattilii, and in England under Heston Blumenthal. Carlson says he learned more from American chef Grant Achatz than anyone else.

Next is a restaurant in Chicago. It opened April 6, 2011. The restaurant received media interest due to chef Grant Achatz's success at his first restaurant, Alinea, as well as its unique "ticketed" format: Next sells pre-priced tickets for specific dates and times in a similar fashion to the way theater, concert and sporting event tickets are sold.

Dave Beran is an American chef.

RIA was an American restaurant in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Waldorf Astoria Chicago, it originally opened in 2009, serving upscale French cuisine. RIA was popular with critics, earning many awards, including two Michelin stars. After losing executive chef Jason McLeod in 2011, RIA closed on July 27, 2012, after replacement Danny Grant left his restaurant position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Squarespace</span> American SaaS-based web hosting platform

Squarespace, Inc. is an American website building and hosting company based in New York City. It provides software as a service for website building and hosting, and allows users to use pre-built website templates and drag-and-drop elements to create and modify webpages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iliana Regan</span> American chef

Iliana Regan is an American chef and restaurateur. She ran the restaurant Elizabeth in Chicago from 2012 to 2020, receiving Michelin stars in each year. Since 2019, she has been the owner of The Milkweed Inn in Wetmore, Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Aviary (bar)</span> Cocktail bar in Chicago, Illinois

The Aviary is a craft cocktail bar in Chicago, Illinois. The bar is part the Alinea Group, in of the same "culinary universe" as Alinea, run by Michelin-starred chef Grant Achatz.

Roister is a restaurant in Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The restaurant serves American cuisine. Andrew Brochu was the chef, as of 2016. Chicago rated Roister 2 out of 4 stars.

Curtis Duffy is an American chef and restaurateur known for the Chicago-based restaurants Ever and Grace. Among his various accolades are Michelin stars and a James Beard Award.

Tock is an American online restaurant table reservation company. It was founded in 2014 by Nick Kokonas and Brian Fitzpatrick in Chicago, and is now owned by American Express.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas Chicago Tribune , Chris Borelli, Archived March 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  2. 1 2 DeJesus, Erin (30 November 2014). "Introducing Nick Kokonas's Ticketing System, Tock" . Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  3. ↑ Selvam, Ashok (2021-03-31). "Web Giant Squarespace Has Acquired Restaurant Reservation Platform Tock". Eater Chicago. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  4. ↑ "A Restaurant That's Really This Good: 2000s Archive : gourmet.com". www.gourmet.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  5. ↑ "Alinea-Chicago-Restaurant-50Best Discovery". 50B - Discovery. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  6. ↑ "Next". The Alinea Group. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  7. ↑ "The Tim Ferriss Show: #341: Nick Kokonas — How to Apply World-Class Creativity to Business, Art, and Life on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  8. ↑ The Take-Away: Nick Kokonas on Roister, Alinea and Tock Crain's Chicago Business, Christina Le Beau, July 7, 2016


Flag of Chicago, Illinois.svg

This Chicago-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.