OK, tried to make a rez at Alinea 2 months in advance. No luck.

[T.O. Diner]

Could only give us a 5 or 5:30. ugh. Suggestions?

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Alinea
1723 N Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60614

[nsxtasy]

Well, you could take the early seating. Or you could choose a different day. Or, I think they may maintain a waiting list. Maybe take the early seating but ask to get on the waiting list for the day and/or time you want? As another option, not everyone realizes it, but Alinea is open on Sunday evenings, unlike some of our other top tables. So maybe a Sunday reservation can be worked into your plans?

Otherwise, you could go to one of our other restaurants offering a formal dining experience with chef-driven creative food. It's not going to be exactly the same as Alinea, but you can still have a wonderful meal nonetheless. If I had to rank these in order starting with the best, my list would look like this: Alinea, Charlie Trotter's, Everest, Avenues, TRU, Spiaggia, and NoMI. Other high-end places I don't recommend are Les Nomades, L2O, and Sixteen; while they were pretty good, they didn't "wow" me the way the previous group has done.

Although, as I stated, you can have a wonderful meal at any of these other places, Alinea is very special, in a class of its own. What I know from personal experience is this. If I were visiting Chicago from out of town, and I had a choice between a meal at Alinea on a day and time that was not convenient, or a meal elsewhere at exactly the time I wanted, I would do whatever I could to make the opening at Alinea work, including rearranging my schedule and flights if necessary.

HTH