“When we ate at Alinea, it felt like a magic show, and I know there were months or years of planning and thought and failed attempts and mistakes that go into producing this place-I wanted to know more about the process.” If people go to the movies and they watch something we’ve worked on and they see computer graphics, we’ve done a bad job. “Our careers were not dissimilar from these guys, which is to say we spend an enormous of time making things on screen look effortless to people. When the idea of the Aviary book crystallized a few years later, the Hembergers took the leap and relocated to Chicago with their newborn daughter to get started. I said, ‘What in the world could you do with two visual effects artists,’ and he was like, ‘I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out.'” The book is filled with stunning photography that captures the magic behind a lot of the cocktails. ![]() “Nick called pretty much the next day and asked if we wanted to work on something. “We sent a copy, which we intended to be kind of a gift to say, ‘Thanks for making that cookbook-that was cool,’ ” says Allen. He documented the process, and together the couple created a book called the Alinea Project. Allen Hemberger, a visual effects artist whose résumé includes work on Finding Dory, Avatar and Brave, was living in the Bay Area with wife Sarah (who also works in the visual effects realm) when he embarked on a very Julie Powell-esque personal quest to cook his way through the Alinea book. To get the project off the ground, Kokonas built a studio, bought photography and printing equipment, and an unorthodox production team fell into place. Scheduled to officially release next month, The Aviary Cocktail Book is coming to fruition by way of crowd-sourcing, an effort that raised more than $400,000. ![]() We’d ‘be lucky to sell 10,000,’ they said. “My goal was to sell half a million copies in three years, and they all thought I was ripping bong hits in the corner. “We had publishers come to us years ago, some of them I knew already and trusted, and I said I wanted to do an Alinea-quality book for cocktails … most of them said there was no market for a $60-80 cocktail book.” Kokonas recalls. Kokonas, who also co-authored the Alinea book and Grant Achatz’s biography, knew that accepting a traditional publishing deal would restrict their creative vision. But, not surprisingly, Kokonas wasn’t interested in the publishing status quo either. Seven years later, their approach is still wholly unique, they’ve racked up awards and accolades, and they’ve expanded to a second location in New York. Bars and restaurant that achieve this level of success often extend their reach into the realm of books, and Aviary is no exception. ![]() No matter the technique, every drink was meticulously prepared and unlike anything you’d ever experienced. There was smoke, there was custom ice, and there was often an element of surprise, magic and drama. “Bar chefs” were concocting lab-like drinks in a culinary environment. When the bar opened in Chicago in 2011, their approach to drink-making immediately disrupted the status quo. “Innovative and cool” captures Aviary in a nutshell. We wanted to do something innovative and cool.” ![]() “The entire publishing industry is relying on a model that’s pretty old at this point, and we didn’t want to do another black-and-white cocktail book … another Gentleman’s Guide to Cocktails. That was the whole point,” says Aviary and Alinea Group co-owner Nick Kokonas of the impetus behind the bar’s upcoming cocktail book. “Did we want to disrupt the industry model from the start? Of course we did.
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