Nick Kokonas, one of the restaurant world’s more colorful personalities, has sold his ownership stake in the Alinea Group. He’ll remain a “passive investor,” according to his post made Monday, September 30, on X, but the sale means he’ll give way to a group led by fellow tech entrepreneur Jason Weingarten.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. In the thread, Kokonas reflected on his two decades with the restaurant group, which included four Chicago restaurants, two books, and the co-founding of Tock, the reservation platform launched in 2014 for Alinea. Tock would later bring other restaurants into the fold, and during the pandemic, it added dive bars and even a certain hot dog stand. Squarespace purchased Tock in 2021, and Kokonas left the company the following year. American Express purchased Tock over the summer.
He tells Eater, via email, that he’s not making a statement on the vitality of the restaurant industry or Chicago politics. Lately, he’s increasingly shared his frustrations with Mayor Brandon Johnson’s policies, but this choice has zero to do with that, he states.
“I spent several years seeking someone to buy Steve Bernacki and me out of TAG,” Kokonas writes. “It’s a unique premium offering (4 Michelin stars in total) and someone needed to want to operate it.”
Somewhere at the end of the hall is a door.
Earlier today I sold my ownership of The Alinea Group to an investor group led by Chicagoan Jason Weingarten. I remain a minority, passive investor solely in Alinea Restaurant. /1 pic.twitter.com/FoKXo6P0uR
— nick kokonas (@nickkokonas) September 30, 2024
Alinea was Chicago’s only three-Michelin-starred restaurant for 13 years until November 2023 when Smyth earned the honor. Alinea’s stature often made Kokonas a spokesperson nationally for Chicago fine dining and occasionally a lightning rod for controversy. His approach, which applies interests in tech and finance, would sometimes rub Chicago’s restaurant industry — which can be insular — the wrong way.
As he exits, Kokonas adds the Alinea Group is in a healthy position.
“I simply want to work on other projects, unrelated to restaurants, and don’t want to be the reason that TAG doesn’t expand further and create new opportunities for our team, Kokonas emails.
Weingarten comes from the tech world where he cofounded startups like recruitment platform Yello. He entered the restaurant world by means of Entree, a meal delivery service that started in 2022. In 2024, Entree expanded its operations with the opening of a supper club-inspired restaurant called Oliver’s in the former South Loop Acadia space. He’s shown an interest in fine dining, as Acadia was a Michelin-starred restaurant. The chef overseeing Entree and Oliver’s, culinary director Alex Carnovale, cooked at Thomas Keller’s French Laundry in Napa Valley.
Weingarten and chef Grant Achatz, who founded Alinea in 2005 with Kokonas, had no immediate comment. Achatz is traveling and says he’ll wait until he’s back in Chicago to make a statement.
During Achatz and Kokonas’s partnership, Alinea earned a full three-star rating from Michelin in 2010 and has held that score ever since, making it one of the world’s premier restaurants.
The Alinea Group went on to open Next Restaurant in 2011 in Fulton Market, a rotating concept that promised to not only change menus seasonally but to swap out decor to create an entirely new restaurant. Michelin inspectors struggled to judge Next’s quarterly transformations, but eventually bestowed Next with a star in 2019; the restaurant has sustained the rating ever since. Next’s current iteration is a tribute to legendary Chicago chef Charlie Trotter. A companion cocktail bar, the Aviary, also opened adjacent to Next. A New York location lasted from 2017 to 2020. A more casual restaurant, Roister, opened in 2016 in Fulton Market.
Kokonas, who has spent more time making wine with his wife in California’s Napa Valley recently, says Chicago is still home.
