Want a Free Dinner at the Alinea Pop-Up in Brooklyn? Solve This Riddle

As soon as Chicago destination Alinea announced it would be coming to New York, tickets immediately sold out. Now, as part of the fine-dining restaurant’s 20th anniversary tour, the restaurant is capitalizing on the frenzied response by offering up three “golden tickets” which grant winners dinner for two for the multi-course affair. Here’s the catch: It requires completing an online puzzle to get the prize for the event held at Olmsted in Prospect Heights, running through April 13th.

While it's easy to roll one’s eyes at gamified elements, drawing comparisons to, say, the Menu, it is in line with Alinea’s reputation for drama and theatricality that Grant Achatz has cultivated over two decades.

“Hello,” says Grant Achatz on his Instagram. “3 Sigils have been hidden. Clues to each puzzle will be shared on our social channels.” It continues, “The sigils will provide final instructions for authentication and booking. Document your pursuit, unravel the Enigma, and share your journey using #Alinea20.”

Each puzzle will have between three and seven steps, Achatz told Eater. The first riddle was posted a couple of days ago. “We are tracking progress and one seeker is getting close,” Achatz says. Once one is solved, “then we will release the second,” he says.

Commenters are posting guesses like “The sigil is the symbol around the CIA logo on your graduation jacket.” Another hashtagged their photo of Chicago’s Harold Washington Library with the #alinea20.

Alinea’s anniversary tour will hit multiple cities across the country this year, with Miami Beach next up at the Faena Hotel (where the restaurant previously did a residency in 2016) from April 30 to May 25. It will then head west to the Maybourne in Beverly Hills from July 23 through August 20.

According to a server, the Brooklyn location differs from the Chicago original and others on the tour in that it’s a promenade, requiring diners move from room to room, as opposed to stationary seating in one dining area.

The Alinea team has completely overhauled the Olmsted interior for the pop-up. It starts in a library, segues to a forest, and is followed by Olmsted’s outdoor area that’s been transformed into a greenhouse. The main dining room leans dystopic; “It feels like being in a kid’s lunch sack.” It’s followed by a clinically white room across the street from the restaurant that’s been done up like a lab. Each area is designed with accompanying scents. There are some classic bites that have been served over the years at Alinea, as well as new elements throughout. Of course, there’s the edible balloon. And yes, tickets start at a high-dollar $455 per person.

The team-up between Olmsted and Achatz is the result of Baxtrom having worked in the Alinea kitchen for over three years, leaving by the time he’d become a sous chef.

Alinea opened in 2005 in Chicago, heralding a style of performative dining via a tasting menu accompanied by soigné hospitality. Its parent company, Alinea Group, underwent ownership changes in the fall of 2024. That meant the arrival of Jason Weingarten as the new CEO and co-owner, and the departure of co-founder Nick Kokonas. The company had expanded its cocktail bar Aviary into New York in 2017; it closed in 2020.