Jason's Birthday celebration

 We celebrated Jason's bday on Friday night with drinks at The Aviary.  Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas are the masterminds behind this one-of-a-kind experience.  Requiring same-day reservations for a seating of either 6:00pm, 8pm or 10 pm; I was excited to score one for Friday at 6p.  We were guided to our seats were our watress greeted us with an amuse bouche, which was a drink.  Orders were taken on an iphone.

For those of you unfarmiliar with Aviary, it is a mixologist heaven where you can order a Prix Fixe menu of 3 course or 7 course.  You could order just one cocktail instead, as this was a celebration

we went with the 3 course.  The courses are meant to simulate appetizer, entree and desert. 
Not only were the drinks intricate, but each had a unique presentation.  I went with Berry, Bourbon and Popcorn.  Berry was served in a french press, bourbon is shown below in a glass that had trapped smokey barrell, and popcorn which was literally a hot drink with liquid popcorn.

 The birthday boy, who hates this picture, ordered Orange, Sazerac and Cream Soda.  All were complex and delicious.  The cream soda tasted exactly like cream soda. 

 The table next to us ordered a drink called "In the rocks" which was so cool, it was an egg shaped ball of ice with the drink in the middle.  The customer breaks the egg with a slingshot and the inner contents of drink spills into the glass.

  At another table a girl ordred a pina colada which had a puff of cotton candy on top which disintegrated after pooring a pinapple liquid on top.

After all this we headed to a new latin restaurant in Logan Square called Masa Azul.  As far as upscale mexican, this might be the best I've been to (sorry Frontera grill).  I highly recommend!

Happy bday to Jay!