Alinea -- the new Chez Paul?

A former student who lives in Chicago was lucky enough to visit Alinea recently. She had the bacon on the trapeze, see left. She had the bacon on the trapeze, that is to say, in January of 2011. Frank Bruni, (remember that guy?) had the same thing at Alinea had the same thing at Alinea in May, 2005. I'd been under the impression that Alinea and other aggressively molecular restaurants were committed innovate, and thus you would not expect Achatz to be hanging the same old bacon off the same old trapeze six years down the line. Was the bacon trapeze part of some sort of turn back the clock to 2005 event at the restaurant? (Lessee... MIA is still interesting, but Obama is only a senator -- win a few, lose a few.) Is the menu at Alinea as static as Chez Paul's, or is this a coincidence?

Comments

[Frodnesor]

Seem to recall that in the Alinea book, Achatz said they had initially set out to change the entire menu seasonally and never repeat dishes, but ultimately decided that was silly and so they do keep some older dishes on the menu. The current menu online, out of about 20 dishes, has only three "classics" (including that bacon trapeze).