Next Ticketing System Crashes With 20k Unique Logins; Causes Uproar on Facebook

Yesterday at 4 p.m., Next restaurant opened up its ticketing system, allowing people to log on and reserve their spots for the new Tour of Thailand menu that kicked off on Friday. Or at least the plan was to let people access the site, however since so many people were champing at the bit all day just waiting for the moment, the system couldn't handle the rush. The crash prompted Grant Achatz to tweet, "Apparently we need a server the size of Facebook. Sorry all, doing all we can, but demand was way over what we expected."

Co-owner Nick Kokonas said that at the peak, the server was receiving thousands of queries per second and even an hour after the launch, they were still getting 200 queries per second; overall, they had more than 20,000 unique logins, not counting people running and refreshing multiple browsers. "I fully admit that I greatly underestimated the demand yesterday and while we were set up to do lots of traffic, I never expected to generate those sorts of numbers," he said. "While the system didn't work this time people clearly are willing to give it a shot. If we had sold a table to everyone who logged on yesterday we could have filled Soldier Field. We never expected anything close to that."

Dozens of people posted a constant stream of comments on the restaurant's Facebook page, and frankly, other than revealing that intense foodies aren't working when they should be, the comments are good for at least some laugh-out-loud moments. Eater scoured the page and picked some of the better gems for your morning entertainment.

· I wasn't even this nervous at my trial.

· To complete my torture I think im going to call Schwa.

· My son would like you to know that this afternoon will figure prominently in his therapy ten years from now..."The day mommy acted like she cared more about a restaurant than me. She said it would only take a few minutes!"

· Well, at least it is "easy" to get into Alinea!

· I keep clicking refresh on The Aviary's website just so it doesn't feel left out.

· I need a Singha. -- Jim F.

· From the look my boss just gave me as he walked past my office I'm pretty sure that I just got fired. Hopefully, I'll get tickets before building security gets here.

· This site is slower the internet porn in the '90s.

· I feel like part of the mob standing outside Walmart on the day after Thanksgiving morning.

· So are you all doing that deal where if I spend $25 or more I get a free egg roll or pad thai?

· I just launched a carrier pigeon with my credit card in its teeth over to NEXT to get tickets for me.

· PS, if you're feeling huffy about the ticketing issues, may I suggest this website for you (White People Problems).

And then there was this ...

· Refreshed screen to an image of Grant Achatz rolling around naked in money

· Next Gearing Up for Thai Concept; Achatz Releases Menu [~EChi~]

Eater's Samantha Lande contributed to the reporting of this story.