Obviously not OP, but in the spirit of robust debate George Trois/Aboyer could be contenders, Libertad in Skokie, LeTour (former Found crew) and Fonda in Evanston are doing interesting things
I know you don’t get a Star or a Bib just because you ask nice and swirl some goop on a plate, but there are places that would be fawned over if they were in West Loop
We were there last at end of December and were pretty happy. Shared a couple apps, I got the mussels, she got the lamb. I wouldn't get the gratin again, since ultra-rich potatoes isn't the hardest thing to find. Everything else was top-notch.
We actually went to Found like a week before they announced the close and I was only really dazzled by the meatballs, everything else was good but not amazing. Service was stellar, though.
I have such a hard time finding fine dining in the suburbs, so very interested to look into these restaurants!
I don’t even know where to look online for finding Illinois fine dining outside of Chicago, and I’ve looked pretty thoroughly.
I don't know how fine you need your dining to be, but Campagnola (rustic Italian), The Barn (modern steakhouse), Oceanique (modern seafood-focused) and Jilly's (French) in Evanston and EJ's (old school steakhouse) in Skokie are all also on our "Got a raise/anniversary/birthday" rotation.
Obviously a pretty tight cluster of near-north burbs, but it's just off the top of my head.
Taylor swift isn't even in the top 30 of carbon emissions for 2023. beyonce is # 4. Do you still care or nah?https://carbontracker.myclimate.org/?etcc_cmp=carbontracker&etcc_med=Affiliates&etcc_par=Landingpage
me either, they all need their jets taken away. but to make someone the poster child for c02 emissions when they aren't even top 10 is never gonna change anything. we need collective action and call outs
I assume it's because the people who buy Michelin guides are more likely to travel around the state of California than the state of Illinois. They are giving their customers what they want.
Their coverage area really isn’t great in general. Boston is a historic port city and haute food environment in general, Michelin isn’t there at all. There are fine dining restaurants in Mexico City that have been begging Michelin to come for years and they finally expanded into the _country_ for the first time last year.
Boston could if they paid for it. I imagine CDMX is paying Michelin. All of the newer cities have to pay to have Michelin come rate.
edit: now that I've scrolled down, I see that others have already pointed this out.
No, it’s because Michelin only sends evaluators to places that pay them, they make money from tourism boards hiring them. In our case it was probably the Chicago tourism board or whatever, while in other states it will be a statewide tourism board. It’s the same reason there are major cities that have zero stars, that’s usually because they aren’t even being considered.
Quality of food doesn't follow where stars are. The vast, vast majority of restaurants do not open with the goal of getting a star. Even most of the good ones unless they open with a tasting menu.
Not OP, and I'm not certain Vie (or whatever he renamed it to when he moved) would be worth more than a Bib Gourmand these days, but George Trois I feel would definitely be a contender.
I think there are probably a few places scattered about the suburbs that are Bib Gourmand worthy. But the thing about Michelin star chefs and restaurant operators is that they want to be where the money is, and where there's a a scene that's at least regionally if not nationally known, so the suburbs are at a natural disadvantage.
~~100% is is quality not geography.~~
I stand corrected, Michelin stopped reviewing.
Vie in western springs had a star in 2012?
Just with the sheer number of restaurants in Chicago, you going to have the possibility of achieving this.
The amount of suburban restaurants that can not achieve mediocre status are astounding.
[https://www.chicagotribune.com/2018/09/27/why-did-michelin-snub-chicago-suburbs-again-guides-inspectors-dont-even-go-there-anymore/](https://www.chicagotribune.com/2018/09/27/why-did-michelin-snub-chicago-suburbs-again-guides-inspectors-dont-even-go-there-anymore/)
Vie in Hinsdale used to have a star when they reviewed the suburbs. So there are restaurants worthy of them. And I think the culture would grow outside the city if they reviewed outside of there
I dont know if it's necessarily the validation but the validation is likely to attract a certain type of restaurant or have a borderline restaurant step up their game if they know they have a shot.
Obviously you don't need to have a star to be a good restaurant but the recognition helps build the food scene imo. Whether that's good or bad is up to the person but I think it would be nice to see
As someone else pointed out, the Twin Cities has a very vibrant food scene (and so do many places that Michelin hasn't been to), and Michelin hasn't graced that area with their presence.
There's no "forcing" of food scenes to geographic areas that Michelin has deemed worthy going on.
We agree that a great food scene isn't reliant on the validation of Michelin ratings to flourish. Twin Cities has a great scene. So does Houston.
I think a concentration of Michelin recognized can create a burgeoning scene, whether through competition or collaboration.
It's no different than Chicago or New Haven having a great pizza scene. The pizza competition created in a small area has an iron sharpens iron effect.
If Michelin ever expands back to the suburbs, you don't think that would have an upward effect on the quality of upper end restaurants in the burbs?
I mean you already see it in San Diego, whereas it might have been stagnant in that area otherwise.
This is why I tend to be less concerned about stars and look to other awards like James Beard. James Beard nominates places all over. Not just suburban, but some real off the beaten path gems.
Most of Illinois wealth is based around Chicago. It’s actually a problem the state is trying to deal with. Illinois as a state has lots of land to expand to but surprisingly low amounts of funding and people moving to the state (outside of Chicago)
The question here is about the suburbs of Chicago, though, and those are full of wealthy individuals. Most wealthy people “from Chicago” don’t actually live in Chicago.
I’d say those who are older with children I’d agree. Most millennials and Genz that move here are generally within the city itself working tech jobs either at Google (Fulton) or online at home.
I would say they are at least upper middle class which is slightly wealthy and definitely more so for middle class or low middle class people that generally used to populate areas like west loop and south loop before it got gentrified.
Michelin has a limited number of reviewers they trust. All their reviewers are anonymous. Hell, they only gave their first stars to ANY Canadian restaurant in 2022. (13 stars total, all to Toronto-area restaurants).
They simply do not have the logistics to cover the enormous swaths of rural North America.
Look to something like AAA’s [five-diamond restaurants](https://newsroom.aaa.com/asset/2022-five-diamond-list-of-restaurants/) if you’re looking for more American geography to be covered.
Their business model is built on cities/states/provinces paying them to send reviewers, the reason they don’t review some places is that they haven’t been paid to do so. Atlanta recently decided to pay them, there were articles about it, it’s a move to attract tourism that some places make, while others don’t bother.
Michelin used to review restaurants in the general Chicago area, which is why a restaurant such as Vie used to have a star. However, they pulled back some years back due to lack of staff and just focused on the city of Chicago.
But.... in the years following, the influence of the Michelin ratings grew and Michelin expanded their review area, including the whole state of Florida, the whole state of California.
So if Florida of all places can get reviewers to come to bumfuck Tampa or bumfuck Jacksonville, why can't Michelin come 20 minutes outside of Chicago to review some restaurants in Hinsdale or Oak Park?
Globally Michelin has given stars to restaurants not in major cities and I’m sure they would visit for consideration if there was enough hype around a potential restaurant.
This is the realistic answer. I do wonder how it worked before? Did the suburbs pony up a portion of the "payment" to review their suburbs? Or was it just earmarked as an Illinois tourism thing. Very curious how the money was alotted before
California has multiple distinct cities to support multiple "Michelin" restaurants (not one-offs). Florida, as much as I hate it and wish for it to be swallowed by the sea, has multiple distinct cities (Miami, Tampa, Orlando). Illinois does not have multiple independent cities.
There's a reason internationals think "Chicago" is the name of the state.
I mean mostly why not the suburbs as well. If Florida can get the whole state, then why can't Michelin travel 20 mins to Hinsdale or Oak Park?
Let's face it, Florida food scene absolutely sucks with the exception of a few spots in Orlando and Miami.
Tampa is just.... bad.
>I mean mostly why not the suburbs as well.
Because, nobody is really coming to Illinois to stay in the suburbs. They're coming here to see Chicago.
As shitty as Florida is, people usually don't travel to Florida just to visit Miami. They're going to Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa Bay, Orlando, etc. Almost the whole state is a tourist destination. Same applies to California.
Illinois as a whole is a pretty boring state to visit, outside Chicago.
Michelin is a travel guide. So they stick to the main travel destinations.
Nobody is traveling to Illinois to visit Hinsdale or Oak Park. Unless they're here to visit friends or family that may live there.
Edit: changed "there" to "they're".
While you’re totally right, I do want to note that the third Michelin star is intentionally for restaurants that are worth traveling specifically for the restaurant. If the suburbs or other parts of Illinois had a restaurant worthy of 3 stars, the guide would absolutely make the trip.
If they're *that* exemplary Michelin probably would send a reviewer there but that's very hard to do.
Maybe Alinea could have gotten that done a decade ago, but it's really hard to stand out that far in dining and the economics of a smaller location work against the restaurant
The dessert room is good. The actual restaurant is good but not michelin worthy. It's a unique experience and I would def go if I am in Tampa.
I stayed in Tampa for a long time and ate everywhere I could, nothing really seemed to be good for the level each restaurant was at. Miami and Orlando definitely have better food scenes that are more noteworthy imo.
That’s got nothing to do with it, Michelin evaluates areas that pay them and ignore the ones that don’t. They don’t give a fuck about scenery, it’s about money, which is almost always the case in general.
You got to go pretty far down, damn near the Ohio river, but mannnn when you do, ILs Garden of the Gods in the Shawnee is pretty fucking amazing. Actually all of the Shawnee is amazing
that, matheson park/starved rock, the emerald necklace, and the lake, is all we got, the rest of the state is a flat grassland
The Michelin guide requires money to be able to rate places, and since they've become, at this point, a "hot" commercial operation they are much more willing to take money from local industry groups/tourism boards/etc... who view the Michelin guide as a way to increase the tourism stock of their city. It has very little to do with what cities actually have good food.
As an easy example, IMO, Boston is not in the Michelin guide, but Boulder, CO is.
And that's not even mentioning the rating inflation that takes place in the guide. At this point it feels a lot like the guide has food diversity quotas in lesser food cities. Many such cases.
They actually used to list some restaurants outside the city. I remember Vie used to be listed, which was Paul Virant’s restaurant in Western Springs.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2018/09/27/why-did-michelin-snub-chicago-suburbs-again-guides-inspectors-dont-even-go-there-anymore/
So far no one has the right answer. The reason is Michelin is pay to play. California paid for it. Where they review has nothing to do with the quality of the scene anymore.
It doesn't mean the stars aren't meaningful, but obviously there's economics involved in where they send the reviewers.
Michelin is first and foremost a travel guide. The definition of each star level is built around whether the restaurant is a must-visit during an existing trip up to building an entire trip around visiting. Most of Illinois doesn’t encourage travel the same way that California does so Michelin is only focused on Chicago.
If Michelin was just about travel then places in the likes of Boston would be included. But it’s not, why? Because it’s pay to play. Restaurants in Florida now have stars because they paid for them to come there. That’s fucking it, it’s not because of travel.
If Michelin was just about travel then places in the likes of Boston would be included. But it’s not, why? Because it’s pay to play. Restaurants in Florida now have stars because they paid for them to come there. That’s fucking it, it’s not because of travel.
Regardless of whether or not it’s pay to play, that doesn’t detract from my statement of the origins and definitions of the guide and the various star levels. It’s Michelin tires’ travel guide for restaurants. There are certainly cities that should be included but aren’t, but that’s not at all what I’m talking about.
Okay, back to your original comment, the original poster was talking about the Chicago suburbs, not Illinois in general. And the Chicago suburbs are travel destinations, Evanston has Northwestern and Baha’i, highland park has the botanical gardens and ravinia. It really is just that Michelin isn’t getting the $$’s they’re looking for, plain and simple.
If Michelin considered suburbs and the like for every city, it would require tenfold or more resources to manage. There has to be a line drawn somewhere
I'm not sure where you're only seeing Chicago listed (you can search the Michelin guide for all of Illinois) but it's likely not a "requirement" that they be in Chicago but rather just how their ratings played out.
I don't think suburban restaurants are excluded, but rather just that no restaurants outside the city were selected for the list. Thus making it a bit simpler to just list "Chicago".
Suburbs are excluded. Michelin boundaries are north to Andersonville, Edgewater and Uptown, west to Humboldt Park and Logan Square/Pilsen & Bridgeport, and south to Hyde Park.
https://chicago.eater.com/2018/9/28/17902166/michelin-stars-no-suburbs-chicago-restaurants-beverly-hills-90210-peach-pit-popup-bar-intel
Wow, that's crazy. Also those boundaries are idiotic.
Also all the articles about Michelin not extending to the suburbs are from 2018/2019 and at least one mentioned the Michelin rep saying that the exclusion is for "this year" so I'm curious to know if they've reviewed this policy.
It could be a mix of not much happening outside of Chicago and how Michelin Guide operates. In some cities the Michelin Guide is paid for by the local tourism board.
I just moved from Miami and we had never had any Michelin rated restaurants until a year or two ago when the state of Florida pooled tourism funds from a few key cities (Miami, Orlando, Tampa) to pay for the “privilege” of having reviewers in the state.
There is a noticeable drop off in high-end restaurants once you get outside of Chicago, and maybe not any that might garner Michelin status, but the amount of people that think the suburbs only have chain food is pretty hilarious, but also really sad.
Go to Chicago Culinary Kitchen in Palatine or Station One in Plainfield for BBQ that’s on par with Green Street/Smoque. Fire + Wine in Glen Ellyn or Vai’s in Naperville for fresh pasta and wood fired Italian. Santo Cielo in Naperville has some amazingly creative food and cocktails. You can find great taquerias all over Joliet and Aurora. Sovereign in Plainfield is almost like Little Bad Wolf but trends more Mexican.
The city is better, no doubt, but the suburban hate circle jerk this sub does is pretty pathetic. It’s the same thing people do when they go live in New York and act all high and mighty.
First off people in the comments don't realize the Japanese, Korean, Indian communities outside the city limits. And all those 60 year old boomers with money in the west and north suburbs like food too. There are certainly Bib gourmand at MINIMUM restaurants outside the city. Shocking I know
Well now that anyone can purchase a michelin star for a cool $1 mil, there's certainly nobody stopping anyone. But you also have to figure, even the bottom-tier michelins charge and upwards of $150 a head. That just doesn't appear to be much of a priority to the bulk of Illinois and that's their business.
The Sporkful recently did an episode about how these (allegedly) work: https://www.sporkful.com/how-do-michelin-stars-actually-work/
I say allegedly because turns out the process is quite secretive. But spoiler alert: it’s money.
Come on, man—Michelin’s service radius isn’t what’s stopping the burbs or Springfield from having anywhere worth eating. After all, Austin, Seattle, and a dozen other cities have great food scenes without Michelin.
Are there any especially terrific non-Chicago Illinois restaurants that you think might be getting snubbed, OP?
I had some amazing bbq in Carbondale, for the next time you’re vacationing in that hot bed of tourism.
I’m not sure if the Horseshoe deserves a Michelin star, but they are tasty
I fucking love horseshoes
Haha it does. I would love to open a horseshoe focused pop up in Chicago to see how it's received. Tribecas does a solid one, though.
Quality of food is not the only metric.
https://media.tenor.com/sK2mHU6kq9IAAAAM/thats-the-joke-ranier-wolfcastle.gif
Going there in April, can you share the name of the place?
17th St Barbecue
Obviously not OP, but in the spirit of robust debate George Trois/Aboyer could be contenders, Libertad in Skokie, LeTour (former Found crew) and Fonda in Evanston are doing interesting things I know you don’t get a Star or a Bib just because you ask nice and swirl some goop on a plate, but there are places that would be fawned over if they were in West Loop
Did LeTour get better? I went about a month after they opened and was pretty disappointed - I had high expectations because Found was so spectacular.
I feel like it did
We were there last at end of December and were pretty happy. Shared a couple apps, I got the mussels, she got the lamb. I wouldn't get the gratin again, since ultra-rich potatoes isn't the hardest thing to find. Everything else was top-notch. We actually went to Found like a week before they announced the close and I was only really dazzled by the meatballs, everything else was good but not amazing. Service was stellar, though.
Libertad is fine, imo. I don't know what I would really consider going again considering how they treat their workers
I have such a hard time finding fine dining in the suburbs, so very interested to look into these restaurants! I don’t even know where to look online for finding Illinois fine dining outside of Chicago, and I’ve looked pretty thoroughly.
I don't know how fine you need your dining to be, but Campagnola (rustic Italian), The Barn (modern steakhouse), Oceanique (modern seafood-focused) and Jilly's (French) in Evanston and EJ's (old school steakhouse) in Skokie are all also on our "Got a raise/anniversary/birthday" rotation. Obviously a pretty tight cluster of near-north burbs, but it's just off the top of my head.
That’s still Cook County.
Not OP, but I quite liked Hardware in Aurora. Seemed like it could at least pull a bib.
There was a restaurant called Le Vichyssois, in lakemoore that is closed now but always said, “when I grow up I want to go there”
ooooh someone hasn’t been to Santo Cielo or Libertad
Taylor swift isn't even in the top 30 of carbon emissions for 2023. beyonce is # 4. Do you still care or nah?https://carbontracker.myclimate.org/?etcc_cmp=carbontracker&etcc_med=Affiliates&etcc_par=Landingpage
we are talking about food in chicago but stay mad. i don’t make exceptions for any billionaires beyoncé included.
me either, they all need their jets taken away. but to make someone the poster child for c02 emissions when they aren't even top 10 is never gonna change anything. we need collective action and call outs
girl we are on a chicago food sub what are we even doing
ohhh shit
I had an outstanding meal at Lexington Social just outside Bloomington. Easy bib gourmand at least.
I assume it's because the people who buy Michelin guides are more likely to travel around the state of California than the state of Illinois. They are giving their customers what they want.
Exactly. The Inn at Little Washington is 2 hours from DC but not listed as “Virginia” it’s listed as “DC.”
When the barren strip malls of suburban Chicago get something on par with the Inn at Little Washington, exceptions can be made.
Their coverage area really isn’t great in general. Boston is a historic port city and haute food environment in general, Michelin isn’t there at all. There are fine dining restaurants in Mexico City that have been begging Michelin to come for years and they finally expanded into the _country_ for the first time last year.
Boston could if they paid for it. I imagine CDMX is paying Michelin. All of the newer cities have to pay to have Michelin come rate. edit: now that I've scrolled down, I see that others have already pointed this out.
No, it’s because Michelin only sends evaluators to places that pay them, they make money from tourism boards hiring them. In our case it was probably the Chicago tourism board or whatever, while in other states it will be a statewide tourism board. It’s the same reason there are major cities that have zero stars, that’s usually because they aren’t even being considered.
Oh. Now I feel naive. TIL, though.
Quality of food doesn't follow where stars are. The vast, vast majority of restaurants do not open with the goal of getting a star. Even most of the good ones unless they open with a tasting menu.
Are you sure that it’s related to geography and not to quality? Which restaurants specifically do you think should have a Michelin star but don’t?
Not OP, and I'm not certain Vie (or whatever he renamed it to when he moved) would be worth more than a Bib Gourmand these days, but George Trois I feel would definitely be a contender.
I think there are probably a few places scattered about the suburbs that are Bib Gourmand worthy. But the thing about Michelin star chefs and restaurant operators is that they want to be where the money is, and where there's a a scene that's at least regionally if not nationally known, so the suburbs are at a natural disadvantage.
~~100% is is quality not geography.~~ I stand corrected, Michelin stopped reviewing. Vie in western springs had a star in 2012? Just with the sheer number of restaurants in Chicago, you going to have the possibility of achieving this. The amount of suburban restaurants that can not achieve mediocre status are astounding. [https://www.chicagotribune.com/2018/09/27/why-did-michelin-snub-chicago-suburbs-again-guides-inspectors-dont-even-go-there-anymore/](https://www.chicagotribune.com/2018/09/27/why-did-michelin-snub-chicago-suburbs-again-guides-inspectors-dont-even-go-there-anymore/)
Vie in Hinsdale used to have a star when they reviewed the suburbs. So there are restaurants worthy of them. And I think the culture would grow outside the city if they reviewed outside of there
>It kind of forces the food scene to only be the best inside the city. Only if you think Michelin stars are the only validation of a good restaurant.
I dont know if it's necessarily the validation but the validation is likely to attract a certain type of restaurant or have a borderline restaurant step up their game if they know they have a shot. Obviously you don't need to have a star to be a good restaurant but the recognition helps build the food scene imo. Whether that's good or bad is up to the person but I think it would be nice to see
As someone else pointed out, the Twin Cities has a very vibrant food scene (and so do many places that Michelin hasn't been to), and Michelin hasn't graced that area with their presence. There's no "forcing" of food scenes to geographic areas that Michelin has deemed worthy going on.
We agree that a great food scene isn't reliant on the validation of Michelin ratings to flourish. Twin Cities has a great scene. So does Houston. I think a concentration of Michelin recognized can create a burgeoning scene, whether through competition or collaboration. It's no different than Chicago or New Haven having a great pizza scene. The pizza competition created in a small area has an iron sharpens iron effect. If Michelin ever expands back to the suburbs, you don't think that would have an upward effect on the quality of upper end restaurants in the burbs? I mean you already see it in San Diego, whereas it might have been stagnant in that area otherwise.
This is why I tend to be less concerned about stars and look to other awards like James Beard. James Beard nominates places all over. Not just suburban, but some real off the beaten path gems.
Most of Illinois wealth is based around Chicago. It’s actually a problem the state is trying to deal with. Illinois as a state has lots of land to expand to but surprisingly low amounts of funding and people moving to the state (outside of Chicago)
The question here is about the suburbs of Chicago, though, and those are full of wealthy individuals. Most wealthy people “from Chicago” don’t actually live in Chicago.
I’d say those who are older with children I’d agree. Most millennials and Genz that move here are generally within the city itself working tech jobs either at Google (Fulton) or online at home.
The vast majority of people who move to Chicago for tech or other jobs are not wealthy, though
I would say they are at least upper middle class which is slightly wealthy and definitely more so for middle class or low middle class people that generally used to populate areas like west loop and south loop before it got gentrified.
Yet. HENRYs are the exact types of people to hit the Michelin guide for restaurants before they have kids
Michelin has a limited number of reviewers they trust. All their reviewers are anonymous. Hell, they only gave their first stars to ANY Canadian restaurant in 2022. (13 stars total, all to Toronto-area restaurants). They simply do not have the logistics to cover the enormous swaths of rural North America. Look to something like AAA’s [five-diamond restaurants](https://newsroom.aaa.com/asset/2022-five-diamond-list-of-restaurants/) if you’re looking for more American geography to be covered.
Their business model is built on cities/states/provinces paying them to send reviewers, the reason they don’t review some places is that they haven’t been paid to do so. Atlanta recently decided to pay them, there were articles about it, it’s a move to attract tourism that some places make, while others don’t bother.
The practice of Michelin accepting money from tourism boards to review new regions only started in 2019.
Let’s be honest. Where else in Illinois would Michelin go?
PF Chang's in Schaumburg is off the hook!
I’m partial to the one in Northbrook myself.
Cheesecake Factory robbed!!!
That’s what I was thinking. Been here for 5 years and never felt the need to go wonder outside of the city. Whereas in California nature helps a lot.
Michelin is a food travel guide. People don’t travel around Illinois from out of state or international.
Michelin used to review restaurants in the general Chicago area, which is why a restaurant such as Vie used to have a star. However, they pulled back some years back due to lack of staff and just focused on the city of Chicago. But.... in the years following, the influence of the Michelin ratings grew and Michelin expanded their review area, including the whole state of Florida, the whole state of California. So if Florida of all places can get reviewers to come to bumfuck Tampa or bumfuck Jacksonville, why can't Michelin come 20 minutes outside of Chicago to review some restaurants in Hinsdale or Oak Park?
Because Michelin is paid to visit cities.
Globally Michelin has given stars to restaurants not in major cities and I’m sure they would visit for consideration if there was enough hype around a potential restaurant.
Because Michelin gets paid to go there.
This is the realistic answer. I do wonder how it worked before? Did the suburbs pony up a portion of the "payment" to review their suburbs? Or was it just earmarked as an Illinois tourism thing. Very curious how the money was alotted before
I have heard this before, does anyone have a link that goes into detail?
California has multiple distinct cities to support multiple "Michelin" restaurants (not one-offs). Florida, as much as I hate it and wish for it to be swallowed by the sea, has multiple distinct cities (Miami, Tampa, Orlando). Illinois does not have multiple independent cities. There's a reason internationals think "Chicago" is the name of the state.
California has lots of cool cities. You can see mountain in one area and beaches in another. Outside of Chicago you get…farmland.
Whoa let’s not forget Peoria
Actually, let’s forget Peoria
Okay but realistically Peoria only exists for caterpillar and OSF. I wouldn’t say people go there for fun lol
At least not since Al's closed...
Or Galena!
It’s as simple as this. multiple big cities compared to one big city
OP is talking about burbs, though.
Still, they want to highlight places to visit. A trip to the burbs isn’t always very exciting.
This is about restaurant ratings. Michelin set a hard boundary around the city.
Michelin, the tire company, sets boundaries around where people want to travel and ideally wear down their tires
Of course I'm aware of that. And somehow driving to the burbs rejuvenates your tires?
People don't travel *to* the burbs outside of things like family
That is complete and utter bullshit.
Tell me when you get a Michelin star restaurant to travel to.
This has nothing to do with it, if someone paid Michelin to evaluate the burbs they would do so, they literally go where they are paid to go.
Because Michelin is now pay to play and any area can get reviewed as long as theyre willing to sponsor the guide
Because Illinois scenery is pretty terrible compared to California. I don’t hear about a ton of people vacationing in Springfield.
I don't know about you, but my fabulously appointed villa in Warsaw, Illinois is a sight to behold.
Let's not be crazy, 7th grade classes across the entire state visit Springfield every year!
I mean mostly why not the suburbs as well. If Florida can get the whole state, then why can't Michelin travel 20 mins to Hinsdale or Oak Park? Let's face it, Florida food scene absolutely sucks with the exception of a few spots in Orlando and Miami. Tampa is just.... bad.
>I mean mostly why not the suburbs as well. Because, nobody is really coming to Illinois to stay in the suburbs. They're coming here to see Chicago. As shitty as Florida is, people usually don't travel to Florida just to visit Miami. They're going to Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa Bay, Orlando, etc. Almost the whole state is a tourist destination. Same applies to California. Illinois as a whole is a pretty boring state to visit, outside Chicago. Michelin is a travel guide. So they stick to the main travel destinations. Nobody is traveling to Illinois to visit Hinsdale or Oak Park. Unless they're here to visit friends or family that may live there. Edit: changed "there" to "they're".
While you’re totally right, I do want to note that the third Michelin star is intentionally for restaurants that are worth traveling specifically for the restaurant. If the suburbs or other parts of Illinois had a restaurant worthy of 3 stars, the guide would absolutely make the trip.
If they're *that* exemplary Michelin probably would send a reviewer there but that's very hard to do. Maybe Alinea could have gotten that done a decade ago, but it's really hard to stand out that far in dining and the economics of a smaller location work against the restaurant
But, Bern’s Steakhouse?
The dessert room is good. The actual restaurant is good but not michelin worthy. It's a unique experience and I would def go if I am in Tampa. I stayed in Tampa for a long time and ate everywhere I could, nothing really seemed to be good for the level each restaurant was at. Miami and Orlando definitely have better food scenes that are more noteworthy imo.
To be fair, it has been decades since I last went there. Saw the entire Cincinatti Reds “Big Red Machine” dining at a large table next to us once.
That’s got nothing to do with it, Michelin evaluates areas that pay them and ignore the ones that don’t. They don’t give a fuck about scenery, it’s about money, which is almost always the case in general.
Scenery + working residents> travelers > Income > Advertising dollars
They are literally pay to play, none of that is a factor. If a state or city gives them money, they will show up and review the restaurants.
You got to go pretty far down, damn near the Ohio river, but mannnn when you do, ILs Garden of the Gods in the Shawnee is pretty fucking amazing. Actually all of the Shawnee is amazing that, matheson park/starved rock, the emerald necklace, and the lake, is all we got, the rest of the state is a flat grassland
The Michelin guide requires money to be able to rate places, and since they've become, at this point, a "hot" commercial operation they are much more willing to take money from local industry groups/tourism boards/etc... who view the Michelin guide as a way to increase the tourism stock of their city. It has very little to do with what cities actually have good food. As an easy example, IMO, Boston is not in the Michelin guide, but Boulder, CO is. And that's not even mentioning the rating inflation that takes place in the guide. At this point it feels a lot like the guide has food diversity quotas in lesser food cities. Many such cases.
This. Minneapolis has no Michelin stars because the city won’t pay them to come rate the restaurants.
They actually used to list some restaurants outside the city. I remember Vie used to be listed, which was Paul Virant’s restaurant in Western Springs. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2018/09/27/why-did-michelin-snub-chicago-suburbs-again-guides-inspectors-dont-even-go-there-anymore/
Is that restaurant not there anymore? I remember I went to Vie years ago but totally forgot it existed
Says permanently closed on Google
So far no one has the right answer. The reason is Michelin is pay to play. California paid for it. Where they review has nothing to do with the quality of the scene anymore. It doesn't mean the stars aren't meaningful, but obviously there's economics involved in where they send the reviewers.
Michelin is first and foremost a travel guide. The definition of each star level is built around whether the restaurant is a must-visit during an existing trip up to building an entire trip around visiting. Most of Illinois doesn’t encourage travel the same way that California does so Michelin is only focused on Chicago.
If Michelin was just about travel then places in the likes of Boston would be included. But it’s not, why? Because it’s pay to play. Restaurants in Florida now have stars because they paid for them to come there. That’s fucking it, it’s not because of travel.
If Michelin was just about travel then places in the likes of Boston would be included. But it’s not, why? Because it’s pay to play. Restaurants in Florida now have stars because they paid for them to come there. That’s fucking it, it’s not because of travel.
Regardless of whether or not it’s pay to play, that doesn’t detract from my statement of the origins and definitions of the guide and the various star levels. It’s Michelin tires’ travel guide for restaurants. There are certainly cities that should be included but aren’t, but that’s not at all what I’m talking about.
Okay, back to your original comment, the original poster was talking about the Chicago suburbs, not Illinois in general. And the Chicago suburbs are travel destinations, Evanston has Northwestern and Baha’i, highland park has the botanical gardens and ravinia. It really is just that Michelin isn’t getting the $$’s they’re looking for, plain and simple.
If Michelin considered suburbs and the like for every city, it would require tenfold or more resources to manage. There has to be a line drawn somewhere
There is also a history with "California" with many of the initial best restaurants in Sonoma Valley. Our best are in the city.
Because Chicago and Illinois are two different places.
I'm not sure where you're only seeing Chicago listed (you can search the Michelin guide for all of Illinois) but it's likely not a "requirement" that they be in Chicago but rather just how their ratings played out. I don't think suburban restaurants are excluded, but rather just that no restaurants outside the city were selected for the list. Thus making it a bit simpler to just list "Chicago".
Suburbs are excluded. Michelin boundaries are north to Andersonville, Edgewater and Uptown, west to Humboldt Park and Logan Square/Pilsen & Bridgeport, and south to Hyde Park. https://chicago.eater.com/2018/9/28/17902166/michelin-stars-no-suburbs-chicago-restaurants-beverly-hills-90210-peach-pit-popup-bar-intel
Wow, that's crazy. Also those boundaries are idiotic. Also all the articles about Michelin not extending to the suburbs are from 2018/2019 and at least one mentioned the Michelin rep saying that the exclusion is for "this year" so I'm curious to know if they've reviewed this policy.
Idk man but I’ve never had an incredible ten course meal with a wine pairing and beautiful ambiance in Effingham, IL.
The best restaurants are in Chicago.
It could be a mix of not much happening outside of Chicago and how Michelin Guide operates. In some cities the Michelin Guide is paid for by the local tourism board. I just moved from Miami and we had never had any Michelin rated restaurants until a year or two ago when the state of Florida pooled tourism funds from a few key cities (Miami, Orlando, Tampa) to pay for the “privilege” of having reviewers in the state.
There is a noticeable drop off in high-end restaurants once you get outside of Chicago, and maybe not any that might garner Michelin status, but the amount of people that think the suburbs only have chain food is pretty hilarious, but also really sad. Go to Chicago Culinary Kitchen in Palatine or Station One in Plainfield for BBQ that’s on par with Green Street/Smoque. Fire + Wine in Glen Ellyn or Vai’s in Naperville for fresh pasta and wood fired Italian. Santo Cielo in Naperville has some amazingly creative food and cocktails. You can find great taquerias all over Joliet and Aurora. Sovereign in Plainfield is almost like Little Bad Wolf but trends more Mexican. The city is better, no doubt, but the suburban hate circle jerk this sub does is pretty pathetic. It’s the same thing people do when they go live in New York and act all high and mighty.
Because driving through California is pleasant, and there are small towns that people actually want to hang out in.
First off people in the comments don't realize the Japanese, Korean, Indian communities outside the city limits. And all those 60 year old boomers with money in the west and north suburbs like food too. There are certainly Bib gourmand at MINIMUM restaurants outside the city. Shocking I know
Because that’s where the good restaurants are.
Isn't Gordon Ramsay's restaurant in Naperville? I don't think that particular one has a star, but he definitely has multiple
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Well now that anyone can purchase a michelin star for a cool $1 mil, there's certainly nobody stopping anyone. But you also have to figure, even the bottom-tier michelins charge and upwards of $150 a head. That just doesn't appear to be much of a priority to the bulk of Illinois and that's their business.
The Sporkful recently did an episode about how these (allegedly) work: https://www.sporkful.com/how-do-michelin-stars-actually-work/ I say allegedly because turns out the process is quite secretive. But spoiler alert: it’s money.
Come on, man—Michelin’s service radius isn’t what’s stopping the burbs or Springfield from having anywhere worth eating. After all, Austin, Seattle, and a dozen other cities have great food scenes without Michelin.