3 times this year. Not as strong as Y’s take, but not as strong a showing as others with fewer accolades. The wine staff are great.
Something like that. It was losing money. I obviously don’t have the details. Whether it was free or not…my point is that you can’t make money with a three star restaurant but you can with fast food.
I honestly have not been. I have never had a memorable meal. And just as valid a question to whether or not the naysayers have been there is where have those who like it dined? That is where Per Se and Le Bernardin fall down for me, I like so many other restaurants better.
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I disliked French Laundry for what it’s worth.
Usuallly go to Atoboy, Jua, Rezdora, Cagen, and lunch at Estatorios Milos when I’m in town. Modern Bar room when I can.
Jungsik was great.
Agern before it closed was in my rotation.
Loved EMP in the old days, but once they went to the simplified menu , I stopped after the first time.
Loved Jean George in the old days for the great lunch deal (JG was always there). Had a lunch group with other board members. Pre-pandemic , went to Marea regularly.
Recent international was Steirereck, Clove Club, Septime.
(Brooklyn Fare, Atomix are at a higher price level, haven’t been).
my trip to LB seems to be an outlier, but I eat more fish than most here, and fish was anything but tasteless. Find it hard to believe it could be that bad and that successful, but obviously several recent examples given of disappoinment (my visits prior to the last one were not exciting, but the fish quality was evident, not tasteless).
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Data geek me pulled up some data. In the last 10 years we’ve had 9 restaurants in US obtain 3 stars:
While a few restaurants took some time to obtain their first or second star, all with the exception of 2 got to their 3rd star within a few years of having their second star. The way I see it, for most restaurants 2 stars is either a pit stop for a few while they iron out a few kinks or a destination for most. I imagine most 3 star restaurants elsewhere follow a similar trend, but I haven’t finished compiling the data on all 92 restaurants that obtained 3 stars in the last 10 years. Once I have a bit more time I’ll clean up the full dataset to have a wider picture.
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A high end chef once told me the only way to make money in high end restaurants is by building a big enough rep to sell cookbooks.
I think Michelin stars in the US require a certain amount of performance that takes away a lot of the creativity and playfulness I like in restaurants (and that Europe still has). While I’d be happy for any of my favorite restaurants to get 3 stars, I don’t think it would improve my experience. I think NYC is the best city in the world at the 1 (and maybe 2) Michelin star level, and I’m pretty happy with that.
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@Greg_K You put well my sentiment 
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I have eaten at a few starred restaurants, but the only 3 star restaurant I have been to is Per Se. The main difference I experienced was the immaculate service provided at Per Se vs. the really good service at other places. I know there are other distinctions that matter much more to critics, but, to me, the difference was in the experience and not the food.
I think the piling on of bling ingredients (uni and gold leaf on everything!) is a huge detractor in high end dining these days. Clean, well conceived and executed food using top quality ingredients doesn’t need that kind of gilding, literal or otherwise. There are a few well known Japanese restaurants that are particularly guilty of it and we have no interest in eating there. In Japan, by contrast, we didn’t see it at all, either in Japanese restaurants or western. Of course, we didn’t go to any 3*s, so maybe it’s there as well, just not ubiquitous like it seems to be here.
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Grace, which opened in 2012, earned 3 stars in 2015 and kept them until it closed in 2017.
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That is one of the problems with the dataset I pulled from (Wikipedia), it only shows 3 Michelin star restaurants that currently hold it, it doesn’t include any that obtained 3 stars and lost it/closed within that time period. I’m sure there are some other examples like Grace, but I haven’t been able to find a complete data set of all Michelin star places and their star history. If anyone had any lead that’d be awesome.
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The NYC list is complete:
As is SF:
I bet others are as well
Someone should make a consolidated list…
Yep. The NYC and SF list are fairly complete. I originally pulled from world wide list List of Michelin 3-star restaurants - Wikipedia
Some cities like Paris or countries like France and Japan with large amounts of Michelin star places don’t have complete Wikipedia entries with that granular data unfortunately.
Try not to lose any sleep over this.
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Michelin stars are meaningless in the US. And have much less influence in our social media influenced culture everywhere. Michelin’s greatest competitor is Instagram.
Very sad to hear this. One of the greatest lunches of my life was at Le Bernardin
I think this is true to a certain strata of diner, but I don’t think it’s true to the industry generally.
I personally find them meaningless in the US. A better phrasing would be Michelin ratings for the US are unreliable, rather than meaningless. But their ratings are no real indicator of relative quality in the US…
I’ll agree the rating have different utility in the US, versus say Europe. It’s a marker, more for ***, of a certain type of restaurant. Some to avoid and some to seek out. Apologies if explicating the obvious.