Why Boston has no Michelin star restaurants
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Boston's burgeoning food scene boasts award-winning chefs and innovative restaurants, but you won't find any with prestigious Michelin stars because we simply aren't on the guide's radar — yet.
Why it matters: Michelin stars serve as a kind of global benchmark in fine dining, bringing praise and prestige to winning restaurants — along with, presumably, tourist traffic to their towns.
- Without Michelin's guide extending to New England, Boston restaurants remain unranked in one of the world's top culinary systems.
It's not the food that's keeping Michelin out. It's money, politics and local leaders trying to make certain a Boston guide is a good deal for Boston.
- Michelin operates in very few U.S. areas: New York, Chicago, Colorado, Washington, D.C., Florida, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta and Texas.
- The guide launches where there is a willingness by local tourism boards and governments to strike up a financial partnership with the tire company-turned-cultural tastemaker.
State of play: Massachusetts and Boston officials haven't made that deal, so there are no stars available for local restaurants.
- Local tourism boards typically must pay huge fees for Michelin to launch guides.
- California paid $600,000 to expand coverage beyond San Francisco.
- Florida tourism boards collectively paid about $1.5 million over three years to bring Michelin to the Sunshine State.
Boston's tourism organization, Meet Boston, is in discussions to bring the guide to the city but says it needs to ensure any local financial investment pays off for the restaurant industry, tourists and consumers.
- Dave O'Donnell from Meet Boston told Axios it's not as simple as paying the company and getting a guide.
- "There's a lot of elements of the guide in how we would create a launch plan and a strategy to amplify and grow the number of restaurants that are recognized," O'Donnell said, adding, "We're just not there yet in terms of that comprehensive strategy."
Meet Boston's goal, according to O'Donnell, is to elevate the story of Boston dining above clam chowder, beans and Yankee cuisine to showcase the top-level cooking that's done here.
- A Michelin guide would be part of that goal, O'Donnell said, and "we would make sure that the arrival of the Michelin Guide drives the results and the culinary awareness that we wanted to."
Yes, but: Michelin doesn't like characterizing their evaluation process as purely pay-to-play. The company says it assesses a city's culinary scene before getting into talks over fees with local officials.
What they're saying: "A city having a guide doesn't necessarily improve its food scene," chef Marc Sheehan, co-owner of Northern Spy in Canton, told Axios.
- Sheehan, who's worked at top-tier Boston restaurants like Menton and No. 9 Park as well as the two-star Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Tarrytown, New York, before starting his own place, says competing for a prized star can take a restaurant out of alignment with its customer base and jeopardize its finances.
- He says the Massachusetts scene is less suited for the type of fine dining praised by Michelin — and that's just fine, since Boston has its own high-quality identity.
Between the lines: Some local chefs and owners say Boston is missing out on:
- International culinary prestige that comes with Michelin approval
- Attracting and retaining top culinary talent in Boston
- Food tourism and accompanying revenue that could come from high-end visitors
The bottom line: Boston officials have to be sold on the idea that a Michelin guide would enhance the whole of the Boston food scene, not just a handful of star-rated restaurants, and that it's worth the financial investment.