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andychalk

Michelin Guide Coming to Texas is Unequivocally Good For Dallas

Updated: Jul 25

by Andrew Chalk


It is now widely known that Michelin is about to start rating restaurants in Dallas (and the other large Texas cities Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Fort Worth). However, there has been a lot of misreporting about what Michelin is, how they work, and what this means for the city’s dining scene.


What is The Michelin Guide?

Michelin, the French tire company, started publishing guides to restaurants in France early last century. The objective was to get people driving, and using their tires, which would promote Michelin sales.


Since then, the guide, with its distinctive red signage, has become the most prestigious restaurant guide in the world and has expanded globally.


If The Michelin Guide Is So Good, Why Hasn’t It Covered Dallas, the Greatest City Since Pompeii Before The Inhabitants There Became The Meal?

Michelin started out covering locations where sales of its red guide would cover the costs of maintaining a team of inspectors.In practice, this meant countries like France, Italy, and the UK. It did not cover the USA at all, due to the logistical issues. 


In the Internet era the world became one country, so Michelin had to change to remain relevant. It needed a way to cover its costs that did not compromise its integrity. The latter ruled out advertising or sponsorship. The solution was to charge the political entity (e.g. the state of Florida, the state of Texas, etc.) for it to produce a guide. That is how the Texas guide came about. The guide will only cover the cities that have paid and the initial contract runs for three years. So if you live in another city (e.g. Plano, Frisco, Balch Springs) you won’t find your favorite hostelry included. This isn’t to say that Balch Springs is not a hotter hotbed of Michelin-starred restaurants than the Basque country, it is just not in the designated catchment area [Update: Michelin has since waffled on the hardness of this hard boundary].


Does Michelin Only Cover Expensive Restaurants?

No. Michelin covers every restaurant within a designated catchment area. Ninety-nine percent of restaurants are not good enough to get a mention. The others are classified into quality categories (described below).


What are the Quality Categories Used By the Michelin Guide?

At the very top, accounting for less than 1% of the restaurants mentioned (and hence less than one thousandth of all the restaurants in the catchment area), are “the stars”.

They, with their official descriptions, are shown above. If you find the descriptions laconic, join the crowd. Michelin has been widely criticized for this but refuses to change. 


Below the stars is a much larger category of “Knives and Forks” rated from one to five.

Three special categories also appear: The Bib Gourmand symbol is an attempt to describe ‘good value for money’. The drink symbols are self explanatory. The green symbol means that the restaurant makes a fuss about the ‘green’ measures that it takes (e.g. reusable bathroom tissue).


What Does Michelin Expect for Each of these Quality Ratings?


The Stars

For the stars, quality is defined in very traditional European terms, with one exception: The Japanese guide defers to the distinctions of Japanese culture. That won’t be relevant to Texas. Consider stars in Dallas to require high standards of service and decor as well as food, all defined in traditional terms. If you expect diners’ tables to need the waiter to stabilize them with matchbooks while the diners are in situ then you won’t get a star. Likewise, community tables will rule out a star. Counter service, as an option, is fine. 


The minimum standards to get just one star are extraordinarily high. Expect very few establishments to get any stars. I predict no 3-stars and, maybe, Tai-An will get two. To get one star a restaurant will have to be as good as a Fearing’s or Lucia. A former grande dame, like The Mansion Restaurant, will fail on account of the ordinariness of the food (based on reviews I have read -- I have not had the current chef’s food myself). El Carlos Elegante, which I personally love, will miss stars because it is too dark and too noisy. The food is Mexico City, but the illumination is one candlepower. 


Steakhouses will not get any stars. Michelin views dead moo cow as something the semi-capable amateur can prepare at home. This is despite the opulence and high standards of service that Dallas’ steakhouses display. The one certain award to a steakhouse will be Pappas’ Bros Steakhouse for a notable wine list. That is because they have 2,300+ different wines, acquired over two decades, and exceptionally well chosen. It is virtually incapable of improvement. Del Frisco’s could also get this award (I have not kept up to date with their list). There may be cocktail and beer awards as well, although I do not know of any particular establishments to watch for.


Michelin has a problem giving due credit to Dallas’ best barbecue establishments. The food at a Pecan Lodge or a Terry Black’s may be world class examples of Texas barbecue that, if you served it to Alan Ducasse (who holds more Michelin stars than any other living chef), would make him exclaim Mon Dieu! (French for Holy Fuck!), but style and service are like eating on the front line in Ukraine, in the rain. I would not use the Michelin Guide to choose barbecue joints. Their method essentially does not work here. 


Almost ditto for the rich patchwork quilt of Mexican cuisine that blankets the barrios all over town. The one place that might save this food from no recognition is Don Artemio, in Fort Worth, which can be described as a three-star edifice with 2-star service, serving Mexico City quality food. This is either an homage or a caricature to Mexican culinary heritage depending on your perspective. 


More broadly, Michelin does not cover ethnic food well, no matter how authentic and well-served it is. 


The Knives and Forks

The Knives and Forks category is the one that is going to be huge. Most of the places that Dallas loves will fall in this category. The list of candidates includes El Carlos Elegante, The Charles, GemmaLavendou, The Mansion, Monarch, Petra and the Beast, Quarter Acre, Sachet, Sevy, many  steakhouses, and countless I have not tried and so have omitted. 


What Dallas Chefs Know Michelin?

Restaurants, not chef’s, hold Michelin stars. But, for the executive chef playing the Michelin stars game is all-consuming. Bernard Loiseau committed suicide in 2003, apparently because he feared losing a Michelin star (he returned as Auguste Gusteau in the film Ratatouille). 


In Dallas, nobody has gone to these lengths - yet.


Bruno Davaillon, executive chef at Knox Bistro, earned a Michelin star (at Mix, in Las Vegas). He forfeited it when The Mansion Restaurant (in its aspirational days) hired him away to be Executive Chef. He was too early to earn a star in Dallas. 


John Tesar, Knife (plus other concepts), earned a Michelin star at Knife and Spoon in Orlando, in 2022, but lost it in 2024. He is still alive.


R J Yoakum, executive chef at Georgie, worked at Angler (*), Clove Club (*), and The French Laundry (***).


The most Michelin-experienced chef in Dallas may be Jose Meza. In his career he has worked at NOMA (***), Pujol (**), Martín Berasategui (***), De Pastoral (**), NIZUC, and elsewhere. Where is he now? Executive Chef at Jalisco Norte, a challenge that barely moves him into second gear. The Michelin coverage of Dallas gives him a golden opportunity to be the first chef in Dallas to earn stars here.


What Will Michelin Do For Dallas?

Michelin coming to Dallas is unequivocally positive for the city. There are no downsides.



First, Dallas chefs will now have the greatest culinary target in the world available to them, without leaving town. They will have a greater incentive to stretch for a star. I once asked Matt McCallister if he was moving to a Michelin-starred city after tasting his food at Fuego, a six-person counter at the back of Stephan Pyles Restaurant (now closed) serving a skunkworks creation of molecular gastronomy that I still consider his best gig. He gave a grunt, which I took to be the Arizonian equivalent of a Gallic shrug. Now he won’t need to move.


Second, the Michelin stars will persuade chefs to move to Dallas. Even chefs with Michelin stars. 


Third, it will increase the total dining spend by offering a better eating out product to the customer. 


Fourth, some restaurants that would have opened in the suburbs will open in Dallas, and some will move, in order to be in the catchment area. Addison, Plano, Richardson, watch out.   


Fifth, it is an alternative review metric to the James Beard awards or the local critics. 


 

The first edition of the Dallas guide is being reviewed now. It is expected to be published around the turn of the year. There will be nothing if not heated discussion as a result.

  


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