Chicago Keeps Losing Its Michelin-Starred Restaurants

(Bloomberg) -- When Michelin started awarding stars to Chicago restaurants in 2011, the city was one of the most exciting places to eat in America. Grant Achatz had recently opened his evolving restaurant concept, Next, and chefs like Laurent Gras and Graham Elliot were cooking wildly ambitious dishes. It was the country’s most high-end experimental-dining city. 

The tide is turning in the Windy City. According to an Allied x Zillow 2021 Magnet States Report, Chicago led U.S. cities in outbound moves in 2021. Residents were most likely to head to warmer places with better housing such as Phoenix and Houston. 

Likewise, Chicago is quietly losing Michelin star power. On April 5, the restaurant guide announced its star rankings for the city. There remains just one three-star dining room in town: Alinea, owned by Achatz and Nick Kokonas. (In the inaugural Chicago guide, Gras’s L20 also earned three stars.) 

Last year there were five spots on the two-star list, two of them new. Five restaurants were also listed for “excellent cooking that is worth a detour,” as defined by Michelin. This year there are four, with no new additions.

In all, 23 restaurants in Chicago are starred, compared to 25 in 2020. The only new places this year are four with one-star designations. 

It doesn’t help that several venerable Chicago restaurants closed their doors last year. Acadia, an ambitious two-star spot on Chicago’s South Side, shuttered in the fall. And one of the city’s most famous dining rooms, Spiaggia, Tony Mantuano’s 37-year-old Italian powerhouse, announced in July that it would close following a dispute with the landlord.

The closings are indicative of a pronounced trend around in the city. About 280 restaurants closed in fourth-quarter 2021, compared to 23 in the same period in 2019, according to Crain’s. 

Another restaurant missing from this year’s list is the beloved Korean-American spot Parachute. It hasn’t been open since the start of the pandemic but has instead been shipping fried chicken and bing bread to fans across the country. Parachute has retained its one-star designation—Michelin imposed a rule that it wouldn’t strip stars as a result of the pandemic—but the restaurant doesn’t appear on this year’s list. “It’s being retained without distinction,” says the chief inspector for Michelin North America, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the constraints of the position. “If a starred restaurant is closed for an unspecified time, since we’re coming on two years of selection, we are unable to visit it.” The cloudy distinction is “in the interest of our consumer.” 

The new one-star restaurants include Galit, where chef Zach Engel offers a $68 tasting menu of Middle Eastern dishes such as falafel with funky mango and his Armenian version of pastrami. Another Michelin newcomer is Kasama, a Philippine restaurant and bakery from Genie Kwon and Timothy Flores that serves breakfast sandwiches consisting of longanisa sausage, egg, and cheese, as well as chicken adobo during the day. At night a 13-course tasting menu is offered.

The new restaurants illustrate the evolution of homegrown talent, according to Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guides. At the new one-star Claudia, chef Trevor Teich is a Chicago native who cooked in some of the city’s most notable restaurants, including L20 and Acadia.  

Michelin’s list of Bib Gourmands was announced last week and featured 55 spots. (There were 58 last year, if you’re counting.) Defined as “quality restaurants that have menu items that offer two courses and a glass of wine or dessert for $40 or less,” they include Superkhana International, whose kitchen specializes in Indian dishes, and Bloom Plant Based Kitchen in Wicker Park, with menu items such as banana blossom tacos made with hemp seed tortillas. 

As Chicago shows signs of slowing down, other glitzy parts of the world have attracted Michelin’s attention. Last week, the guide announced that it would start awarding stars in Dubai in June. Last year, Michelin announced it would give out stars to restaurants in Miami, Orlando, and Tampa.  

Here is the full list of Chicago’s Michelin-starred restaurants. An asterisk (*) denotes a new entry.

Three Stars

Alinea

Two Stars

Ever
Moody Tongue
Oriole
Smyth

One Star

Boka
*Claudia 
EL Ideas
Elizabeth
Elske
*Esmé
*Galit
Goosefoot

*Kasama
Mako
Next
North Pond
Omakase Yume
Porto
Schwa
Sepia
Temporis 
Topolobampo

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