I was fortunate to be included in the Michelin star reveals for Chicago, DC and New York City in TriBeCa last night. That’s not a typo – for some reason (cost, convenience, grandeur), Michelin decided to do all three cities at the same time. I’ve been somewhat critical on the outsized role that Michelin plays in food culture here and abroad, and it feels like it’s growing doesn’t it? People who cared about Michelin 10 years ago still do. And people who considered Yelp the gold standard 10 years ago now know all about Bib Gourmands.
But all that means is that people care about Michelin stars. And after seeing the whole thing up close, maybe that’s a good thing? Keep in mind it wasn’t asshole foodies in attendance (if your immediate response is “what about you?”, good point). It was chefs, their teams, their sommeliers, their business managers, all excited to be honoured, just like directors, actors and producers at the Academy Awards. Perhaps it’s necessary for industries to have award shows, not just for networking but also for people to have something to work towards and get excited about. I’m still not convinced it should be the first look for diners, but I understand a little better now why it’s so important for the ecosystem.
BTW: If you need a rundown of how it all works, I have a full background on Michelin and a summary of ALL Michelin stars in the US and Canada right here.
My main focus at this thing was the 17 sushiya in those three cities that received stars (flat from 17 last year). My secondary focus was getting this article and newsletter out ASAP. You see, every real media outlet in the city was there, and so it’s always a race for that sweet, sweet Search Engine love to get it out first. Unfortunately for them, they have something called “editors” while my editing process entails right clicking on words for synonyms. Nice and quick.
The key updates for the night from a sushi perspective were:
- Goodbye Kanoyama and Sushi Ginza Onodera (closed) from the list
- Sushi Noz moves from 1 to 2 stars (and boy was their team VERY happy)
- Sushi Ichimura and Joji get a star
- No changes in Chicago and DC
I also have to mention Masa, which remained at three stars.
The Michelin review process is supposed to be anonymous; restaurants don’t know the reviewers are showing up. So it’s a little peculiar that Masa – a sushiya that apparently Masa himself is not regularly at – would keep it’s rating when the Itamae might not have been there when the reviewers came. Unless of course, he knew when they were coming and made sure to be behind the counter that night.
Full rundown of all sushiya below, Newbies have an *.
A word on the event
Lastly, it’s worth mentioning – and probably goes without saying – that Michelin knows how to throw an event. Wedding on steroids. Petrossian, fine cheese, octopus, salmon carpaccio, the dude from six pack chef slicing cucumber, open bar (and we’re in America so it was BUSY). Can’t be easy to coordinate everything, so if you ever can find your way in to one of these things, go.
- Sushi Nakazawa- 1100 Pennsylvania Ave NW
- Masa – 10 Columbus Circle
- Sushi Noz – 181 E 78th St (moves up)
- Icca – 20 Warren St
- Joji – 1 Vanderbilt Ave*
- Kosaka – 220 West 13th
- Noda – 6 W 28th St
- Noz 17 – 458 W 17th S
- Shion 69 Leonard – 69 Leonard St
- Sushi Amane – 245 E 44th St
- Sushi Ichimura – 412 Greenwich St*
- Sushi Nakazawa – 23 Commerce St
- Sushi Yasuda – 204 E 43rd St
- Yoshino – 342 Bowery