As the pandemic ravaged the restaurant industry in 2020, Michelin took a step back. The guides it intended to release for Washington D.C., New York and Chicago were pushed into the spring, while the California guide had a more than two-year gap between publish dates. For the upper reaches of the the guide—the two- and three-star level—Michelin largely eschewed demotions, barring a closure or the changing its concept. Some new restaurants were able to ascend to the two-star level, but no American restaurant was deemed worthy of elevation to three stars in 2021.
Unfortunately, America did lose a three-star restaurant this year. With the Restaurant at Meadowood burning down during the Glass Fire, Michelin removed it from consideration. However, Christopher Kostow is rebuilding the restaurant and has been doing a North American tour in the lead-up to reopening. And when Thomas Keller posted on his Instagram stories one night that the French Laundry’s service would be in honor of his fellow three-stars in California, he counted Kostow’s restaurant among them.
With Meadowood’s exclusion and no further movement elsewhere, the United States now boasts 13 restaurants that the old French tire company regards as having “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.” America trails France’s 30 and Japan’s 22, where Tokyo alone boasts 11 three-star restaurants. But here are the restaurants that have reached the top, from Alinea to SingleThread.
Alinea, Chicago
Photo: courtesy Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images (Left); Bill Wisser (Right)
Ever since Michelin first came to the Windy City for its 2011 edition, chef Grant Achatz’s temple of molecular gastronomy has held three stars. Drawing on flavors from around the world—one course may be a chicken thigh with Mexican spices, while a rare Japanese fish may be another—Alinea’s modernist cuisine is strongly influenced from the time he spent at Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli. The restaurant is a showcase of advanced technique where food is dehydrated, subjected to liquid nitrogen, and you may even be fed an edible balloon. Although, for the 2021 guide, Alinea co-owner Nick Kokonas thought it was a little early to start rating, considering the restaurant hadn’t really been open. Alinea had a rooftop residency in Chicago and was a leader in to-go meals in the fine dining space, but when the new Chicago guide came out, it had only been reopened for a few weeks.
Atelier Crenn, San Francisco
Photo: Aaron Wojack
Since opening in 2011, chef Dominique Crenn has put out a soulful, artistic take on modern French fare. After sitting at two stars for years, Michelin has finally awarded Atelier Crenn a third. The guide wrote that “The current menu displays a wonderful balance of grace, artistry, technical ability and taste.” With the honor, Crenn became the first woman to run a Michelin three-star restaurant in America. Not only that, her newest restaurant Bar Crenn—an ode to classic French gastronomy—picked up a star in its first year of eligibility. In 2019 she announced that she would take the meat off of all her menus—seafood would remain—because of Crenn’s concern about the environmental impact of animal agriculture. However, this past summer she announced meat would return to Atelier Crenn’s menu for the first time since 2018 because she would serve lab-grown chicken once it passed FDA approval.
Benu, San Francisco
Photo: courtesy Benu
Among his peers, chef Corey Lee is highly revered. “The first time I ate Corey’s food was at the French Laundry when he was chef de cuisine,” Crenn says. “I could taste the talent behind the food. What I love about Benu is he celebrates where he’s from—Korea—and he communicates that in a very special way.” Praised for his technical ability and refinement of dishes, Lee’s Benu earned its third star in the 2015 guide. Lee has merged flavors from Korea, China and Japan with techniques he honed as the French Laundry’s chef de cuisine for four years. The result is a lauded tasting menu that will feature dishes like an oyster with pork belly and kimchi; or smoked quail, lilies and fermented pepper. Like his counterparts, Lee prepared takeout during Covid-19 closures. However, he used that opportunity as a testing ground for his forthcoming Korean restaurant San Ho Won.
Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, New York City
Photo: Courtesy Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare
The name is a bit of a misnomer, as chef César Ramirez has moved his fine-dining restaurant from Downtown Brooklyn to Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan. But the format has endured. Diners sit arrayed around a counter, the chefs in full view preparing them a multi-course tasting menu of French-Japanese fusion cuisine. When Brooklyn Fare earned its third star a Michelin inspector told the New York Times “I don’t believe there is anything quite like it in the world, though you might see the closest parallels in Tokyo or Kyoto. If you took the cuisine out of the setting it would compare favorably with other three stars.” April of last year, Ramirez introduced takeout, eschewing a tasting-menu model in favor of a la carte dishes like chicken soup with truffles and foie gras, and veal shank with fingerling potatoes. And the restaurant held off on reopening for dine-in service until April of this year.
Eleven Madison Park, New York City
Evan Sung
Despite being closed until after the 2021 New York guide was released, Eleven Madison Park, the former No. 1 restaurant at the World’s 50 Best, retained its three Michelin stars. In May of 2020, Daniel Humm worried about whether he’d ever reopen EMP, and when he finally decided it was time, the restaurant that reemerged this past June was markedly different than the one that came before. EMP has gone mostly vegan, with Humm saying at the time of the announcement that the “current food system is simply not sustainable.”
French Laundry, Yountville, CA
Courtesy Michael Grimm
Around since the early 1900s, the French Laundry was transformed by Thomas Keller into a leader of American fine dining after taking it over in 1994. Rooted in his love of French food and technique, the nine-course menu features dishes like a cauliflower velouté with toasted marcona almonds, john dory with creamed black trumpet mushrooms, squab with sunchokes, and venison with caramelized Brussels sprouts. “The French Laundry showed the importance of nostalgia in food,” says James Syhabout of two-star Commis in Oakland. “It traces what triggers you to take you to that same place when you first had a dish and it made you so happy. That’s all that matters sometimes about food.” One of the greatest testaments to the French Laundry’s influence has been the sheer number of alumni who have opened acclaimed restaurants of their own, from Grant Achatz’s Alinea, to Corey Lee’s Benu, to Rene Redzepi’s Noma, to Jordan Kahn’s Vespertine. Like his idol Paul Bocuse, Keller has created a proving ground for exceptional chefs.
The Inn at Little Washington, Washington, VA
Photo: courtesy Inn at Little Washington
It took three years for Michelin to deem a DC-area restaurant worthy of three stars, and it’s not a surprise that when it finally happened Patrick O’Connell’s Inn would be on the receiving end. Nestled near the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia in a town of less than 200 people, he opened in a former garage, building it into a temple of gastronomy over the last four decades. The self-taught chef pioneered American farm-to-table cooking, while leaning on modern French technique that the Gallic food guide especially loves. When the restaurant could seat people again starting last May, it got creative with social distancing. O’Connell’s restaurant could only operate at 50 percent capacity, so it filled the remaining half of the place with mannequins for a whimsical spectacle of a dining room.
Le Bernardin, New York City
Photo: Courtesy Le Bernardin
Eric Ripert helms one of the finest seafood restaurants in America. Le Bernardin originally opened in 1986, an import from Paris, and was a hit immediately upon arriving on our shores. Ripert took over the kitchen in 1994, continuing the approach of exceptional seafood, simply prepared. When we named the “30 Most Influential Restaurants of the Last 30 Years” Le Bernadin was among the honorees, with chef Adrienne Cheatham summing up its legacy by saying, “This restaurant dedicated itself to exploring the bounty of the sea and to challenge and change the way diners were used to not only cooking and consuming, but also purchasing seafood.” It’s an experience Ripert didn’t think translated to DoorDash and Postmates. “I don’t think our experience can be formulated into a takeout experience,” he said. “I don’t see the carpaccio of tuna with foie gras traveling to your house and being served in the right conditions.” So it wasn’t a big surprise that Le Bernardin was the first Michelin three-star restaurant in New York to reopen. Ripert told Robb Report, that the restaurant and staff were floated by a reasonable landlord and donations from diners that were distributed to employees.
Manresa, Los Gatos, CA
Photo: courtesy David Spiegelman
It’s cliché to say a chef embraces farm-to-table, but David Kinch has been a pioneer in developing vegetable-centric, contemporary California cuisine. Utilizing the bounty of Golden State produce, he’s inspired by the region, making dishes like Tidal Pool, which mimics the rocky coasts of the Bay Area. It’s a rich broth that poaches a raw slice of foie gras and is accompanied by uni, butter clams, mussels, oyster, pickled kombu, toasted nori and shitake mushrooms. His influence continues around California with alums opening their own outstanding restaurants, like Syhabout at Commis, Jeremy Fox of Birdie G’s in Santa Monica and Josef Centeno of PYT in Los Angeles. Another fire at Manresa shut the restaurant down last year, as it had three years ago, but Kinch has bounced back again to reopen his flagship. Now, he’s expanding the Manresa name even further, with head baker Avery Ruzicka creating the exceptional bakery and café Manresa Bread and then opening Mentone during the pandemic.
Masa, New York City
Courtesy of Masa
One of the most expensive tasting menus in America, chef Masa Takayama serves up an omakase sushi experience at his eponymous restaurant in New York’s Time Warner Center on the corner of Central Park. The Japanese-born chef moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s and eventually opened Ginza Sushi-ko, which helped establish the city’s love for sushi. In 2004, with encouragement from Thomas Keller, he moved to New York to create Masa. Fish from Japan is flown in directly to him from Tsujiki Fish Market to ensure the highest-quality product for his customers. In the 2009 guide, it became the first Japanese restaurant in America to earn three stars. During lockdowns, Masa introduced an opulent $800 sushi box and when it reopened, it started offering an $800 per person meal at the chef’s counter that includes a wagyu beef tataki course along with the omakase menu.
Per Se, New York City
Photo: courtesy Deborah Jones
As Thomas Keller prepared to bring his Francophile cooking to New York after much success with the French Laundry out in Napa, he was asked how his new restaurant would compare to the one that had established him as an iconic American chef. He’d respond, “It’s not the French Laundry, per se.” The name stuck. Like the French Laundry, Per Se serves a nine-course menu, replete with his take on modern French.
Quince, San Francisco
Photo: Courtesy Quince
Chef Michael Tusk has combined his love of Northern Italian cuisine with his surrounds in Northern California to evolve classics like tortellini into modern American fare. Opened in 2003, Quince earned its third Michelin star in the 2017 guide. As with fellow pillars of contemporary California cuisine in the Bay Area, Quince is devoted to sourcing the best product. Tusk has created a partnership with Fresh Run Farm—an early adopter of organic farming—to grow heirloom fruits, vegetables and flowers exclusively for the chef. In 2011, after six straight nominations, Tusk won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Pacific, for his work at Quince and his rustic Italian restaurant Cotogna. Earlier in 2019, Tusk and his wife Lindsay also opened their French-inspired casual wine bar Verjus. For the pandemic, Michael and Lindsay moved Quince temporarily to Hudson Ranch about an hour outside the city and served a simplified menu driven by the produce around them.
SingleThread, Healdsburg, CA
Photo: Courtesy
Husband and wife duo Kyle and Katina Connaughton wanted to open more than just a restaurant when they debuted SingleThread in Sonoma in 2016. From the inn above the restaurant to the farm to the 11-course tasting menu, the two create an immersive and comprehensive experience. The Japanese-inflected food is informed by Kyle’s time as a chef around the globe. Among many stints, he worked at the famed chef Michel Bras’ restaurant in Hokkaido, Japan, made pastries at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in Beverly Hills; and led the research kitchen at Heston Blumenthal’s temple of molecular gastronomy The Fat Duck. When the pandemic shut them down last year, Connaughton switched to a takeout menu, but also partnered with local nonprofit Sonoma Family Meal to make meals for those in need in their community. The couple are also going to open a new restaurant in Healdsburg: Little Saint will serve an a la carte, meat-free menu inside a Ken Fulk-designed space.
