The Michelin Guide will announce the restaurants included in its Northeast Cities edition on Nov. 18, at a ceremony at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
For the first time, the guide includes Boston and Philadelphia. The other cities in the Northeast category are Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Michelin chooses which restaurants to include by sending anonymous inspectors out into the region. In addition to awarding one, two, and three stars to restaurants, it offers designations such as Bib Gourmand, recognizing good quality food that is a good value (in other words, places the inspectors like to eat when they’re off the clock), and a green star for sustainability.
Three star restaurants are extremely rare; among the handful in the United States, Alinea, Inn at Little Washington, and Masa all just lost their third star. Demoted to two, they remain in rarefied company. There are only about three dozen two-star restaurants in this country. Boston is likelier to see one star and Bib Gourmand awards for this year’s guide.
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The guide’s presence is subsidized by local tourism boards. According to a Globe story, tourism marketing bureau Meet Boston declined to share the price tag for Michelin’s attention to this area, “but a person briefed on the matter indicated that the three-year partnership costs just over $1 million.”
Previously, Visit California reportedly paid Michelin $600,000 to expand its reach statewide. The Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau spent $1 million. Colorado tourism boards and resort companies joined forces, paying $70,000 to $100,000 each for consideration, according to The New York Times.
Which Boston restaurants are likely to receive Michelin accolades?
Establishments that have garnered national attention will naturally be on inspectors’ radars. For example, Italian restaurants La Padrona and Pammy’s, Thai stunner Mahaniyom, and Jamie Bissonnette’s ode to Korean cuisine, Somaek, have all received recent mention in The New York Times.
O Ya, the little sushi omakase restaurant with a big reputation near South Station, has been a frequent speculative mention. Michelin has favored omakase spots in other markets: 311 and Wa Shin might also be among the contenders. Places with ambitious tasting menus — Asta, Mooncusser — could have similar draw. And perhaps nowhere has a more ambitious tasting menu than Nightshade Noodle Bar, offering up to 30 courses from chef-owner Rachel Miller. If this Vietnamese- and French-influenced ode to risk-taking and creativity isn’t a Michelin contender, what is?
That’s a question that’s hard to answer without knowing how Michelin thinks about excellence in 2025. Does the guide seek out time-tested stalwarts like Harvest and Oleana, deeply local neighborhood joints like Brassica and Urban Hearth, places that embody the terroir of the region (in our case, that would be seafood spots like oysters bars Neptune and Select), places with unique points of view that tell some kind of personal story, or all of the above?
Boston restaurants and diners will find out Nov. 18.
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Devra First can be reached at devra.first@globe.com. Follow her on Instagram @devrafirst.
