The French Laundry no longer stands as the only Michelin three star restaurant in the Bay Area. Oh no. The Michelin Guide 2011, which comes out today, anointed Christopher Kostow's work at The Restaurant at Meadowood with three stars. Which? Is an incredible feat. Congratulations, Christopher.
A total of 11 Bay Area restaurants received new one stars. Among them, as Inside Scoop reports: Alexander’s Steakhouse (Cupertino), Applewood (Guerneville), Baumé (Palo Alto), Campton Place, Dio Deka (Los Gatos), Frances, Madera (Menlo Park), Mirepoix (Windsor), Saison, Spruce, and Wakuriya (San Mateo).
Oh wow, we love us some Spruce. Seriously. Their burger is, for lack of a better word, amazing. Like, almost In-N-Out amazing.
Alas, when God opens a window, he closes a door on your ass. Several restaurants lost their stars this year. Most notably, and heads will roll once the Donna of the Slow Food mafia gets wind, Chez Panisse lost their one-star rating. Ouch. (Perhaps they lost their rating due to Alice Waters painful refusal to answer SFist's junk food question? Clearly, this is a warning to all star recipients.)
Range, a phenomenal restaurant/bar on Valencia Street, also lost its star. Bah. Pft.
The 2011 prestigious star ratings as determined by a tire company below; (*) denote new entries:
