Michelin guide gives Atelier Crenn in S.F. a third star.
The Bay Area remains the country’s top destination for fine dining, according to Michelin, the annual French culinary guide whose stars remain one of the most prized honors in the global food world.
This year, two new Bay Area restaurants were elevated to three-star status: San Francisco’s Atelier Crenn and Healdsburg’s Single Thread. The new inductees bring the region’s three-star total to eight restaurants, more than any other region in North America. The other restaurants with a perfect rating are Benu (San Francisco), the French Laundry (Yountville), Manresa (Los Gatos), Quince (San Francisco), the Restaurant at Meadowood (St. Helena) and Saison (San Francisco).
The French-inspired Atelier Crenn is owned by Dominique Crenn, whose new adjacent restaurant, Bar Crenn, earned one star in this year’s guide. According to Gwendal Poullennec, the Michelin Guide’s international director, only five three-star restaurants on the planet are led by a female chef.
Joining Crenn in the jump from two stars to three this year is Single Thread, the Healdsburg destination that was awarded two stars in its first year under coowners Katina Connaughton and her chef husband, Kyle.
Dinner at Single Thread starts at $275 per person; Atelier Crenn’s menu starts at $335 per person.
The only restaurant to fall from the three-star ranks was last year’s new addition, Coi, Daniel Patterson’s celebrated finedining destination in North Beach. Its chef, Matthew Kirkley, left last year, and was replaced by Erik
Three stars means a restaurant has exceptional cuisine and is worth a special journey.
Anderson. Coi now has two stars.
The Michelin Guide was first published in France more than 100 years ago. In the time since, the guide has expanded to cover hundreds of restaurants in more than 30 countries.
The star system employed by the guide has been in place since 1933 and works as follows: three stars means a restaurant has “exceptional cuisine” and is “worth a special journey;” two stars means “excellent cuisine, worth a detour;” and one star means “high quality cooking, worth a stop.” Ratings are determined by anonymous inspectors who are different in every market.
“Atelier Crenn and Single Thread were two of the more closely watched restaurants in the area,” Poullennec said. “To make sure it’s worth the three stars, it has to be compared with three-star restaurants all over the world, like in Paris and Tokyo, for example.”
Val Cantu’s Californios in the Mission District kept its two stars after moving up from one star last year. It was the first U.S. restaurant serving Mexican food to earn two stars.
Palo Alto’s Baumé, a Michelin-quality mom-and-pop shop with only two employees — Christie Chemel and her chef husband, Bruno — maintained its two stars. Commis, James Syhabout’s two-star restaurant in Oakland, was again the only East Bay representative on the list. The other two-star restaurants are Acquerello, Coi and Lazy Bear, all in San Francisco.
Joining Bar Crenn on the list of new one-star restaurants is Chris Bleidorn’s Birdsong in the South of Market neighborhood. Notably, Bleidorn at one time worked in the kitchen of Atelier Crenn. Also earning a new single star this year: Madcap in San Anselmo, Protégé in Palo Alto and Nico in San Francisco, which relocated to Jackson Square in May.
Among those that dropped off the one-star list was Adega, the first Michelin-starred restaurant in San Jose, as well as the recently closed Terra in Napa Valley and Bodega Bay’s Terrapin Creek.
While the region expanded its Michelin star roster, there were some notable absences. Avery, the tasting menu restaurant on Fillmore, is one of the city’s more expensive destinations (dinner starts at $130) and features a “bump” of caviar served on a diner’s fist; it was left off the list. Other ambitious restaurants that did not make the list include Sorrel and Eight Tables.
The Michelin Guide’s Bay Area list has eight restaurants with three stars, six restaurants with two stars and 43 with one star. There are also 68 restaurants with a Bib Gourmand, a designation for less expensive restaurants, where a diner can eat for under $40.