Are we all excited about Wednesday’s news that the illustrious Michelin Guide is coming to Milwaukee? Many in the local food community say they are, which is no surprise given Michelin’s reputation as the world’s most esteemed arbiter of restaurant excellence.
To wrap one’s head around it, it helps to know more about the guide’s history. Michelin existed first (late 1800s) as a French tire manufacturer. In 1900, the company created the Michelin Guide to promote car travel. In the 1920s, it introduced its star rating system for restaurants, and that led to its now legendary 1-, 2- and 3-star hierarchy long associated with high-end dining – the world’s creme de la creme. But fine dining isn’t the exclusive focus. In ’97, Michelin added the Bib Gourmand Award for restaurants that offer “outstanding meals for every occasion and every budget,” per Michelin’s website. It also gives “Recommended” designation to restaurants with high-quality food but that don’t meet the criteria to have a star or Bib Gourmand rating.
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Milwaukee’s food scene has undeniably grown more sophisticated in the last 15 years, but getting a Michelin presence here – part of the guide’s new six-city American Great Lakes edition – is truly remarkable. The news, a carefully guarded secret for months, was delivered in a press conference hosted by Visit Milwaukee, which is also funding our city’s inclusion in the Great Lakes guide. First “Top Chef; Wisconsin” in 2024, now this. Three years ago, who would have thought?
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I don’t mean that disparagingly at all. The local restaurant community is pretty incredulous, too. “It’s so exciting – it’s beyond,” says Sarah Baker, who, with husband/2026 James Beard Award finalist Zak, operates Ca’Lucchenzo in Wauwatosa. “I think as Milwaukee’s food scene has grown and is getting better known, this is just another step,” adds Zak. Amilinda owner/chef Greg León says he believes Michelin competition will push Milwaukee restaurants to be better.
On Wednesday night, León and the Bakers – along with other chefs, media, tourism folks and other invitees – celebrated the news at a cocktail reception at the Grain Exchange that featured a toast of Miller High Life led by Mayor Cavalier Johnson, a branded photo booth, and Paul Bartolotta making crêpes Suzette at a catering station in between hobnobbing.
Michelin won’t reveal the guide’s restaurant selection until 2027, but we’re told the anonymous inspectors – who judge the cooking only (not the restaurant’s decor or style and not, surprisingly, the service) according to five universal criteria – are out there right now, dining in our restaurants. Holy cannoli!
At the press conference, Visit Milwaukee’s Peggy Williams-Smith revealed the Michelin initiative was two years in the making and underscored all the pluses – not just boosting the economy but proving our culinary scene is part of the global conversation. Like others I spoke to Thursday, the Bakers are optimistic about how it will raise Milwaukee restaurants’ profile to diners across the world. “Even if [Milwaukee restaurants] don’t get stars, it’s still worth it,” says Sarah. Zak’s business-as-usual attitude keeps him focused on what he can control. “We’ll just continue to do what we’ve been doing,” he says – which is the same reaction he had when the Beard Award nominations were announced.
Zak’s probably got it right, judging by recent Michelin Guides for two other American cities. Boston, a city known for its robust dining scene (high-end seafood, tasting menus, etc.), joined the Northeast Cities edition in 2025. It’s probably safe to say nobody in Massachusetts’ capital was happy that the guide yielded just one restaurant with a star rating – the near-snub captured in a November 2025 story in bostonmagazine.com.
Rachel Leah Blumenthal, Boston Magazine’s food editor, was as surprised as everyone else and wrote about the pros and cons of Michelin attention when the guide was announced close to a year ago. Blumenthal didn’t expect Boston to garner that many star restaurants. But she also didn’t expect there’d only be only one that earned a star at all. “We kind of have an underdog attitude,” she says. “We don’t really care what other people think, but we [also] sort of do. People are also excited for the attention, and this is good for tourism and all that. So I think mixed feelings all around. [But] there were some obvious, or obvious to some people, misses on the list.”
To be fair, Boston restaurants were honored in other ways in their edition, with six given Bib Gourmand designation and another 19 deemed “Recommended” – a nod that means “good cooking” though “not yet star-worthy.”
Dallas also punched below its weight in its Guide, in which the city has just two restaurants with 1-star designation, plus six Bib Gourmands and several more establishments that are “Recommended.” In March, D Magazine’s dining critic Brian Reinhart wrote about “The Michelin Effect” as the city nears the end of its contract, which like the Great Lakes, was for a regional guide that spans all of Texas. Reinhart admits he went into that story “pretty cynical,” but that changed once he talked to the Dallas and Fort Worth visitors bureaus and they “really laid out how much [Michelin Guide] affects tourism.”
Whether the tourism bureaus renew their contract remains to be seen – Reinhart says he would be surprised if they don’t. Despite seeing the benefits, he still wonders if having the guide is “going to change our culture in a way we don’t especially love… Seeing it from the perspective of a diner or a chef, it’s very easy to get very cynical or conspiratorial very quickly.”
For the American Great Lakes edition, Milwaukee is joined by five other cities – Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh. But why those six, many wondered? And why not, for example, St. Paul, Minneapolis’ sister city, which has a very vibrant food scene in its own right. The answer is partially the guide’s pay-for-play model. It’s the Minneapolis Tourism Improvement District, whose boundaries encompass the city of Minneapolis and do not include St. Paul, that’s funding its inclusion.
Here in Milwaukee, it’s very much a positive-negative dynamic. But there’s so much we don’t know – the impacts on the local economy and tourism are speculative. The boost to our city’s reputation is still in the hopeful stage. Like Reinhart in Dallas, I don’t want pressure or competition to change our self-awareness. León chooses to see the good Michelin could bring to Milwaukee – and from Milwaukee. “At the end of the day, it’s great to get that kind of recognition. It’ll bring more people through the door, but the people that really matter – the ones that come in every day.”
