Michelin Adds Boston and Philadelphia to Northeast Cities Guide
They'll join New York City, Washington D.C., and Chicago
The Michelin Guide just announced that it’s adding Boston and Philadelphia to its roster of locations that its inspectors will evaluate and grade.
It comes as no surprise that Philadelphia is ripe for Michelin.
The city holds many excellent restaurants and is home to three exceptional restaurant groups: STARR Restaurant Group helmed by Stephen Starr, Michael Solomonov and Steve Cook’s CookNSolo, and Michael Shulson’s Shulson Collective.
The City of Brotherly Love’s proximity to rich farmlands provides its local chefs with the freshest ingredients, and the city’s varied neighborhoods, from South Philly’s Italian Market to Center City’s Chinatown and Olney’s Korean community, give it much to love when it comes to food.
Since before the United States was its own country, Boston has reaped the benefits of its proximity to the cold waters of the Atlantic and nearby farms. It’s home to Union Oyster House, which has been serving up chowder since 1826 and is the longest consecutively running restaurant in the U.S.
Boston is also home to a robust Italian-American community, with the city’s North End lined with restaurants like The Daily Catch and Neptune Oyster (which does the double duty of satisfying your seafood cravings).
What stands out in this announcement is that Michelin is adding these two cities to its “newly minted Michelin Guide Northeast Cities edition”, joining Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C.
Yes — Chicago, the Midwest’s most famous city, is in the Northeast, according to Michelin. So is Washington, D.C., which is considered a Mid-Atlantic state. Philadelphia is considered on the cusp of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, and Boston is most certainly considered in the Northeast (along with New York City), so there’s that, at least.
According to a release, “inspectors are already in the field, making dining reservations and scouting for culinary gems throughout the cities”, so Philadelphia and Boston eateries should be on high alert.
The Guide also points out that, although it is working with Meet Boston and the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau on marketing and promotional activities, its anonymous inspectors remain independent.
There has been chatter in recent years that Michelin has become a marketing tool for various cities to encourage culinary tourism.
Visit Orlando, the tourism wing of the city of Orlando, Florida, has paidn Michelin, “more than $800,000 since September 2021, according to a 19-page “business collaboration agreement” posted on the county comptroller’s website”, according to the Orlando Sentinel, with Miami, Tampa Bay, and Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing agency, also ponying up big bucks to get stars in their cities.
The restaurants will be announced at a later date at the annual Michelin Guide Northeast Cities ceremony — most likely in the fall.