Few Changes For Michelin Stars In 2013

By Anthony Todd in Food on Nov 13, 2012 10:10PM

Let the hullabaloo commence. After lots and lots of speculation, frantic tweets and chefly nail-biting, Michelin has released the list of stars for their 2013 guide. Not a ton has changed and nothing dramatic happened, but some very deserving restaurants edged their way onto the 1-star list.

First, we've still only got one 3-star restaurant in Chicago: Alinea. More surprising (to some) is that Graham Elliot managed to edge its way up to two stars, even after losing their chef and their pastry chef in quick succession. Eater talked to the Michelin editor and she insisted that she visited both before and after former Chef Brochu left.

We're really excited about some of the additions to the 1-star list. Goosefoot and Acadia, two of our favorite meals of the year, made the list, as well as Sixteen and Mexique. We've always felt that Mexique was a bit under-appreciated; hopefully that will change now that they've been officially saluted.

Everyone at Lettuce Entertain You must be breathing a big sigh of relief, as L20 managed to gain back one of the two stars they lost last year.

As a whole, Chicago keeps losing out - we went from 30 stars in 2011 to 25 in 2012 to 23 in 2013. Now we start the bitching about who didn't manage to get anything. No North Pond, no Avec, no Next, no Lula - who else got left out?

The complete list:
Three Stars
Alinea

Two Stars
Graham Elliot
L2O

One Star
Acadia
Blackbird
Boka
Everest
Goosefoot
Longman & Eagle
Mexique
Moto
NAHA
Schwa
Sepia
Sixteen
Spiaggia
Takashi
Topolobampo
Tru