We posed the question just over a year ago: Why haven’t any Milwaukee restaurants earned a Michelin star?
Our city has James Beard Award winners. It’s been lauded by respected national publications. “Top Chef” devoted an entire season to our culinary scene. What does it have to do to grab the Michelin Guide’s attention?
We no longer have to wonder.
Michelin Guide is coming to Milwaukee as part of the newly minted Michelin Guide American Great Lakes edition. In addition to Milwaukee, the guide will evaluate restaurants in Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh.
Gwendal Poullennec, international director of Michelin Guide, announced the new region in conjunction with VISIT Milwaukee President & CEO Peggy Williams-Smith and other partners at a press conference April 8 at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
“Thank you so much for having me today in your beautiful city to celebrate some truly exciting news,” Poullennec said. “This new regional edition has been a long time coming for the Michelin Guide and our famous anonymous Inspectors.”
Even before the announcement, Michelin’s Inspectors – those who dine anonymously and determine whether a restaurant is Michelin star-caliber – had already been out in the field, dining, drinking and evaluating in secrecy.
“The Michelin Guide represents the best of the best dining recommendations – in French, we say, ‘la creme de la creme’– of the world gastronomy,” Poullennec said. “As you know, the restaurants in the Great Lakes region highlight innovative ideas, locally sourced ingredients, and are always setting their standards higher to offer memorable experiences to their discerning customers. And here, we have a perfect match with the Michelin Guide.”
VISIT Milwaukee and its partners – Destination Cleveland, Visit Detroit, Visit Indianapolis, Meet Minneapolis, Visit Pittsburgh – pooled resources to finally bring the Michelin Guide to our region.
“It’s an honor to host you today for what is truly an historic moment, not just for our city, but for the entire Great Lakes region, because what is happening here today did not just happen overnight,” Williams-Smith said. “It’s the result of years of work, years of belief and years of investments by chefs, restaurateurs, hospitality workers, entrepreneurs and community leaders who saw what this city could become and built it together. This moment belongs to them now.”
We won’t learn which local restaurants earned stars, however, until the American Great Lakes debut ceremony, to be held in 2027.
What do Michelin stars mean for restaurants?
The Michelin Guide is considered one of the most esteemed and powerful restaurant rating measures in the world, evaluating restaurants with its scrupulous three-star rating system (three being the highest honor) used to designate top-tier restaurants from Shanghai to Sacramento.
Earning even one star – or the Bib Gourmand nod, given to restaurants that deliver the best value for the food they serve – could create enough buzz around a restaurant to make it a tourist destination.
According to Michelin’s website, its Inspectors – full-time employees and former restaurant and hospitality professionals – evaluate restaurants with five criteria: “ingredient quality, harmony of flavors, the mastery of culinary techniques, how the chef’s personality shines through their cuisine and, crucially, consistency across the entire menu and over time.”
Design, decor and service are not considered in any restaurant’s evaluation. Only restaurants can earn stars; not individual chefs.
The guide has been evaluating European restaurants since its inception in 1900, when the tire company used it to promote vehicular travel (thus, the need to buy new tires – preferably, Michelin tires). But it only began rating restaurants in the U.S. in 2005, with the addition of New York City. It eventually expanded to cities like San Francisco (2007), Chicago (2010) and Washington, D.C. (2017).
Since 2019, the guide has grown with editions encompassing entire states (Florida, Colorado, California) and regions (Southwest, Northeast Cities and the American South).
That rapid expansion is due in part to an influx of contributions from tourism boards – such as VISIT Milwaukee, locally – to sponsor local guides.
Those contributions have ranged from $600,000 from California’s state tourism board to $2.7 million from Texas’ state and local tourism boards.
VISIT Milwaukee invested $150,000 for Guide’s three-year contract with the American Great Lakes edition, which runs through 2029. The additional cities’ tourism boards did not immediately disclose their contributions.
Sponsorship does not guarantee which, if any, restaurants will be included in the guide – only that the local guide will be released.
In February 2025, VISIT Milwaukee and Travel Wisconsin told the Journal Sentinel they were interested in bringing the Michelin Guide to Wisconsin and would consider footing the bill to do so.
“We understand bringing in the Michelin Guide is a combination of a financial commitment and willingness on behalf of Michelin to visit,” Logan Wroge, senior communications specialist at Travel Wisconsin, said at the time. “That’s a conversation we’re interested in having.”
Just over a year later, we now know what a difference a conversation can make. The Michelin Guide is finally coming here. To Milwaukee.
This story was updated to add new information.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Michelin Guide is coming to Milwaukee for the first time ever
Reporting by Rachel Bernhard, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
