Especially when Vegas is 4x the normal price.

Random anecdote that supports Houston not being in the top 3.

I LIVE here -- and have all my life -- and can't really name the top two or three restaurants. But I certainly know The French Laundry, Le Bernadin, Bouchon, Per Se, Alinea, etc., even if I haven't eaten there.

That's more of a name recognition issue than a quality one, perhaps. But still ... it's tough to be considered one of the best if you don't have two or three restaurants and chefs that are well-known. You can't build a national reputation on hole-in-the-wall pho or taco places.

Participating in Michelin will hopefully give Houston a higher profile nationally.

EclipseAg said:

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Random anecdote that supports Houston not being in the top 3.

I LIVE here -- and have all my life -- and can't really name the top two or three restaurants. But I certainly know The French Laundry, Le Bernadin, Bouchon, Per Se, Alinea, etc., even if I haven't eaten there.

That's more of a name recognition issue than a quality one, perhaps. But still ... it's tough to be considered one of the best if you don't have two or three restaurants and chefs that are well-known. You can't build a national reputation on hole-in-the-wall pho or taco places.

Participating in Michelin will hopefully give Houston a higher profile nationally.

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I doubt we will ever be top 3 in upper crust fancy restaurants. I am just impressed by this city's food options in the lower and middle tiers, compared to many of the other major cities I have visited. IMO we kill it in this category. Not just talking about cheap tacos or pho either.

Most Houston restaurants ain't that cheap these days.

The existence of fine dining restaurants in a city does not equal the absence of good, low cost restaurants.

The cities known for fine dining are also well known for inexpensive, iconic foods that are specific to them.

NY Style Slice
Chicago Deep Dish
Mission Burrito
Italian Beef Sandwich
Chicago Style Hot Dog
Pastrami on Rye

I bet you could take the same quality of food in houston vs NYC and you'd easily multiply the price by 1.3 or 1.4. So you are moving up in quality of food at comparable prices.

Different cities have different costs of living. That has no bearing on the quality of their restaurants.

As an example, restaurants in San Diego are generally way more expensive than Houston, but San Diego has a way worse restaurant scene than Houston.

I think this is very possible, but it depends on the market showing it can sustain restaurants of this level. The 1 stars need to stay close to fully booked for the next year to convince investors to open more high end places.

The ones with tasting menus and regular menus need to get a high percentage of tasting menus with wine pairings booked to suggest that a 2 star level of investment makes sense.

It isn't a great sign that I could make a 7pm reservation this Friday at several of them.

I didn't think of this, but now that you mention it all 16 people in our seating at Alinea back in April traveled to be there.

steve00 said:

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The existence of fine dining restaurants in a city does not equal the absence of good, low cost restaurants.

The cities known for fine dining are also well known for inexpensive, iconic foods that are specific to them.

NY Style Slice
Chicago Deep Dish
Mission Burrito
Italian Beef Sandwich
Chicago Style Hot Dog
Pastrami on Rye

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I see the connection but Los Angeles and Miami are outliers, same as Texas cities--we're not as old as those other places. Someone may say BBQ, but is not cheapie food anymore.

JCA1 said:

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steve00 said:

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I think this is very possible, but it depends on the market showing it can sustain restaurants of this level. The 1 stars need to stay close to fully booked for the next year to convince investors to open more high end places.

The ones with tasting menus and regular menus need to get a high percentage of tasting menus with wine pairings booked to suggest that a 2 star level of investment makes sense.

It isn't a great sign that I could make a 7pm reservation this Friday at several of them.

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What Houston has working against it for extremely high end dining is it's not a tourist destination like NYC, Bay Area, Chicago, etc. Not having a steady stream of tourists to help fill out the reservation book makes it a lot tougher.

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It is kind of a chicken or egg problem. If Houston had a 3 star restaurant, people would travel to eat there and it would help increase tourism for the city.

It will probably take some rich investor that loves Houston and is willing to burn money just to open one.

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Was talking to a chef one time that trained on the east coast.

Said the reason that gulf coast struggles is due to the difference in food purveyors.

The top quality ingredients is available on the east coast and it isn't being sent to places like Houston.

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I'm curious about this here.

BQRyno said:

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I think the case could easily be made that Houston doesn't have any crme de la crme restaurants BECAUSE we haven't had Michelin ratings until now. The best chefs can open a restaurant anywhere. Might as well do it where they can get the recognition. I would not be shocked to see the top tier restaurants get even better or a new class of restaurants show up.

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There's something to that. Even the cable TV food shows that feature ever greasy spoon on the East Coast and Upper Midwest didn't come to Houston until we marketed "Most Diverse Food Scene" TM.

BUT....tourism is a huge factor that can't be overstated. Local foodies and critics are into the New, and they turn on good new places once they get popular just so they can say they used to go there when it was good. It takes a steady stream of new customers to keep higher end restaurants going.

The Michelin ratings system began as a tourist guide, and Houston was never seen as a tourism destination. We do get a fair amount of international travel these days, but the Methodist hospital cafeteria probably isn't the place (or time) for fond dining memories. Or catered meetings for OTC or whatever.

One thing I've noticed in other big cities that get a lot of travel is the abundance of "nice" places that are still pretty reasonably priced. They have a large cushion between "local legendary dive" and "high end." That, again, relies on a high volume of new customers passing through.

Currently looking at replacing tires on our vehicle. If I get the Michelin brand, do I get a vote on their restaurants?