Michelin Will Start Awarding Stars to Restaurants Across the American South

is on the move once again, with the tire company taking its esteemed dining guide to the American South.

The new guide will be a slight departure for Michelin in the U.S., which has stuck primarily to major cities like D.C. and when allocating stars. The company announced it would go beyond major urban centers to also cover small towns across six states: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, as well as folding in the existing Atlanta guide.

Of course, venturing outside of the cities is not wholly new for Michelin. In 2019, the California tourism board to send its inspectors across the whole of the Golden State. And although no payment by Travel South USA (the partner organization included in Michelin’s announcement) was disclosed, tourism boards have been subsidizing Michelin’s expansion around the globe and in America. Houston First shelled out to help lure stars to Texas; Visit Florida spent ; Colorado Tourism agreed to pay $100,000 per year for three years on top of the $70,000 to $100,000 local boards; and resorts chipped in to have stars rain down on the Centennial State.

These tourism boards are making the calculation that having the guide is worth expense. Back when California secured a statewide guide, the president and CEO of Visit California at the time, Caroline Beteta, told us that “culinary travelers are among California’s highest-spending visitors, staying on average 10 percent longer and spending 20 percent more on their trip than visitors to California overall.” And restaurateurs who get stars acknowledge it’s one of the few accolades that truly move the needle for them economically, attracting diners who may have never visited them otherwise.

The announcement comes on the heels of the little red guide announcing it would expand its coverage of from Miami, Orlando, and Tampa to include Greater Fort Lauderdale, the Palm Beaches, and St. Pete-Clearwater in 2025. And next year Michelin will evaluate restaurants across the whole state.

Michelin will now cover California, Illinois, New York, Washington, D.C., parts of Colorado, Florida, Texas, and a wide swath of the South. But for some of these newer regions, the guide has been stingy with the stars, with only a handful for each at their debut. But we are excited at the possibility of Emeril Lagasse yelling “BAM!” from the stage of the awards ceremony if his namesake restaurant gets honored this year.

Credit: robbreport.com