Select members of the hospitality industry descended upon the picturesque grounds of the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay on Monday, August 5, to find out their Michelin-starred fate. By the end of the 2024 Michelin Guide California ceremony, three new San Francisco restaurants joined the ranks of one-star establishments; a San Francisco fine-dining restaurant, and another in Carmel-by-the-Sea, went from one star to two; a new Bay Area restaurant landed on Michelin’s Bib Gourmand list; and San Francisco took home three of four Special Awards honoring specific members of the hospitality industry.
But the downside of earning a Michelin star is the pressure to maintain it year after year, and 2024 saw four Bay Area restaurants fall off the prestigious guide. Gary Danko lost its Michelin designation after 17 years as a one-star San Francisco restaurant. Barndiva in Healdsburg, Sushi Shin in Redwood City, and Sushi Yoshizumi in San Mateo all lost their star rating as well. In less-surprising news, one-starred Avery was also dropped from the guide. The removal seemed unavoidable, however, as chef Rodney Wages closed the San Francisco restaurant in 2023 and moved Avery to its new home in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, opening in May 2024.
Still, San Francisco had a strong showing at the Michelin ceremony. One-starred fine dining restaurant Sons & Daughters leaped to two stars this year under chef Harrison Cheney. He earned the Michelin Young Chef Award in 2023, leading the New Nordic style of menu at the San Francisco restaurant after working his way through the kitchens of chef Jacob Holmström at Sweden’s Gastrologik, as well as the Square, the Ledbury, and Quince. “I remember a time when I was 16 years old looking through the Michelin Guide thinking I wasn’t ready to work at the two stars, I’ll work my way through, and that’s exactly what I did,” Cheney told the crowd after receiving the second star for Sons & Daughters. “It means a lot.”
Sons & Daughters was just one of three restaurants bumped up to two stars; Aubergine in Carmel-by-the-Sea and Vespertine in Los Angeles also made the cut, with the latter earning a green star designation for its sustainability practices.
Beyond Sons & Daughters’s level-up, three San Francisco spots became newly minted one-starred restaurants. Chefs David Fisher and Serena Chow Fisher led their new restaurant 7 Adams to its one-star designation this year, a sweet cap to a highly-publicized breakup with their previously one-starred restaurant Marlena and owner Stephane Roulland. The chef-couple started working on 7 Adams after they split from Marlena in July 2023, opening their new restaurant in Japantown just four months later. In the leadup to 7 Adams’s Michelin star, the restaurant won the #2 spot on Robb Report’s Best New Restaurants in America list in early June.
The team at North Beach’s Hilda and Jesse had one of the more exciting moments of the night. Hilda and Jesse co-owner Rachel Sillcocks received the Michelin Outstanding Service Award — only to be followed up minutes later with the announcement that the restaurant received its first Michelin star. Chef Kristina Liedags Compton — clad in a “Protect trans youth” t-shirt — joined Sillcocks onstage in a congratulatory moment following Sillcocks’s win, only for the duo to be surprised with their star and Compton given a chef’s jacket. “The fact that people have come to us and trusted us and come back to us and invested their time and their energy and their money in us,” Sillcocks says, “that’s the best part of what we do.”
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24694182/kiln.Team_Photo.jpg)
San Francisco fine-dining restaurant Kiln also had a dual award moment for the evening, as the year-old restaurant both earned its first Michelin Star and chef John Wesley earned the Michelin Young Chef Award. It’s a huge achievement for Wesley as he left the Michelin-starred Sons & Daughters with general manager Julianna Yang in early 2023 to strike out on their own and start Kiln. Wesley’s also worked in the kitchens of Baumé and Michelin-starred Commis, pouring that into a menu that uses French, Japanese, and Scandinavian cooking techniques.
Aphotic head distiller and bar director Trevin Hutchins also landed in the winners’ circle, winning the Michelin Exceptional Cocktails Award. Hutchins’s “sea-inspired” beverage program caught Michelin’s attention back in December 2023, when the guide highlighted Hutchins’s drinks and distillate program where he makes Aphotic Seaweed Gin among other concoctions.
At the end of the night, the list of three-star establishments was announced and it fully remained unchanged: Bay Area restaurants Atelier Crenn, Benu, the French Laundry, Quince, and SingleThread all retained their three-star status, along with Addison in San Diego. Lastly, six new Bay Area restaurants became Michelin-listed this year, including 7 Adams, but just Molti Amici in Healdsburg made the Bib Gourmand list, Michelin’s designation that “recognizes friendly establishments that serve good food at moderate prices.”
Here’s the full list of Bay Area Michelin-starred restaurants for 2024:
Three stars
Atelier Crenn, San Francisco
Benu, San Francisco
The French Laundry, Yountville
Quince, San Francisco
SingleThread, Healdsburg
Two stars
Acquerello, San Francisco
Aubergine, Carmel-by-the-Sea
Birdsong, San Francisco
Californios, San Francisco
Commis, Oakland
Harbor House, Elk
Lazy Bear, San Francisco
Saison, San Francisco
Sons & Daughters, San Francisco
One star
7 Adams (New)
Angler, San Francisco
Aphotic, San Francisco
Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford
Auro, Calistoga
Chez Noir, Carmel-by-the-Sea
Chez TJ, Mountain View
Cyrus, Geyserville
Hilda and Jesse, San Francisco (New)
Kenzo, Napa
Kiln, San Francisco (New)
Kin Khao, San Francisco
The Kitchen, Sacramento
Le Comptoir at Bar Crenn, San Francisco
Localis, Sacramento
Madcap, San Anselmo
Mister Jiu’s, San Francisco
Nari, San Francisco
Niku Steakhouse, San Francisco
Nisei, San Francisco
O’ by Claude Le Tohic, San Francisco
Osito, San Francisco
Plumed Horse, Saratoga
Press, St. Helena
The Progress, San Francisco
Protégé, Palo Alto
San Ho Won, San Francisco
Selby’s, Redwood City
The Shota, San Francisco
Sorrel, San Francisco
Ssal, San Francisco
State Bird Provisions, San Francisco
The Village Pub, Woodside
Wakuriya, San Mateo
This article was originally published by a sf.eater.com . Read the Original article here. .