Welcome to In the Weeds, a new publication covering the business of independent restaurants.
The newer Michelin Editions have been a boon for many restaurants, highlighting spots outside of major cities. But the patchwork approach to expansion in the US has left out neighboring cities. For this edition of In the Weeds, I spoke to chefs in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and St. Paul, Minnesota, two cities that just missed inclusion in the Great Lakes Michelin Edition.
Awards don’t give these chefs meaning, but they are realistic about what they do mean for their restaurants. They’ve seen the boost that accolades from James Beard, Food & Wine, and local outlets bring to their restaurants. Being shut out of awards has business ramifications, and that’s what I’m exploring here.
Also in this edition: The James Beard Awards may be on the move, when an undersell is the truest form of hospitality, and why a landlord and chef took a chance on a three-month lease.
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Joseph VanWagner, Ji Hye Kim, and Karyn Tomlinson
When the Great Lakes Michelin Edition was first announced in April, Joseph VanWagner was psyched. His new fine-dining restaurant, Echelon, in Ann Arbor, could be considered for an award, he thought. He realized pretty quickly, though, that while Detroit would be included in this new Michelin edition, Ann Arbor, which is just a 45-minute drive from Detroit, would not.
As Joe explains, it wasn’t so much about being awarded a Michelin star as about having the chance to be recognized and what that would mean for hiring and retaining staff and for continuing to build excitement about Ann Arbor as a dining city. Most of his staff lives between Detroit and Ann Arbor, and so does he. It’s already hard to hire for restaurants in Ann Arbor, he noted.