Hiroko Sekiguchi watches Tatsu Dallas Chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi taking a selfie with the Michelin Man while all One Michelin Star winners are celebrating on the stage during the Michelin awards ceremony Monday, Nov. 11, 2024 at 713 Music Hall in Houston. It was Michelin Guide’s first Texas awards.
Yi-Chin Lee/Staff photographer
The Michelin Guide arrived in Texas in 2024 with much fanfare, as chefs, restaurateurs and diners across the state wondered how the French-based guide would judge the state’s restaurants and how said judgments would affect the dining landscape.
The gold standard of international restaurant recommendations increased the magnitude of the spotlight that already hovered over Texas, likely introducing many readers to the diverse bounty the state had to offer.
While the shine of the Guide’s luster has diminished slightly in recent years, as it continues to enter more markets in the U.S. and abroad, its arrival elevated the Texas dining scene.
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2025 AWARDEES: Michelin Guide announces this year’s Texas restaurant picks. Here’s the full list of winners.
But, with Michelin’s three-year, $2.7 million contract coming to an end in the weeks ahead, questions about the program remain. Was it worth it for the state of Texas? Its five major cities paid $270,000 each over the duration of the contract, a combined sum that was matched by the state. And will the Michelin Guide return to Texas after October 8, when the third round of awards is announced —not with a ceremony, but via press release?
The answer to the first question depends on your perspective. The answer to the second is unknown. Neither the state, nor any of the cities (Austin, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio) will give any concrete details on the status of the contract or ongoing negotiations, though Michelin has made clear that it always plans to stay in a market once it enters.
Working on a new contract
Musaafer Chef Mayank Istwal takes a selfie with Owners Shammi and Mithu Malik to celebrate the restaurant receiving One Michelin Star award during the Michelin awards ceremony Monday, Nov. 11, 2024 at 713 Music Hall in Houston. It was Michelin Guide’s first Texas awards.
Yi-Chin Lee/Staff photographer
“Once the Guide arrives in a destination, the intent is for it to remain there,” Michelin public relations manager Carly Padgett told the Austin American-Statesman via email. “Supported by partnerships, the inspectors will continue to evaluate restaurants in the current coverage areas while keeping an eye on other locales as possible culinary hotspots for inclusion.”
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A 2025 Michelin-commissioned report by global accounting and consulting firm EY, formerly Ernst & Young, makes the case that the Guide is a net positive, proven to drive tourism, serve as an economic engine for the locales where it exists and directly benefit restaurants. The study, titled “Beyond the Michelin Stars,” reports that 74% of travelers surveyed said the presence of Michelin-recognized restaurants is a decisive factor when choosing a destination and that 82% of chefs reported an increase in sales after being recognized.
The most optimistic statement on Michelin’s potential future came from Visit Dallas senior vice president of tourism and operations Mark Thompson, who says Michelin has significantly elevated the Dallas and Texas restaurant scenes nationally and internationally. He said he thinks Texas’ relevance in the dining world would suffer if the Guide left.
Thompson said he is “very optimistic” Texas will retain a Michelin presence, adding he has no indication that anything would prevent it. He said the interested parties are still working on the complexities and timing of a new contract and speculated that a new agreement may not be announced until early 2027.
Michelin’s arrival and impact
Tatemó chef and co-owner Emmanuel Chavez poses for a photograph as he is awarded One Michelin Star during the Michelin awards ceremony Monday, Nov. 11, 2024 at 713 Music Hall in Houston. It was Michelin Guide’s first Texas awards.
Yi-Chin Lee/Staff photographer
An inaugural fall celebration in Houston in 2024 revealed two major things: Michelin had elevated the category of barbecue to the exalted tier of Michelin Star status, the Guide’s highest honor, and Austin and Houston were the early stars of the Guide in Texas.
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Five Houston restaurants earned a single Star: Montrose fine-dining destination March, Spanish restaurant BCN Taste & Tradition, French spot Le Jardinier, Galleria-area Indian restaurant Musaafer and contemporary Mexican concept Tatemo. The Spring-based CorkScrew BBQ also took home a Star distinction.
Austin, meanwhile, led the state with seven starred restaurants in the first year of the awards. Dallas and San Antonio each took home one star. Dozens more restaurants received Bib Gourmands (meals that offer great value) or were simply listed as recommended in the Guide.
The fervor and attention of the newly minted Stars helped change the economic prospects for those restaurants, with reservations filling months in advance and lines instantly growing at the already popular (and reservation-free) barbecue restaurants. The effect of the more minor honors was muted, with few restaurant owners the Statesman contacted reporting that Bib Gourmand or being listed in the Guide was mentioned much by diners.
By the time the event ended in the second year, there was more head-scratching than high fiving. Only three restaurants received new Stars — one in Dallas and two in San Antonio — while the 15 starred restaurants from 2024 retained their honors.
What the state and cities are saying
Downtown Houston skyline on Wednesday, September 6, 2017. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News)
Vernon Bryant/Dallas Morning News
As the third annual announcement approaches, there are more questions about whether the Guide will return than who might earn a new Star or attain a second. Representatives from all five cities gave some qualified form of endorsement of the Guide, with some city reps speaking more full-throatedly about the importance of Michelin’s impact on their local scene.
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A.J. Mistretta, vice president of corporate communications for Houston First Corporation, expressed positivity about Michelin in a brief written statement.
“Over the last two years, Michelin has helped reinforce Houston’s status as a major culinary destination,” he wrote. “The increased exposure the company has helped generate for the local restaurants it has recognized as well as the city is considerable. Houston First maintains a strong relationship with Michelin and we are enthusiastic about the future.”
A rep from Austin, home to almost 40% of all starred restaurants in Texas, responded with the most enthusiasm about the Guide’s impact and future.
“Visit Austin firmly believes the Michelin Guide has lifted our city’s entire restaurant ecosystem,” Tom Noonan, president and CEO of the city’s tourism bureau told the American-Statesman via email. “While we have heard directly from various restaurant partners that they have found the inclusion beneficial, we cannot speak on behalf of individual restaurant businesses or their specific experiences. We remain dedicated to supporting all levels of our food scene, from the legacy restaurants that established Austin as a ‘food city’ decades ago to the modern chefs now earning international acclaim.”
Noonan points to data from Zartico, a technology company that tracks travel data, and Future Partners’ ‘State of the American Traveler’ study to illustrate the economic impact of spending by visitors.
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Zartico reports that restaurant spending in Austin from visitors rose from 35% to 45% of total sales between 2024 and 2025, the first full year with the Guide’s spotlight on Texas. It is up to 50% in 2026. The ‘State of the American Traveler’ study showed that 69% of survey respondents ranked Austin’s food scene as slightly good to extremely good in 2025, up 5 percentage points from 2023, before the Guide arrived, and the city moved from a No. 13 ranking to a No. 10 ranking in the same period.
“Visitors are making a profound impact on the economic vitality of our entire community, benefiting not just Michelin Guide-recognized spots, but the diverse spectrum of restaurants that make Austin a world-class culinary destination,” Noonan said.
Representatives from other cities, who declined to discuss details of any current contract negotiations, echoed Noonan’s sentiment about the Guide bringing value, and all pointed out that the Guide’s presence was simply a small part of ongoing efforts to elevate their cities’ restaurant scenes.
“Regardless of the outcome, we remain committed to elevating Fort Worth’s vibrant culinary scene through strategic content and story placements, our ongoing support of the Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival, and our broader efforts to shine a spotlight on the talented chefs and restaurants that make this city a culinary destination,” Visit Fort Worth vice president of marketing and communications Kimber Foster wrote in an email.
“San Antonio had a strong culinary identity well before the arrival of the Michelin Guide, from our designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy to generations of restaurateurs and chefs who have shaped a dining culture distinctive to our city. We believe the Michelin Guide has provided another important international platform for showcasing that talent and introducing San Antonio’s culinary community to new audiences,” Visit San Antonio vice president of marketing and communications David Gonzalez wrote in an email.
What the restaurant industry is saying
CorkScrew BBQ Chef Will Buckman, from right, and wife Nichole Buckman pose for a photograph as the restaurant is awarded One Michelin Star during the Michelin awards ceremony Monday, Nov. 11, 2024 at 713 Music Hall in Houston. It was Michelin Guide’s first Texas awards.
Yi-Chin Lee/Staff photographer
When CorkScrew BBQ earned its Michelin Star in 2024, sales doubled for the rest of the year, said owner-operator Will Buckman. Customers from Houston who’d never made the trek to Spring came out. International travelers, too, arrived directly from the airport with their bags.
Though the initial burst of interest settled down, Buckman said his revenue is still approximately 50% higher than the pre-Star levels. In 2025, when CorkScrew maintained its recognition, Buckman felt like news coverage put him back in the spotlight.
“It just kept us busy for the entirety of the year,” he said.
He thinks Houston’s restaurant industry overall might benefit, too.
“People come here and they try us, and they want to see what Michelin Star barbecue is all about,” Buckman said. “I think that that is kind of a gateway to people to say, ‘Well, that was really good. I wonder what these other places are.’ So they try to explore the city and see what the city has as a whole to offer.”
Other starred restaurants saw similar benefits: Le Jardinier said reservations increased both in the days leading up to the Michelin Star announcement and after. Musaafer said the award led to “stronger reservations” and “meaningful business impact.” At March, partner and CEO June Rodil said sales lifted about 25% year-over-year after her restaurant earned its first Star, though she isn’t sure how much of the increase to attribute to Michelin.
At restaurants that received different Michelin honors, though, the boosts may have been smaller. Rodil said her restaurant Rosie Cannonball, which earned a Bib Gourmand designation in 2024, saw perhaps an 18 to 20% bump. At her spot The Marigold Club, listed as Recommended in 2025, business picked up by about 15%.
And at Da Gama Canteen, a Portuguese-Indian restaurant that received its Bib Gourmand designation last year, chef-owner Rick Di Virgilio said business received a “modest” boost. The award may have helped rejuvenate the restaurant, putting it back in the conversation. But he said some customers also weren’t sure what exactly a Bib Gourmand meant.
Though it’s expensive, Di Virgilio said he feels Houston’s investment in Michelin is worth the money. The recognition helped raise Houston’s culinary profile, nationally and globally. And as Houston’s restaurant industry struggles, he’s glad to see any efforts to intervene.
“I think we need all the help we can get right now in our industry,” Di Virgilio said. “I think anything helps.”
‘If I never get a Star again, I will sleep well’
Chicken liver mousse at Olamaie.?
MATTHEW ODAM/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Michelin might not have transformed business at every restaurant it touched. But in Austin, chef and restaurant owner Phillip Frankland Lee says he was acutely aware of how the Guide influenced public opinion.
Lee and wife, Margarita Kallas-Lee, own Restaurants by Scratch, which includes four concepts in Austin. The original California location of their Pasta | Bar restaurant earned a Michelin Star in its first year of operation. Lee says when the Guide didn’t give the Austin outpost a Star (Michelin generally focuses on single-location restaurants), the expensive tasting menu restaurant suffered significantly.
Lee said the intimate Pasta | Bar in East Austin operated at 90% capacity in its first three years, but once no Star was given, reservations plummeted to just 10% of capacity. He believes Stars can cut both ways for restaurants that operate in a certain style and at high price points.
“I think that people, when they saw us not even get acknowledged, just assumed that we weren’t good enough,” Lee said.
The Lees closed Pasta | Bar about 15 months after the first Michelin Stars were handed out in Texas. They opened boutique steakhouse Big Slick in its place this summer. And, while Lee said he intends to operate the restaurant, which features trappings of Michelin-starred restaurants like tableside preparations and saucing, at a 2-Star level, he has given up aiming for Stars.
“If I never get a star again, I will sleep well at night,” Lee said.
A Star can change the trajectory and bottom line of a restaurant overnight. But it does not guarantee long-term success. Also in Austin, chef Michael Fojtasek’s Southern restaurant Olamaie earned a Star in 2024, with the award initially igniting a rush of attention.
The restaurant booked hundreds of reservations in the days following the ceremony in Houston, but the bump from the award only lasted about eight months.
Retaining the Star did little to change the flow of traffic. Fojtasek said he received hundreds of calls and text messages congratulating him and his staff in 2024, but only received one or two texts following the news that the elegant Southern restaurant had retained its Star in 2025.
Following the Star, numerous guests curious about the “Michelin experience” would visit and order a few appetizers and entrees to share among the table to check the Southern stunner of their bucket list. “People would come to Austin and have lunch at Interstellar BBQ and LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue and then pop in here for a few bites for dinner,” Fojtasek said with a laugh, referring to two other Austin restaurants that received their initial stars in 2024.
The culinary tourism led Fojtasek, in part, to change his restaurant to a $175 prix fixe tasting menu, while reserving snacks and biscuits for bar service. But the high cost of goods and labor, the challenges of an Austin dining market overflowing with options and populated by distractible diners who don’t like dining out late combined to make its future untenable. Star or not.
Fojtasek closed Olamaie over the summer.
The Texas Restaurant Association, an advocate for the state’s food and hospitality sectors, recognizes the value Michelin brings to the Texas dining scene at large, but acknowledges the awards are a small piece of a bigger economic puzzle.
“Recognition alone cannot erase the significant economic pressures restaurants are facing today,” a TRA rep told the American-Statesman via email. “Operators continue to navigate rising costs and a challenging business environment, which makes every opportunity to showcase Texas restaurants and attract visitors even more meaningful.”
Lessons from outside of Texas?
A jamon display at the reception for the 2025 Texas Michelin Awards Ceremony at the Wortham Center in Houston on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025.
Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle
It would be very rare, though not unprecedented, for Michelin to leave Texas. The Guide left Las Vegas after its initial three-year contract ended in 2009, during a belt-tightening recession. Las Vegas, however, returned to the Michelin fold this year. The Guide announced in late 2025 a new Southwest edition, which includes Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
Atlanta looked poised to lose the attention of Michelin after its three-year contract, a reported $900,000 commitment, ended in 2025. But Atlanta was folded into a new Michelin Guide to the American South, with a two-year contract of $450,000. The Colorado Michelin Guide was restructured after its initial three-year contract ended, with the Guide expanding to include the entire state instead of only Denver and a few elite ski towns.
The Michelin Texas announcement will take place Oct. 8. After that, the future is hazy.
Whether Michelin returns to Texas in 2027, and in what form, remains an open question. And, while restaurants that receive Stars benefit most from the Guide’s work, it’s clear that losing the French-based company’s gaze would be costly to independent restaurants in the state.
“I believe the international recognition, especially for Texas BBQ, has been very important. Whether you agree with it or not, Michelin is considered one of the gold standards in judging restaurants and hotels,” John Bates, owner of the one-Star Interstellar Barbecue, wrote in an email to the American-Statesman. “(If Michelin left Texas) it would be disappointing in general and would take opportunities away from local restaurants and hotels. It’s hard enough to run an independent restaurant in today’s economy. I appreciate the city and state investing in hospitality.”
Houston Chronicle reporter Aviva Bechky contributed to this story.