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About this blog: I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in jo... (More)

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Local picks on 2015 Michelin Bib Gourmand list

Uploaded: Oct 17, 2014

The Michelin guide folks unveiled this week their annual Bib Gourmand list, the teaser appetizer before the main course next week: the 2015 Michelin stars.

Bib Gourmand restaurants must offer two courses and a glass of wine or dessert for $40 or less (tax and gratuity not included), and "are often of most value to a city's residents, who regularly dine in neighborhood restaurants," Michelin's website reads.

Four Peninsula restaurants made the cut this year: Evvia in Palo Alto, Fey in Menlo Park and Vesta and Donato Enoteca in Redwood City.

All were also named to the list last year. Crouching Tiger in Redwood City fell off the 2015 list, however.

Snagging Bib Gourmand status means restaurants are ineligible for a Michelin star. Those designations for the Bay Area are set to be released Tuesday. Last year, four local eateries made it into the 2014 guide: Madera, the Village Pub, Baumé and Chez TJ.

Check out the full Bay Area Bib Gourmand list here.

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Posted by Alex Harris, a resident of Community Center,
on Oct 19, 2014 at 6:53 pm

What about Manresa in 2014?

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Posted by resident, a resident of Downtown North,
on Oct 20, 2014 at 9:32 pm

I assume "local" means within the readership of this newspaper (Woodside, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Mountain View).

Nine Silicon Valley restaurants earned Michelin stars last year: Web Link

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Posted by Jay Park, a resident of Jackson Park,
on Oct 21, 2014 at 7:11 am

@resident:

In the case of this article, I think "local" fancy restaurant could be anything along the mid-Peninsula (i.e., within reasonable driving distance) rather than specifically within strict city limits of certain communities, since people often are willing to go a little out of their way for a special dining experience.

Of course, everyone's interpretation of "local" is a little different and sometimes context or situation calls for an adjustment of a definition (just like many other words). A slightly looser interpretation of "local" seems to be in play here.

@Alex:

It is probable that Manresa will be passed up for 2014. They suffered a fire and are currently closed.

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Posted by Elena Kadvany, a resident of another community,
on Oct 21, 2014 at 10:19 am

I was indeed looking at more local restaurants within our three newspapers' coverage areas, but Jay Park is absolutely right that of course, diners are not bound by the borders of the cities we cover!

It will be interesting to see what happens with Manresa. Web Link

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Posted by Max Hauser, a resident of Old Mountain View,
on Oct 21, 2014 at 12:41 pm

Note that this column is all about the Michelin "Bib Gourmand" category, which is restaurants recommended for a specific type of moderately-priced good-value meal.

High-end Bay Area places such as TFL, Meadowood, and Manresa often do not qualify for Bib Gourmand consideration, because their menu options do not fit its definition.

BTW Manresa is expecting to reopen at year's end.

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Posted by Max Hauser, a resident of Old Mountain View,
on Oct 22, 2014 at 9:02 am

. . . and Jay Park need not have worried. Two hours after my last comment yesterday came the "Star" announcements, and Manresa kept its two, as the Chron explains in more detail: Web Link

Please also note that, whereas Michelin plays up the "Bib Gourmand" and "Star" lists online -- and journalists and bloggers obligingly chatter away about those, thus helping to promote sales of the actual book -- those lists reflect only a few percent of the total information available in the Michelin Guide. I've found the Guide valuable when traveling to its home turf, and often bought the SF edition since it first appeared eight years ago. It's a serious resource for learning about Bay Area restaurants from a reasonably consistent, professional reviewers' perspective. It has helped to promote some excellent peninsula restaurants at all price levels (such as the Bamboo Garden, a family-run Shanghainese restaurant in Mountain View) by including them in the selection of Bay Area restaurants chosen for attention in the Guide. Most of which do not receive "stars" or "Bib Gourmand," so if you look JUST at those special subcategories, and the Academy-Award-type chatter they generate, you miss out on the vast majority of the valuable information in the printed Guide, useful for ordinary folks seeking good food and value.

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Posted by Sparty, a resident of another community,
on Oct 23, 2014 at 2:32 am
Sparty is a registered user.

How embarassing for Chez TJ...still no second star

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Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood,
on Oct 23, 2014 at 8:24 am

The One Hundred Foot Journey, Anyone?

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