Chicago’s Oriole, Tru get 2 Michelin stars; Grace, Alinea keep 3

Chicago’s galaxy of Michelin-star rated restaurants continues to dazzle as the prestigious honors for the 2017 Michelin Guide Chicago were announced Wednesday.

The city’s dynamic duo of three-star restaurants, Grace in the West Loop and Alinea in Lincoln Park, each retained its coveted rating for the coming year. (There are only 14 in the country that have achieved the lofty triple stars.)

Our city’s culinary world now also claims five two-star Michelin winners, as newcomer Oriole and perennial Chicago favorite Tru joined the ranks of Acadia, 42 Grams and Sixteen for the coveted designation (only 25 establishments across the U.S. now claim the rating).

“When it comes to Oriole, Noah [Sandoval] is a great chef,” said Michael Ellis, the international director of Michelin Guides. “He’s been able to do something truly unique with his gluten-free [Senza]. That was a first for us. Oriole is incredibly ambitious with a unique signature. Noah is one of the youngest two-star chefs in the world today.”

Nineteen establishments can now boast one-star ratings, including four newcomers: Streeterville’s GreenRiver; Roister and Smyth, both in the West Loop, and Ravenswood’s Band of Bohemia brewpub.

In his accolades for one-star newcomer Smyth, Ellis said John Shields and wife Karen Shields “are big on farm-sourced foods; they have a 20-acre farm outside Chicago. They’ve been able to combine things from the earth and the seas in such unique ways. The fois gras with dungeness crab — our inspectors have not come across that before. [Same with ] the squab with squid reduction. It just reflects their technical training with an artistic ability to pair different products and create something new and wonderful.”

Band of Bohemia is a unique entry into Chicago’s Michelin-star world by its very nature. “This is an incredible microbrewery that incorporates the whole brewery concept into the food,” said Ellis. “And they’re brewing these insane beers, like pink guava peppercorn!”

Said Band of Bohemia executive chef Matt DuBois, “First and foremost [co-owner/head brewer Michael Carroll] and I try and create harmonious pairings in terms of [the menu]. There are folks who assume that we cook with beer and all that, but to be completely honest that’s not what we do. The whole idea here is that the beer stands on its own and the dish stands on its own.”

“Having been a chef myself for years and years, there have been places that do beer and food and sometimes it works, [more often] it rarely works,” said Carroll. “At the end of the day I’d rather have a dish WITH the beer and not try to muddle the two. … But one of my favorite things Matt does with beer are the vinegars; utilizing all these different flavors that don’t come out in the beer but do in the vinegar.”

As for Chicago’s three-star eateries, Ellis cited Grant Achatz and his team for their complete and successful relaunch of Alinea, and Curtis Duffy for maintaining the standard of excellence at Grace. “We have to take our hats off to Grant,” Ellis said. They rebooted the entire restaurant, creating a new concept, menu, and retaining the three-star standards.

“People need to understand that a three-star award is not a lifetime achievement award,” Ellis continued. “They’re bestowed every year and chefs really have to show us that they have sustained that standard of excellence and creativity. Michelin has a presence in 28 countries [only four U.S. cities, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., currently boast their own Michelin guides] and we have over 20,000 restaurants among the various guides. Of those, there are only 118 that have three stars.”

Here is the full complement of 2017 Michelin Guide Chicago restaurants and their star ratings:

THREE STARS

Alinea(1723 N. Halsted); Chef Grant Achatz

Grace(652 W. Randolph); Chef Curtis Duffy

TWO STARS

Acadia(1639 S. Wabash); Chef Ryan McCaskey

42 Grams (4662 N. Broadway); Chef Jake Bickelhaupt

Oriole (661 W. Walnut); Chef Noah Sandoval

Sixteen(401 N. Wabash); Chef Thomas Lents

Tru (676 N. St Clair); Chef Anthony Martin

ONE STAR

Band of Bohemia(4710 N. Ravenswood); Chef Matt DuBois

Blackbird (619 W. Randolph); Chef Paul Kahan

Boka(1729 N. Halsted); Chef Lee Wolen

Dusek’s Board & Beer(1227 W. 18th St.); Chef Jared Wentworth

EL Ideas(2419 W. 14th St.); Chef Phillip Foss

Elizabeth Restaurant(4835 N. Western); Chef Iliana Regan

Everest(One Financial News, 440 S, La Salle); Chef Jean Joho

Goosefoot (2656 W. Lawrence); Chef Chris Nugent

GreenRiver(259 E. Erie); Chef Aaron Lirette

Longman & Eagle(2657 N. Kedzie); Chef Matthew Kerney

NAHA(500 N. Clark); Chef Carrie Nahabedian

North Pond(610 N. Cannon Dr.); Chef Bruce Sherman

Parachute(3500 N. Elston), Chefs Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark

Roister(951 W. Fulton Market); Chef Andrew Brochu

Schwa(1466 N. Ashland) Chef Michael Carlson

Sepia(123 N. Jefferson); Chef Andrew Zimmerman

Smyth (177 N. Ada St #101); Chef John B. Shields

Spiaggia(980 N. Michigan); Chef Tony Mantuano

Topolobampo(445 N. Clark); Chef Rick Bayless

A note about the Michelin Guide and star ratings: