Chicago’s Smyth joins elite group of Michelin three-star restaurants

Chicago’s Smyth has joined an exclusive culinary club.

On Tuesday night, the tony West Loop eatery was awarded its third Michelin star, making it one of only 13 restaurants in the country that have earned the industry’s highest accolade.

“I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure that you guys believe in what we do,” Chef/co-owner John Shields said on stage after the honor was revealed during the ceremony held in New York City.

“It was a complete shock,” Shields told the Sun-Times in a separate interview on Thursday.

Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times

Shields and his wife, Executive Pastry Chef Karen Urie Shields, opened the restaurant in 2016. The spot serves up contemporary cuisine out of an open-concept kitchen in the West Loop, with the tasting menu starting at $285 per person.

Smyth was awarded its first star in 2016 and its second in 2017.

As Shields accepted the honor in New York, back home his restaurant was erupting with applause as guests popped bottles of champagne for the staff, the chef said.

“Some of our close family and friends were downstairs (at the chef’s other eatery, The Loyalist) and they came up yelling ‘three stars’ in the dining room, and the whole dining room got up and started clapping for the whole team,” Shields said.

Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times

Michelin stars recognize a restaurant’s cuisine only and are assessed by anonymous reviewers based on five criteria: “the quality of the ingredients, the harmony of flavors, the mastery of techniques, the personality of the chef as expressed through their cuisine and consistency both across the entire menu and over time.”

In honoring Smyth its third Michelin star, Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guides said: “The inspectors have been carefully monitoring the progress at Smyth, especially since it earned two Michelin stars in 2017. They unanimously decided that now is the time to reward the restaurant, chefs John Shields and Karen Urie Shields and their staff for delivering peak creativity, precision and teamwork. This is an elite restaurant.”

In between the restaurant’s second and third star there was a global pandemic that shook the entire industry — but Shields said Smyth made it through, thanks in great measure to the diehard staff, Shields said.

“There’s a core amount of people that have stuck with the restaurant and been with the team and have gone through the ups and downs and the turmoil along the way, and you get these small pockets of joy, you get little moments,” Shields said.

As for what makes the difference between a two-star and three-star restaurant, Shields said the team at Smyth and The Loyalist have been honed in on consistency and creativity, Shields said.

Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times

“The goal was to chase all that creative energy, all that focus on pushing the envelope a little bit, trying new things and pushing ourselves to be better,” Shields said.

Smyth now shares the three-star status with only one other restaurant in Chicago, Alinea, where Shields was sous chef under Chef Grant Achatz from its opening in 2005 to 2008.

But, Shields points out there’s a “dichotomy” between the two restaurants, each with their one unique and almost completely opposite style.

“You’d probably never know I worked there in some ways,” Shields said.

As the team at Smyth and the Loyalist look ahead, Shields said they’ve been eyeing opening a third restaurant while strategizing on how to take advantage of the moment in which they’ve found themselves.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for not just ourselves, but the entire team to elevate themselves and grow in a way that they didn’t think was possible,” Shields said.

And to his younger self — just getting started as a chef in Chicago — Shields would say, “Stick to your guns, stick to your goals, have a goal and believe in what you’re doing.”

Contributing: Miriam Di Nunzio