The Michelin Guide is coming back to Colorado with a whole new perspective.
Originally a printed travel companion from the French tire company, the famed guide has come to represent the best of the best around the world in culinary delights and more.
Previously, anonymous inspectors stuck to Denver, Boulder and ski destinations including Aspen and Vail. This year, Michelin will consider the entire state.
Food journalist Matthew Schniper was among the first to report on the change for his Side Dish newsletter. KRCC's Andrea Chalfin spoke with him about it.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Andrea Chalfin: You have to pay for Michelin to come. Correct?
Matthew Schniper: Correct. So what's different now is in those early years only about five cities paid in, I think it was Aspen, beaver Creek, Vale Denver. Now other smaller municipalities around the state will pony up to help foot the bill to get Michelin to go farther and that's brought the price tag down for the smaller cities.
Michelin is, it's like the bee's knees of culinary awards, right?
I would say so. I think James Beard awards are also a big deal, but Michelin's the top name that everyone knows and I think that creates that brand of prestige and I also think it creates a misunderstanding from the community thinking it's only hoity-toity and only high end.
I'm not sure people realize that Michelin in recent years has started doing food trucks and street stalls and things that are not only high-end fine dining. So they've brought the level down to more of an everyday people food.
VisitCOS, which is the Tourism and Visitors Bureau for Colorado Springs, paid into the effort to bring Michelin to the state. That doesn't necessarily mean they're coming to Colorado Springs.
We hope we get reviewed. We're pretty confident we'll have inspectors in our market, but that does not mean we will get awarded something we could pay into this and come home completely blanked.
So it's a risky proposition. There is an element of risk to this for the bureau...
Definitely. And I think part of that risk would be if we do get blanked, then there's that perception, oh, Colorado Spring sucks. They can't even land a Recommended. The tier goes from Stars to Bib Gourmand to Recommended.
I personally think we're almost certain to get something on the Recommended list. How could we not? We have a handful of just great things in the city we could definitely tell to be proud of. We might get a Bib Gourmand. That'd be fantastic. We could get a Star. I will be surprised if in year one we do, I think Denver didn't even get a lot of stars in year one.
Why would the visitor's bureau want to take that risk?
This is really all about economic development. They want to extend visitor stays in the community and they want to have those visitors who stay spend money and Michelin brings a higher end clientele to places. If Michelin's people can be traveling and going to places and dining out at a number of places, not just one or two things, but when there's suddenly a handful of things available, they might stay that extra day in order to incorporate eating into their itinerary.
Colorado Springs already has Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak, the zoo. If you can get someone to add that one more day because they think, oh, while we're there, we need to make some dining reservations.
It's a multi-year commitment?
It's a three-year commitment, I believe when you first sign up. So VisitCOS has signed us up for the next three years to be considered.
There are people who are a little bit more skeptical of this effort. What do they have to say?
I've talked to a few people who think we aren't ready yet. I quoted Chef Mark Henry from Wobbly Olive in the story saying as much. I think they have their own misgivings about what Michelin means and what it might do to our scene, whether that means increasing the rate at which you have to pay a line cook to stick around because the market changes or some people have expressed concern about rents rising and landlords capitalizing on it. There could be some trickle down effects like that in the future. I think I personally would want to see more data from other markets to justify that before we worry about it.
I think it's fair to question whether we're ready. We've been in a nascent scene. VisitCOS themselves recognized us as middling. This kind of attention could help improve that image for us. And the battle here isn't exactly what Michelin will do in terms of raising rents and all these kinds of things. This is about independence versus chains. We have to break the chain here. We have to stop being an In-N-Out market, and Michelin coming and creating a new dialogue around food in this city could be part of that.
Do people in Colorado Springs actually care about the Michelin Star?
I think a niche group of the foodies do, and I think a larger segment of our demographic doesn't. I can back that up with data from my own social media and newsletter, and I saw very limited traffic on this story about Michelin. I would've thought this was the story of the year. Wow, this is going to be a big newsletter for me and we're going to get all kinds of shares on Facebook. It didn't happen. It was very quiet.
By contrast, the week prior, when I reported on the reopening of the Navajo Hogan, it was the best traffic metrics I've seen ever. That is what Colorado Springs is excited about.
It's on Nevada just north of downtown. It's got this giant neon sign. What can you tell me about this reopening?
Navajo Hogan has been closed for the past five years. There were two prior fires on premise, which created a lot of problems and headaches for the prior owner, Johnny Nolan, who came from South Side Johnny's.
The property is historic. It was built originally in the 1930s. People have always known it as that iconic place you drive by. Everyone's seen that neon sign. It's been a roadhouse in some form or other for decades. It's just been one of those beloved kind of dive places where everyone has a connection to it. It's one of those places that's just legend.
The new owner is…?
Bobby Couch from Green Line Grill.
What do we anticipate he will be doing with the space?
Bobby and his team have spent the last year doing a full renovation, electrical, plumbing, foundation, new back parking lot, everything. It needed a lot of work, but they wanted to make sure it's ready for the next era. What they're not doing is Green Line Grill burgers by intention. They don't want to do more smash burgers. It's a brand new menu. The guys told me it's kind of focused on four central proteins and a lot of things you can make out of those four proteins.
The Navajo Hogan is expected to reopen as soon as mid-March.
Quick Hits and Memorable Bites:
- Sushi Mori: "As local sushi spots go, Sushi Mori at minimum rates standard-good, and quite possibly a cut above many others."
- Colorado Craft opens at the airport: "It’s initially just bar service, with their food menu following sometime later in the year or so."
- 105 West Brewery: Out of Castle Rock, now open at the old Trinity location on Garden of the Gods Road.
- Hayato Ramen: Now at COATI. "And the ramen is really good, by the way."
- Ambli rebrands as Amore: "Chef/co-owner Ricardo Morffin doesn’t make bad food, so everything was roundly delicious."
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