Michelin unveils NYC stars

AFTER months of anticipation and weeks of gossip, Michelin issued its first ratings of New York City restaurants Tuesday, and the results were mostly safe, with a few surprises.

Four restaurants -- Alain Ducasse, Le Bernardin, Jean Georges and Per Se -- were awarded three stars, the top honor, while four received two: Bouley, Daniel, Danube and Masa. Thirty-one others were deemed worthy of one star, including two off the island of Manhattan, in Brooklyn.

The real winner may have been Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who has taken something of a beating in the press in the last year as his international empire has expanded (some say overexpanded) to include the heat-seeking Spice Market and the Vegas-esque V Steakhouse here. Michelin not only rated his flagship among the very best but also awarded one star each to his Vong and JoJo, which are much older.

Having worked in Michelin-starred restaurants overseas before coming to New York, he said that he was “in heaven” over hitting the top in the guide’s first year but that “tomorrow the hard work begins because a lot of people have high expectations.” He also noted that it all was “a bit of a shock” because the anonymity of the Michelin system meant that he had no idea when he was being evaluated. “We know all the critics in New York.”

David Bouley, another chef who has had his ups and downs since 9/11, should also feel redeemed, with both his namesake restaurant and Danube in the two-star tier.

Daniel Boulud, whose Daniel is consistently awarded the maximum stars in American guidebooks, was putting the best face on his Michelin rating. “I’m not an egomaniac,” he said. “I’m not going to jump off a building.” He added that he was actually “very, very surprised” that so few restaurants earned two stars -- “it’s not good for New York.” His Cafe Boulud earned one star.

Alain Ducasse said he was most excited for his staff on winning three stars, since “I’m not here enough to say I earned it entirely on my own” and it represents a validation of how strong the team is. Long the most Michelin-starred chef in the world, he opened with just three stars from the New York Times in 2000, was raised to four a year later and demoted to three this year. He now has three three-star restaurants, including those in Paris and Monaco.

Danny Meyer, a Zagat favorite who also runs a hamburger stand called the Shake Shack, earned one star each for two of his six restaurants, Gramercy Tavern and the new Modern.

Among the city’s young and envelope-pushing chefs, the kind who can turn squid into spaghetti, only Wylie Dufresne of wd-50 received one star.

Peter Luger, the legendary Brooklyn steakhouse that many diners have been saying is past its prime, received a star as did Saul in Brooklyn, but then so did the Spotted Pig, a “gastropub” in Greenwich Village that would seem the antithesis of Michelin luxe. But the one-star restaurant mocked on the Internet within an hour of the ratings announcement was La Goulue, a French bistro on the Upper East Side usually mentioned only in the gossip columns.

Otherwise, the Michelin reviewers, imported from Europe in the last year, sprinkled their stardust all over Manhattan, from the Upper East Side (Etats-Unis) to the East Village (Jewel Bako) to Tribeca (Lo Scalco, never reviewed by the New York Times). All the restaurants in the Time Warner Center, where Thomas Keller was lured in first to open Per Se, earned stars except Vongerichten’s steakhouse.

Forty-four styles of cuisine, counting “contemporary,” are included among the 507 restaurants covered in the guide, but among the starred restaurants the closest to unusual ethnic is Austrian (Wallse).

The guide, arriving in bookstores nationally on Friday, is Michelin’s first of restaurants in any American city and also its first to vary from the long-established design. Rather than featuring only dense details in tiny type with hieroglyphics, it will include color photographs, actual prose and even recipes from the top tier of restaurants. Like its guides to 21 other countries, it also rates hotels, 50 in all, with seven given the top ranking.

Regina Schrambling

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Small bites

* Providence, chef Michael Cimarusti’s seafood house, is now serving lunch. Offered on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, the menu has a couple of dinner favorites (the creamy chowda’ and the Kumamoto oysters), but features mostly new selections: raw blue crab with Satsuma tangerine, shaved fennel, ginger and mint; clam cakes made with quahogs and served with yuzu kosho mayonnaise; Maine lobster salad with a vanilla and rooibos tea vinaigrette; and sierra mackerel with shimeji mushrooms, sake and mizuna.

Providence, 5955 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; (323) 460-4170; www.providenceLA.com.

* Boneyard Bistro, an upscale barbecue joint, has opened in Sherman Oaks. Chef-owner Aaron Robins, an Encino native who has done stints at Eos and Flying Saucer in San Francisco, as well as Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, offers several barbecue styles, including Santa Maria and Kansas City.

Boneyard Bistro, 13539 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 906-7427.

* The CrepeVine is slated to open next Wednesday in Pasadena. The bistro and wine bar will serve a variety of savory and sweet crepes along with French classics such as fondue and steak frites.

The CrepeVine, 36 W. Colorado Blvd., No. 1, Pasadena; (626) 796-7250.

-- Leslee Komaiko