Michelin Texas guide elevates San Antonio cuisine
The Michelin Guide has come to Texas, and several San Antonio restaurants are now included in the prestigious publication. TPR's Jerry Clayton spoke with Express-News Restaurant Critic Mike Sutter about the Michelin guide's impact on the local food scene.
Clayton: The Michelin Texas guide has been released. Explain why being included is a big deal.
Sutter: It started in 1900 in France, and it's called the Michelin Guide because it was started by the tire company, and what they wanted to do was in the early days of the automobile and the tire industry was to encourage people to get out and use tires. And so, they thought, well, how can we do that? We tell people good places to go eat that are out of town.
And it has built from that in 1900 to this indispensable guide for people looking for the most elevated dining experiences in any city they go. And of course, it came to the United States a few years ago. It started in New York. And then they went over to California, and then they hit some spots in between. But for them to come to Texas, I think that's not something I necessarily would have seen when I started writing about food here.
Clayton: Several San Antonio restaurants are included in the new guide. Some that I noticed were listed in the Bib Gourmand category. What does that mean?
Sutter: It has evolved into a category just off to the side of Michelin stars. It indicates the kinds of restaurants where they have really good food, but you're not going to pay an arm and a leg for it. So, great food at a great value is how they characterize that. And we had six San Antonio restaurants that were awarded Bib Gourmand status in the Michelin Guide.
Clayton: There are other restaurants in San Antonio that are now just listed. Is that correct?
Sutter: It's a big deal just to be listed in the guide. So, the next level for them is called recommended. These are just places that the Michelin inspectors recommend for a good food experience in that city, and we had seven San Antonio restaurants qualify for that.
Clayton: Of course, the big news is Mixtli. They were awarded with a Michelin star. You were there on Thursday night. Tell us about your experience.
Sutter: Well, I've been to Mixtli since they opened in 2013 four or five times. They started at a boxcar in Olmos Park, and it has evolved into a much bigger operation in Southtown. But it has still maintained the storytelling aspect of it because you go through eight to ten courses of food, and there's a story that accompanies each one of those plates of food that arrives at your table that's built by the restaurant staff.
They put together the research for regions of Mexico, and they tell stories about that time in history, with the plates, with the ingredients, the fact that the conquistadors brought in a lot of the things that we now associate with food from Mexico. That was the theme of the menu, the time of the conquistadors and the influences that they had. It's an education. It's a journey, and it's unlike just about anything else that you've done in San Antonio when you've gone out to find Mexican food.
