"restaurant guides" news and stories

If you've been in Paris, you've probably been in this situation: It's 8:00, you're wandering around an unfamiliar arrondissement after a long day of staring at 18th-century paintings, your spoken French is way short of Madame Sarkozy's, and you're hungry and want to rest your dogs at a fantastic restaurant. Merde!

Calm down, weary traveler. Alec Lobrano, the former European editor for Gourmet and an American expat who's called Paris home for 25 years, has your back. With the recently released second edition of his Hungry for Paris, Lobrano supplies more than 100 in-depth suggestions, from the hautest dining rooms in town to the bistros where you can kick back with an omelet and a groaning plate of boudin noir (like La Bigarrade, Jadis, and L'Epigramme).

They went to New York first, but this week, the inspectors for the Michelin Guide made their designations around the San Francisco Bay area. 356 restaurants were listed. 23 received one star (*), four received two stars (**), and only one restaurant received the coveted three star rating (***): Thomas Keller's The French Laundry in Yountville (Napa Valley).

It's not totally surprising, as Keller also received three stars for his restaurant Per Se in New York. However, some folks, like Paul Franson, a wine country writer and author of the weekly Napa Life newsletter, were surprised that more restaurants didn't receive the highest rating.

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