Originally Posted by
stimpy
You know, there is a reason for this anomaly. Small town in France (and Belgium, etc) have examples of top level restaurants. For me the best restaurant in France is in the town of Chagny. However in small towns in the US the best restaurant is usually Cracker Barrel. Yes I'm sure you can find some good examples here and there, as you say Napa Valley. However the vast majority of the geography in the US is served by fast food restaurants, diners, and the occasional decent restaurant that isn't quite up to Michelin standards of quality.
Oh dear. Such provincialism I'm accustomed to hearing from ignorant Americans...but it's disappointing on a forum like this and from such an obviously informed and well traveled contributor like you.
There are many small towns in America with terrible dining. But to sum up all small town American dining in one broad stroke is very disappointing and inaccurate.
There also are many small towns in America with top level restaurants. Newport Beach has Basilic, Laguna Beach has Studio at Montage, Costa Mesa has Marche Moderne, all within 15-20 min drive of us. Carmel (CA) has Bernardus Lodge's Lucia. Lummi Island (WA) has Willows. Fredericksburg (VA) has Peter Chang's. Boulder (CO) has Frasca. Oxford (MS) has City Grocery. Walland (TN) has the Barn at Blackberry Farm. Washington (VA) has the Inn at Little Washington. Pocantico Hills (NY) has Blue Hill. Pittsboro (NC) has Fearrington House.
There also are tremendously good restaurants in small cities like Richmond (VA), Charlottesville (VA), Sleepy Hollow (NY), Hilton Head (SC), Healdsburg (CA), Lafayette (LA), Traverse City (MI), Naples (FL), Savannah (GA), Aspen (CO), Jackson (WY), Santa Fe (NM), etc. Hard to say if any or all have restaurants that qualify for 1 (or even 2) Michelin stars, but I know most will have several that would rank as Bib Gourmand.
Europe developed differently than North America. As a result, it has many small towns relative to its size that developed excellent cuisine over a century if not many centuries. North America developed small towns before food culture, and food culture is certainly focused in our cities more than in Europe. Yet just like Europe, we have many resort locales in small towns/rural areas that offer tremendous dining, along with burgeoning foodie culture in more enlightened and progressive small towns (especially in small towns with excellent colleges and universities).
With apologies, I'd say that general ignorance of many of America's great small towns and resort locations and their restaurants outside the normal purview of bigger cities is the only reason for such a comment.
And if Michelin included the smaller cities in the USA, let alone all of the major cities, there would be no contest: the USA has FAR more excellent restaurants than does France. Sorry, but almost every one of Portland, San Diego, Irvine/Newport Beach, Phoenix, Seattle, Portland, Albuquerque/Santa Fe, Denver/Boulder, Kansas City, Detroit, Salt Lake City, Omaha, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, St. Louis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Cincinnati, Louisville, Birmingham, Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham, Richmond, Cleveland, Nashville, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Boston, etc will include at least a Michelin 1 star restaurant if not more...and every single one has several Bib Gourmands at the very least. Many will have 2 star restaurants. The contest isn't even close, I'm afraid.