(Bloomberg) -- In June, the Michelin Guide announced that it would begin awarding stars to restaurants in Colorado, specifically in five cities: Aspen and Snowmass; Vail; Beaver Creek; Boulder; and Denver. 

As it turns out, that number equals the total number of stars the guide doled out. Diners bent on visiting the starred restaurants can spend the majority of their time in Denver (three) and make side trips to Boulder and Aspen.

When Michelin announced the list on Tuesday at a live event in Denver, it unveiled just five one-star restaurants. The guide defines a one-star establishment as “high quality cooking, worth a stop.”

That’s the lowest number of stars for any guide in North America. When the inaugural Florida guide was unveiled in June 2022, there were 15 starred restaurants in Miami and Orlando, including one with two stars (“excellent cooking; worth a detour”). Likewise, the first guide for Toronto, released in September 2022, named 13 restaurants with stars, including one with two. 

The best-known newly starred restaurant in the Colorado guide is Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, a 19-year-old destination that serves bold takes on the cooking of Northern Italy. It also has one of the more thoughtful wine lists in the US. The four-course menu goes for $140 and has included risotto with aged carnaroli rice and New York strip steak with horseradish.

At Brutø in Denver, chef Michael Diaz de Leon received a star for his wood-fired, Latin American-accented tasting menus, which showcase tacos filled with the catch of the day as well as white Sonora fettuccine with salsa macha.   

Brutø was one of four restaurants to garner a Green star, too, marking places with a notable sustainability program. (A Green star doesn’t count towards the overall star count.) A second Denver restaurant that was given both a conventional star and a Green one was the Wolf’s Tailor; it focuses on international flavors and techniques and zero waste, with dishes like lamb’s neck with tamarind sweet soy, cooked on a robata grill. 

Where Michelin Goes From Here

The pace at which the Michelin Guide is expanding has again brought up the question of what makes a restaurant star-worthy—among the highlighted dishes at the newly starred Bosq in Aspen is a caviar bump for $35—and how much those stars still matter, anyway.

Colorado will be the sixth guide in the US; the others are New York, California, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Florida. It won’t be the newest for long. This fall, Michelin will publish its first Atlanta guide. And coming soon to North America are star awards in Vancouver. (Toronto marked Canada’s inaugural guide.)

How Michelin chooses new areas to cover seems to be guided by the budgets of local tourism agencies. Tim Wolfe, the director for the Colorado Tourism Office, announced last year that the company would spend an additional $9 million to attract tourists after visitors’ spending fell by $9 billion from 2019 to 2020. 

The agency is paying $100,000 annually to have Michelin in Colorado, according to the New York Times; the agreement is to run three years.  Local agencies in Vail, Denver, Aspen and Beaver Creek also reportedly agreed to pay from $70,000 to $100,000 each. (Colorado cities that did not participate, such as Colorado Springs and Aurora, were not visited by the guide’s anonymous inspectors.)

It remains to be seen how people in a city like Beaver Creek, which had no starred restaurants on the list and scored only a pair of places on the “recommended” list (designated as a place with “well-cooked” food), will feel about how their money is being spent. 

At the end of August, Michelin announced the Colorado Bib Gourmands, or “cheap eats.” Of nine on the list, eight are in Denver.   

Still, some chefs defend the guide’s importance. David Kinch, who closed his three-star restaurant Manresa at the end of 2022, has argued that the star system remains relevant. “It’s easy to pick on Michelin,” he told Bloomberg last year in an interview. “But anyone who says they lost their influence has no idea what they’re talking about.” 

One Star

Beckon, DenverBosq, AspenBrutø, DenverFrasca Food and Wine, BoulderThe Wolf’s Tailor, Denver

Bib Gourmand

AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q, DenverAsh’Kara, DenverBasta, BoulderGinger Pig, DenverGlo Noodle House, DenverHop Alley, DenverLa Diabla Pozole y Mezcal, DenverMister Oso, DenverTavernetta, Denver

Green Stars

Blackbelly Market, BoulderBramble & Hare, BoulderBrutø, DenverThe Wolf’s Tailor, Denver

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