Here Are the 2024 Michelin Star Winners in the Bay Area (2024)

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Select members of the hospitality industry descended upon the picturesque grounds of the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay on Monday, August 5, to find out their Michelin-starred fate. By the end of the 2024 Michelin Guide California ceremony, three new San Francisco restaurants joined the ranks of one-star establishments; a San Francisco fine-dining restaurant, and another in Carmel-by-the-Sea, went from one star to two; a new Bay Area restaurant landed on Michelin’s Bib Gourmand list; and San Francisco took home three of four Special Awards honoring specific members of the hospitality industry.

But the downside of earning a Michelin star is the pressure to maintain it year after year, and 2024 saw four Bay Area restaurants fall off the prestigious guide. Gary Danko lost its Michelin designation after 17 years as a one-star San Francisco restaurant. Barndiva in Healdsburg, Sushi Shin in Redwood City, and Sushi Yoshizumi in San Mateo all lost their star rating as well. In less-surprising news, one-starred Avery was also dropped from the guide. The removal seemed unavoidable, however, as chef Rodney Wages closed the San Francisco restaurant in 2023 and moved Avery to its new home in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, opening in May 2024.

Still, San Francisco had a strong showing at the Michelin ceremony. One-starred fine dining restaurant Sons & Daughters leaped to two stars this year under chef Harrison Cheney. He earned the Michelin Young Chef Award in 2023, leading the New Nordic style of menu at the San Francisco restaurant after working his way through the kitchens of chef Jacob Holmström at Sweden’s Gastrologik, as well as the Square, the Ledbury, and Quince. “I remember a time when I was 16 years old looking through the Michelin Guide thinking I wasn’t ready to work at the two stars, I’ll work my way through, and that’s exactly what I did,” Cheney told the crowd after receiving the second star for Sons & Daughters. “It means a lot.”

Sons & Daughters was just one of three restaurants bumped up to two stars; Aubergine in Carmel-by-the-Sea and Vespertine in Los Angeles also made the cut, with the latter earning a green star designation for its sustainability practices.

Beyond Sons & Daughters’s level-up, three San Francisco spots became newly minted one-starred restaurants. Chefs David Fisher and Serena Chow Fisher led their new restaurant 7 Adams to its one-star designation this year, a sweet cap to a highly-publicized breakup with their previously one-starred restaurant Marlena and owner Stephane Roulland. The chef-couple started working on 7 Adams after they split from Marlena in July 2023, opening their new restaurant in Japantown just four months later. In the leadup to 7 Adams’s Michelin star, the restaurant won the #2 spot on Robb Report’s Best New Restaurants in America list in early June.

The team at North Beach’s Hilda and Jesse had one of the more exciting moments of the night. Hilda and Jesse co-owner Rachel Sillco*cks received the Michelin Outstanding Service Award — only to be followed up minutes later with the announcement that the restaurant received its first Michelin star. Chef Kristina Liedags Compton — clad in a “Protect trans youth” t-shirt — joined Sillco*cks onstage in a congratulatory moment following Sillco*cks’s win, only for the duo to be surprised with their star and Compton given a chef’s jacket. “The fact that people have come to us and trusted us and come back to us and invested their time and their energy and their money in us,” Sillco*cks says, “that’s the best part of what we do.”

Here Are the 2024 Michelin Star Winners in the Bay Area (1)

San Francisco fine-dining restaurant Kiln also had a dual award moment for the evening, as the year-old restaurant both earned its first Michelin Star and chef John Wesley earned the Michelin Young Chef Award. It’s a huge achievement for Wesley as he left the Michelin-starred Sons & Daughters with general manager Julianna Yang in early 2023 to strike out on their own and start Kiln. Wesley’s also worked in the kitchens of Baumé and Michelin-starred Commis, pouring that into a menu that uses French, Japanese, and Scandinavian cooking techniques.

Aphotic head distiller and bar director Trevin Hutchins also landed in the winners’ circle, winning the Michelin Exceptional co*cktails Award. Hutchins’s “sea-inspired” beverage program caught Michelin’s attention back in December 2023, when the guide highlighted Hutchins’s drinks and distillate program where he makes Aphotic Seaweed Gin among other concoctions.

At the end of the night, the list of three-star establishments was announced and it fully remained unchanged: Bay Area restaurants Atelier Crenn, Benu, the French Laundry, Quince, and SingleThread all retained their three-star status, along with Addison in San Diego. Lastly, six new Bay Area restaurants became Michelin-listed this year, including 7 Adams, but just Molti Amici in Healdsburg made the Bib Gourmand list, Michelin’s designation that “recognizes friendly establishments that serve good food at moderate prices.”

Here’s the full list of Bay Area Michelin-starred restaurants for 2024:

Three stars

Atelier Crenn, San Francisco

Benu, San Francisco

The French Laundry, Yountville

Quince, San Francisco

Two stars

Acquerello, San Francisco

Aubergine, Carmel-by-the-Sea

Birdsong, San Francisco

Californios, San Francisco

Commis, Oakland

Harbor House, Elk

Lazy Bear, San Francisco

Saison, San Francisco

Sons & Daughters, San Francisco

One star

7 Adams (New)

Angler, San Francisco

Aphotic, San Francisco

Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford

Auro, Calistoga