Restaurant watchers call it the “Michelin effect.” It’s the impact on a restaurant from having the endorsement of the famous Michelin Guide , and it can also mean the impact on a city or even a region from having Michelin in the mix, too.

Michelin attention can turn local restaurants into destinations, make a chef’s career and generate more gastro tourism. As with all that seems to glitter like gold, it comes with potential perils.

We’re about to see this in action in our own backyard and around adjacent regions we know well.

We’ll see it both immediately, in bolstered prestige and bulging reservations books for restaurants that pick up the highest Michelin honors.

And we’ll see it over time, through seasonal tourism cycles, in the careers of chefs already here and yet to come, in wa

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