Uncle Boons

 Michelin rating: *

Photo courtesy of Uncle Boons website

An establishment with parquet floors that doesn’t accept reservations probably isn’t one that’s earnestly trolling for Michelin stars. Michelin gave one to them, anyway. To Uncle Boons’s credit, they seemed to have lifted their heads, blinked a couple of times at the recognition, then put their heads down and got back to work. Nothing about the place suggests that they’re preening or status-conscious, though the chef-owners hail from the kitchen of Per Se; perhaps they are the culinary equivalents of non-legacy Harvard graduates who buckle down at their jobs out of school and never, not once, mention their alma mater.

The Musket Room

 Michelin rating: *

Image courtesy of The Musket Room website

There is something that happens to lands in isolation, surrounded by vast, untraversable waters. Left in peace to evolve on its own terms, life is expressed in ways that can seem alien and other-worldly to mainland people. Whether it’s the French squinting at the English, or the Koreans peering over their shoulders at the Japanese, or the rest of the planet’s ecosystem trying to figure out what in God’s name is going on in Australia, islands evoke curiosity as self-contained worlds at their most pure and unadulterated. Whether it be manifest in species or cultures or accents or cuisine, they’re almost always unique and interesting.

Jean-Georges

Michelin Rating: ***

Photo credit: Francesco Tonelli for Jean-Georges

This is it. The storied Jean-Georges. Standard-bearer of New York fine dining. Unscathed survivor of Pete Wells’s scrutiny. The womb from whence came the ubiquitous, inescapable, oft-imitated and unjustly degenerated molten chocolate cake.

Walking up the stairs of the Trump International building, it’s easy to forget that this is, on paper, a hotel restaurant.

Structure and Spirit of the Club

Three friends got together and resolved to having at least twelve notable meals in 2016. Once a month, they decided, they would blow an unreasonable amount of money to eat what the Michelin guide had determined worthy of dedicating one of the finite number of meals we are gifted with in our lifetime.