Going Really Out of Your Way for Great Food

[robyn]

I have a thesis that there is a "beaten path" for "food experiences" these days. Want to see if it's true - or not.

So I'd like some feedback. How many of you have gone out of your way to eat at a 2 or 3 star Michelin restaurant in recent years - or a restaurant that would probably have 2 or 3 Michelin stars except that the country/city where it's located doesn't have a Michelin guide?

Big cities can count - as long as they're not otherwise tourist destinations (IOW -"86" New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, etc.). But what I'm really looking for is people who went out of their way to go to places like Trois Gros - a place that is (or used to be) a great restaurant in a dumpy small city. A place you go to only to eat. I suspect 90% of the responses I get here will cite El Bulli - perhaps some places in Italy and France - but maybe I'll be surprised. Robyn

Edited November 2, 2006 by robyn (log)

[Ling]

Well, we went to San Fran for 2.5 days and all we did was eat non-stop. Does that count?

In December, we're going to NY for another food trip. This time, 3-4 days of non-stop eating. We're working our way up...

[SuzySushi]

I don't know if it counts, since we never checked whether it was rated in Michelin or another guidebook, but a few years ago, on our last trip to France, we drove to Auxerre specifically to dine again at a restaurant where we'd had a memorable dish of oeufs en meurette several years earlier.

We arrived there and the restaurant was out-of-business, with a hand-lettered sign on the door. It had closed only a few days before.

Edited November 2, 2006 by SuzySushi (log)

[robyn]

Don't really count. What I'm looking for is a trip to the middle of nowhere (in tourist terms) just to get a meal you expect to be great. San Francisco and New York aren't really in the middle of nowhere . And a personal favorite doesn't count either - especially when it's closed (boy that must have been disappointing - did you at least find another restaurant you loved?). Robyn

[SuzySushi]

And a personal favorite doesn't count either - especially when it's closed (boy that must have been disappointing - did you at least find another restaurant you loved?).  Robyn

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As a matter of fact we did. After walking around for what seemed like hours, we ended up asking a local where she would eat for lunch. She recommended a restaurant where we feasted on a magnificent plateau de fruits de mer (we saw one at another table and couldn't resist) -- which is rather incongruous because Auxerre is landlocked and not famous for its seafood.

[markk]

I don't know how recent you want this to be...

But in the 90's when we were in Paris, we drove to the three-star restaurant La Côte Saint Jacques in the town of Joigny in the Chablis region of Burgundy, which is truly in the middle of nowhere, for dinner, and of course stayed over there in the hotel portion becuase there's nowhere else to stay, and it's too far to drive anywhere after dinner. (It was a spectacular meal.)

And on another trip in the 90's, when we were vacationing in Italy on the island of Capri, we flew up to Bologna and rented a car to drive to the town of Imola for a dinner at the 3-star restaurant San Domenico. (And being farther than we anticipated, we were late for dinner, although we called ahead, and they were, well, not thrilled.) (It was a lousy meal.)

Of course, Michelin's definition of a 3-star restaurant is (or used to be) "worth a special trip", as opposed to the 2-star "worth a detour".

I don't think we've done anything that crazy since (I may be wrong).

Do those count?

[ludja]

Check out this interesting prospect discussed in this thread on Keyah Grande

It is boutique hotel with cutting edge cuisine located on a mountaintop in Pagosa Springs, Colorado a town of about 1500 people! This is about a 3-4 hr drive from Albuquerque and 6 hrs from Denver in southern Colorado. The closet town of any size is Durango I think.

The thread has a link to the hotel and restaurant menu and to the husband/wife team's foodblog. The husband chef is an eGullet member, twodogs.

I've heard discussion that compared going there to seeking out remotely located starred retaurants in Europe.

I think an eGullet member has been there.

I also remember Ulteriour Epicure reporting on a visit to a 2 or 3 starred restaurant in a small mountain village a significant distance outside of Salzburg...

I guess the most remote place I've had a star quality meal was at a town in western coastal Brittany. I need to check my notes, but it may have been in Locarneau. We were touring other parts of Brittany but made a point to plan our day long expedition to be there for dinner. Our friend who lives in Brittany for part of the year knew of the restaurant and recommended it to us.

One of the most remote places in the US that I had an above average quality meal although it is not innovative star cuisine was at The Cloudcroft Inn in Cloudcroft, NM. I guess mountains are a theme here. The hotel and restaurant are located on top of a 10,000 foot mountain and the town has about 300 people. Alamagordo, not big in its own right is the closest town. Located in southeastern NM, both are a 3 hr drive from either El Paso or Allbuquerque so it is quite remote. We didn't travel there to only visit the hotel/restaurant but it was a relatively big focus of the trip. Here's a description of the meal: click

Edited November 3, 2006 by ludja (log)

[robyn]

I don't know how recent you want this to be...

But in the 90's when we were in Paris, we drove to the three-star restaurant La Côte Saint Jacques in the town of Joigny in the Chablis region of Burgundy, which is truly in the middle of nowhere, for dinner, and of course stayed over there in the hotel portion becuase there's nowhere else to stay, and it's too far to drive anywhere after dinner.  (It was a spectacular meal.)

And on another trip in the 90's, when we were vacationing in Italy on the island of Capri, we flew up to Bologna and rented a car to drive to the town of Imola for a dinner at the 3-star restaurant San Domenico.  (And being farther than we anticipated, we were late for dinner, although we called ahead, and they were, well, not thrilled.)  (It was a lousy meal.)

Of course, Michelin's definition of a 3-star restaurant is (or used to be) "worth a special trip", as opposed to the 2-star "worth a detour".

I don't think we've done anything that crazy since (I may be wrong).

Do those count?

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Yes - this is the kind of thing I'm talking about.

Why haven't you done it recently? We haven't either - but I'm thinking of gearing up again ? Or perhaps this is the kind of thing you only do when you're relatively young - and willing to jump into a car and travel long distances in a foreign country with funny road signs in the rain (although we do have GPS systems now - which is a big improvement)? Or maybe it's an obsolete form of travel? Robyn

[Annie Gauvin]

I have a thesis that there is a "beaten path" for "food experiences" these days.  Want to see if it's true - or not.

So I'd like some feedback.  How many of you have gone out of your way to eat at a 2 or 3 star Michelin restaurant in recent years - or a restaurant that would probably have 2 or 3 Michelin stars except that the country/city where it's located doesn't have a Michelin guide?

Big cities can count - as long as they're not otherwise tourist destinations (IOW -"86" New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, etc.).  But what I'm really looking for is people who went out of their way to go to places like Trois Gros - a place that is (or used to be) a great restaurant in a dumpy small city.  A place you go to only to eat.  I suspect 90% of the responses I get here will cite El Bulli - perhaps some places in Italy and France - but maybe I'll be surprised.  Robyn

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