New starred entrants include Rezdora, Don Angie, Jua, Kochi, and Francie

 

Against the backdrop of a pandemic that has shuttered at least a thousand restaurants and that has forced over 100,000 hospitality staffers out of work, Michelin’s anonymous inspectors published their rigid 2021 assessment of New York City restaurants today. The so-called Red Guide awarded new stars to just seven venues — and withheld them from many more acclaimed institutions.

New entrants to the single-star category include Rezdora, Stefano Secchi’s wildly popular Italian restaurant; Tsukimi, an East Village kaiseki venue; Jua, Hoyoung Kim’s modern Korean tasting menu spot; Don Angie, the whimsical Italian-American venue in Greenwich Village; Kochi, a Korean skewer restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen; Vestry, a Soho seafood spot from chef Shaun Hergatt, and Francie, John Winterman and Christopher Cippollone’s French-Italian Brooklyn hangout.

The new starred selections are all French, Italian, Korean, or Japanese-leaning venues. With the exception of Francie, they are all in Manhattan. In short, as the restaurant industry continues to adapt and change to survive, Michelin’s starred ranks have largely remained the same.