Originally posted by the Detroit Free Press
The world’s most prestigious line of travel books has turned its focus to an American city it says “emanates an infectious energy”: Detroit.
The Motor City is now the 10th U.S. metropolis to get a Michelin Green Guide, joining a list that already includes destinations such as New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago.
The Paris-based Michelin, which has been publishing its restaurant and tourism review books since the turn of the 20th century, unveiled its English-language version of the Detroit guide during a media event Tuesday at the newly restored Michigan Central Station.
The launch event was hosted by Visit Detroit, which helped stir Michelin’s interest during meetings with the publisher last year. Seeds were planted at the bureau’s media activation in Paris in January 2023, when the Detroit Pistons hit the City of Lights to play the Chicago Bulls.
Philippe Orain, who oversees Michelin’s travel guides at the company’s Paris headquarters, was on hand for Tuesday’s rollout.
“Detroit means cars and music, but also visual arts, architecture, design, gastronomy lifestyle,” said Orain. “It’s a great destination that can match the requirements of the most demanding travelers.”
Five metro Detroit sites now boast Michelin’s vaunted 3-star rating:
- Cranbrook Educational Community in Bloomfield Hills, a “318-acre campus … designed as a ‘total work of art.’”
- Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), “considered to be one of the six major art museums in the United States.”
- Downtown Detroit, “an open-air museum of architecture.”
- Guardian Building, whose Tiffany clock also serves as the book’s cover image.
- The Henry Ford museum complex in Dearborn, which is “like a journey through time.”
The DIA and Henry Ford museum were existing 3-star selectees, previously cited in Michelin’s broader “Northeast America” guide.
“This is the highest form of praise and validation for the work we do,” said Elliott Broom, the DIA’s chief operating officer.
The Michelin guide’s opening pages highlight five additional Detroit spots as “unmissable”: Eastern Market, the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House, the Fisher Building, the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant, Michigan Central Station and the Motown Museum.
Michelin’s Green Guides are distinct from its famed restaurant-specific Red Guides. While the new Detroit book does spotlight the city’s culinary scene, its focus is wider, encompassing cultural attractions, shopping, historic sites, lodging and more.
Still, the rating system is modeled on Michelin’s renowned restaurant recommendations for travelers: 3 stars (“worth a special journey”), 2 stars (“worth a detour”) and 1 star (“worth a visit”).
The 160-page, pocket-size book — which in customary Michelin style includes a detachable city map — signals the growing stature of Detroit in the tourism industry. Orain told Tuesday’s Detroit crowd the guide intends to convey the “real tourist potential of your city” amid a revival that has caught attention across the globe.
“We hope that Detroit will increasingly be a stopover for many visitors from all over the world, first of all French and European visitors,” he said.
For metro Detroiters, the Michelin guide may offer an interesting glimpse into the region’s perception by outsiders. The book was compiled by a core team of three French-based writer-reviewers along with Orain, who said he grew fascinated by the city during his inaugural visit last year.
The European edition of the guide — featuring the French spelling “De?troit” — was published in October for initial distribution in France, Belgium and Switzerland. The new English version, translated directly from the original French, will be available at book retailers in the U.S. and U.K. later this month.
The book calls Detroit “a city in revival” while acknowledging that “the situation is far from perfect.” Detroit, the Michelin authors write, “can feel like a jigsaw puzzle being completed before your eyes.”
Orain emphasized Tuesday that Michelin’s star measurements are weighted the same “from Detroit to Paris, from New York to Tokyo, from Montreal to Buenos Aires.” The publisher’s intricate reviewing system involves nine criteria, ranging from “first impressions” to historical significance and aesthetics.
For Visit Detroit chief Claude Molinari, the Michelin guide caps what he called “an incredible year for Detroit” that included the NFL Draft and Michigan Central reopening. And he said it’s a boost as the tourism bureau works toward its goal of 25 million annual visitors by 2030.
While Molinari and his team initiated the book talks following last year’s Pistons trip to Paris, the decision to spotlight Detroit was ultimately in Michelin’s hands.
“If they didn’t find it compelling enough, it would have been, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’” Molinari said.
Michelin’s Orain said he was captivated by the energy of Detroiters’ pride and resilience.
“We can feel this love, this attachment. It’s vibrating,” he said. “And that’s really important to make a good guide.”
