But Garcia said he\u2019s confident reviewers visited Tucson, although he was disappointed and surprised that no Tucson restaurants were listed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know we have the quality restaurants,\u201d he said of Tucson being snubbed. \u201cBut we know this is a long-term game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia said he has been told by tourism representatives in other Michelin guide cities not to be \u201csurprised or disappointed if you get nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s common in the first year,\u201d he was told. \u201cThen the second year, you get a larger number of restaurants and by the third year, it starts populating. It is going to be building every single year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michelin began its pay-to-play partnership model in the mid-2010s, with Visit California being the first in the U.S. in 2019. Under the model, Michelin collects hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars from tourism boards and government agencies to introduce a Michelin guide for their area. The incentive is that having local restaurants highlighted will boost visibility and credibility, leading to increased tourism and tax revenues.<\/p>\n
Although the states pay for the guide, Michelin maintains editorial control of its content. States cannot recommend which restaurants to visit or what areas; those decisions, according to Michelin, are based on buzz, food trends, media reviews and research.<\/p>\n
Considering those criteria, it seems almost unfathomable that Tyler Fenton\u2019s Bata at 35 E. Toole Ave. didn\u2019t catch a Michelin reviewer\u2019s attention. Bata, with its innovative, ever-changing menu, has been feted in a number of national publications including Bon App\u00e9tit, New York Times and Sunset Magazine since chef-owner Fenton opened the Tucson restaurant with siblings Zach and Courtney in spring 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
But Garcia said he\u2019s confident reviewers visited Tucson, although he was disappointed and surprised that no Tucson restaurants were listed. \u201cI know we have the quality restaurants,\u201d he said of Tucson being snubbed. \u201cBut we know this is a long-term game.\u201d Garcia said he has been told by tourism representatives in other Michelin guide cities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[7339,3323,3321,3319,3322,3320,7332,7333,7340,7336,5879,5880,7342,152,7338,116,7346,160,7341,68,7344,7337,7335,7334,7331,7343,7345],"class_list":["post-5886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona","tag-architectural-design","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-dining","tag-arizona-food","tag-arizona-grocery-stores","tag-arizona-restaurants","tag-atrium-architecture","tag-consumer-guides","tag-courtyards","tag-food-and-drink-awards","tag-food-service-companies","tag-gastronomy","tag-hotel-guide-books","tag-michelin","tag-michelin-brands","tag-michelin-guide","tag-re-issue","tag-restaurant","tag-restaurant-guides","tag-restaurants","tag-series-of-non-fiction-books","tag-tire-manufacturers-of-france","tag-tourist-guides","tag-travel-guide-books","tag-tucson","tag-works-about-consumer-protection","tag-works-about-food-and-drink"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}