DENVER, Sept. 9, 2024 — Alma Fonda Fina, joined the exclusive list of MICHELIN- Starred restaurants in North America, as the 2024 MICHELIN Guide Colorado was revealed today.
In addition to a new Starred restaurant, the state Guide boasts a new Bib Gourmand, MAKfam, bringing the selection’s total to nine. The full selection, including Green Stars and Recommended eateries, totals 46 restaurants with 15 cuisine types represented.
“As we celebrate year two of the MICHELIN Guide in Colorado, we can see the passion and momentum continue to grow in this culinary community,” said Gwendal Poullennec, the International Director of the MICHELIN Guides. “We are very excited to welcome Alma Fonda Fina into the family of MICHELIN-Starred restaurants. The famously anonymous Inspectors were also eager to shine a light on the growing talent in the local community, with a handful of new restaurants added to the selection.”
Here are the new One-MICHELIN-Star restaurants and Bib Gourmands, with Inspector notes
from each (Inspectors’ comments in full on the MICHELIN Guide website and mobile app):
Alma Fonda Fina (Denver; Mexican cuisine)
Chef Johnny Curiel started off in his family’s restaurant in Guadalajara, and after years of high-end culinary experience, he revisits dishes and flavors from his upbringing with creativity and finely honed technique delivering results that are both satisfying and delicious. Resist the temptation to fixate on any one item, as the menu is littered with treasures: perfectly crisped pork belly carnitas make for a brilliant taco on a sourdough flour tortilla, while agave-roasted sweet potato with nutty salsa matcha and luxuriously creamy whipped requesón is a revelation, and vibrant seafood crudos like thinly sliced Maine diver scallop with tomatillo and apple aguachile are downright electric. No desserts are offered for the time being, so there’s no reason to leave any extra room.
The MICHELIN Guide Inspectors identified one new restaurant to award the Bib Gourmand designation, which recognizes eateries for great food at a great value.
What began as a pop-up back in NYC, where owners and married couple Doris Yuen and Kenneth Wan first met, and then became a stall in a Denver food hall, is now at last a full-service restaurant. The winsome, colorful space and the compact menu both celebrate the pair’s Chinese American roots, both having been raised by immigrant families who worked in restaurants. Fried crab and cheese wontons and hand-shaped chicken and chive potstickers are inspired by Chinatown favorites and takeout staples, made with particular care and big flavor. Chicken wings with a spicy, tingly málà seasoning are favorites with good reason, and larger dishes, like the familiar-yet- inventive corned beef fried rice or spicy garlic butter rice cakes, impress as well.
In addition to the Bib Gourmand and Stars, the Guide announced four Special Awards:
Hotels
The restaurants join the MICHELIN Guide selection of hotels, which features the most exceptional places to stay in Colorado and throughout the world.
Each hotel in the selection has been chosen by MICHELIN Guide experts for its extraordinary style, service, and personality — with options for all budgets — and each can be booked directly through the MICHELIN Guide website and app. The selection for Colorado features the state’s most spectacular hotels, including upscale outdoor campsites like Collective Vail, standouts from our “Plus” collection like the Source Hotel and the Crawford Hotel in Denver, refurbished motels like Amigo Motor Lodge, rehabilitated wilderness ghost towns like Dunton Hot Springs, and of course, accommodations that have been awarded a MICHELIN Key, like Clayton Hotel & Members Club and the Little Nell.
The MICHELIN Guide is a benchmark in gastronomy. Now it’s setting a new standard for hotels. Visit the MICHELIN Guide website, or download the free app for iOS and Android, to discover every restaurant in the selection and book an unforgettable hotel.
Colorado’s 2024 MICHELIN-Starred restaurants
Colorado’s 2024 MICHELIN-Green-Starred restaurants
Colorado’s 2024 Bib Gourmand restaurants
Colorado’s 2024 Recommended restaurants
Michelin announced its first North American Guide in 2005 for New York. Guides have also been added in Chicago (2011); Washington, D.C. (2017); California (San Francisco in 2007, statewide 2019); Miami/Orlando/Tampa, Florida (2022); Toronto (2022); Vancouver (2022); Colorado (2023); Atlanta (2023), Mexico (2024), Texas (2024) and Quebec (2024).
Recognized globally for excellence and quality, the MICHELIN Guide offers a selection of world-class restaurants.
The MICHELIN Guide remains a reliable companion for any traveler seeking an unforgettable meal and hospitality experience. The Guide was first published in France at the turn of the 20th century to encourage the development of car mobility as well as tire sales by giving practical advice to motorists. Progressively, the Guide has specialized in restaurant and hotel recommendations. Michelin’s inspectors still use the same criteria and manner of selection that were used by the inspectors in the very beginning.
The restaurant selections join the MICHELIN Guide selection of hotels, which features the most unique and exciting places to stay around the world. Visit the MICHELIN Guide website, or download the free app for iOS and Android, to discover every restaurant in the selection and book an amazing hotel.
Thanks to the rigorous MICHELIN Guide selection process that is applied independently and consistently in more than 45 destinations, the MICHELIN Guide has become an international benchmark in fine dining.
All restaurants in the Guide are recommended by Michelin’s anonymous inspectors, who are trained to apply the same time-tested methods used by Michelin inspectors for many decades throughout the world. This ensures a uniform, international standard of excellence. As a further guarantee of complete objectivity, Michelin inspectors pay all their bills in full, and only the quality of the cuisine is evaluated.
To fully assess the quality of a restaurant, the inspectors apply five criteria defined by Michelin: product quality; mastery of cooking techniques; harmony of flavors; the personality of the chef as reflected in the cuisine; and consistency over time and across the entire menu. These criteria guarantee a consistent and fair selection so a Starred restaurant has the same value regardless of whether it is in Paris, New York or anywhere else in the world.
Michelin is the leading mobility company and manufacturer of life-changing composites and experiences. For more than 130 years, Michelin has made contributions to human progress and to a more sustainable world. Michelin is constantly innovating to manufacture high-quality tires and components for critical applications for demanding fields, including mobility, construction, aeronautics, low-carbon energies and healthcare and offer the finest experiences, from providing data- and AI- based connected solutions for professional fleets to recommending outstanding restaurants and hotels curated by the MICHELIN Guide. Headquartered in Greenville, S.C., Michelin North America has approximately 23,500 employees and operates 35 production
Carly Grieff Michelin North America carly.grieff@michelin.com
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