Restaurant review, A Lower Bar.

As any blog-obsessed restaurant geek worth his gourmet salt can tell you, the hallowed Michelin-guide star-rating system works as follows: Three stars denote “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey”; two stars “excellent cooking, and worth a detour”; and one star “a very good restaurant in its category.” But as tastes change and the economic downturn continues its rampage through restaurant land, the notion of “exceptional cuisine” continues to shift before our eyes. While bourgeois burger joints and glorified noodle bars proliferate around town, old-line “three-star” restaurants are coming under increasing pressure from diners who either don’t want to eat their “exceptional” brand of cuisine anymore or can’t afford to pay for it. If Michelin retains its lofty, increasingly outdated standards in this age of culinary deflation, soon there won’t be any stars to dispense at all.

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