ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Two years after the Michelin Guide expanded its star program to restaurants in Tampa, the famed culinary guide is adding St. Petersburg and Clearwater to its list. 

Michelin stars for restaurants are similar to what Academy Awards are for movies which, to restauranteurs, could bring more tourists to those areas.

Within the last few years, according to Nick Ocando, culinary director for restaurants in St. Pete like Allelo and Juno and the Peacock, as more people move here and more restaurants open, the fine dining options have increased too.

“I think it’s a lot more elevated than it was when I first got here,” Ocando said.

Being part of the transition to that elevated food, he says, is what drew him here in the first place.

“We’re all super excited to have the guide be expanding to our market,” Ocando said.

Before 2025, the Michelin Guide in Florida only covered restaurants in Miami, Orlando and Tampa.

But now, along with St. Pete and Clearwater, they’ve added Fort Lauderdale and the Palm Beaches.

That’s a big deal not only for culinary hubris but for financial reasons too.

“Regardless of who gets the star,” Ocando said, “I think it’s going to attract more tourists, people coming to look for great food.”

We saw that in Tampa in 2023, when restaurants, like Rocca, said they saw an increase in reservation requests after they earned a star.

For young chefs, places like Paris and New York are sort of the epicenters for fine dining. The hope with an expanded guide is that homegrown talent in the Bay area will now stay here.

“It’s going to bring more people over from Tampa,” Ocando said, “as well as bringing more talented employees for us to work with, whether that’s front of house, back house, but hospitality in general.”

So, whether they earn a star or not, it keeps culinary creativity prospering right here in Tampa Bay.

Michelin Guide officials say by 2026, they plan on expanding the guide even further to cover the entire state of Florida.