Michelin heads to San Diego

Michelin Guide will bring its 2026 California awards ceremony to San Diego on June 24, the first time the statewide event has been held there. (sandiegouniontribune.com) The invitation-only ceremony is set for EVE, a bayfront event space at 975 Waterfront Place in downtown San Diego. (smithallengroup.com) (kogo.iheart.com) San Diego restaurants were not part of Michelin’s California coverage until the guide expanded statewide in 2019. Since then, the county has built a small but high-profile roster of starred restaurants. (kogo.iheart.com) (guide.michelin.com) Michelin’s annual California ceremony is where it reveals new stars and Bib Gourmand awards, while inspectors add new restaurants to the broader selection during the year. Michelin said those additions appear twice a year on its website and app. (guide.michelin.com) That makes the San Diego ceremony more than a hotel-ballroom shuffle. It puts the city at the center of the state’s biggest Michelin announcement night after years when the event was staged elsewhere in California. (sandiegouniontribune.com) (smithallengroup.com) Michelin’s own San Diego listings currently show the city’s starred and Bib Gourmand restaurants alongside a wider pool of selected spots, a sign of how the guide now treats the region as a year-round market rather than a one-off destination. (guide.michelin.com 1) (guide.michelin.com 2) The June 24 event will not automatically produce new San Diego stars. Michelin inspectors make those decisions independently, and the guide does not announce winners before the ceremony. (guide.michelin.com) (sandiegouniontribune.com) What San Diego does get is the state ceremony itself, with chefs, restaurateurs and Michelin officials gathering on the waterfront for the 2026 reveal. (kogo.iheart.com) (smithallengroup.com)