Passion, Consistency, Teamwork Are Key Ingredients At These Philly Michelin Honorees

PHILADELPHIA — About a month ago, the Philadelphia food scene had heaps of praise bestowed on it by the Michelin Guide.

While three restaurants earned stars, numerous other were named to the Bib Gourmand list — which highlights the best value for money restaurants offering a three-course meal at a reasonable price — and were deemed Michelin Recommended Restaurants. See the full list of Philly's Michelin honorees here.

Among those honorees are High Street, Kalaya, Suraya, and Pizzeria Beddia.

High Street is part of High Street Hospitality Group, helmed by longtime Philly restaurateur and James Beard Award winner Ellen Yin. It was named a Michelin Recommended Restaurant.

"You have to have passion," Yin said of achieving success and notoriety in the restaurant industry. "[Entering the industry] is not something you just decided that you're going to do, because it's really hard."

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The physical, mental, and emotional demands of operating a restaurant can be grueling. And Yin said while some may assume opening a restaurant is the most stressful moment in the lifetime of an eatery, it's keeping it going and keeping it successful that proves most difficult.

"Everyday we're always trying to get better," she said. "Once you stop wanting to get better, you're on a downward slope."

The average restaurant lasts about five years. In the face of that cold statistic, Yin has kept her restaurant Fork open for 28 years and a.kitchen + bar open for nearly 15 years. High Street, she hopes, sees a long life.

And with the Michelin honor, High Street has seen an increase in requests for tables, shocking no one.

"It's just like getting a positive review from any publication where expectations are high," Yin said. "I think that is a stress our team feels. We want to obviously live up to those expectations."

And demand is also up at Kalaya and Suraya, both Michelin Recommended, and Bib Gourmand honoree Pizzeria Beddia, all part of the Defined Hospitality group, and all with their own accolades, including Chef Chutatip "Nok" Suntaranon of Kalaya winning Best Chef in the Mid-Atlantic at the Beard Awards and Beddia being named among the world's best pizza places a few times over.

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"I don't have any analytics on reservations, but we’re very fortunately full for the 30 days out," Greg Root, partner of Defined Hospitality, said.

Beddia, which accepts walk-in dining, has seen a serious uptick in people looking to score the coveted pies since it was named a Bib Gourmand restaurant.

Root said he was at Suraya recently and met a couple who relocated to Philadelphia from New York.

"I asked them if they had been here before, and they said no," he said. "But they were coming in because of the Michelin distinction. The impact is there."

Root spends a considerable amount of times in the group's facilities, of course, and said their front-of-house, and back-of-house staff have been instilled with an immense sense of pride.

"We're in restaurants all the time and congratulating them, and they congratulate us back." he said. "People are proud to work at those individual restaurants."

"Our team members are doing the best they can every day," Yin said. "They're always trying to do their best to present our restaurant in the best possible way.

Yin and Root each said, for now, their respective establishments are focusing on maintaining the high quality food and service that earned them their laurels from Michelin.

"We're not looking to be something that we're not," Yin said. "We're trying to enjoy our team members and the holiday and our guests. 2026 is right around the corner, so that's when we wil dig into future goals."

Root shared Yin's sentiment.

"We're always focused on creating great experiences at each individual restaurant,
he said. "The moral of the story is we’re still focused on providing great experiences at world-class restaurants."