Books on display at the Michelin 2009 Las Vegas guide launch party at the Wynn Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. | Chris Farina/Corbis via Getty Images There’s arguably no more intense and fascinating restaurant city than Las Vegas. In terms of pure volume of sales, it has no equal, perhaps anywhere in the world. The city also knows how to put on a show, offering culinary spectacle at some of the nation’s greatest restaurants. This combination of money and glitz is ripe for awards-conferring organizations like Michelin. The last time the tire company awarded stars in the city, Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill and Nobu inside the now-closed Hard Rock Casino held stars. That was in 2009. Then the guide left Sin City and didn’t return for 17 years. Michelin’s new Southwest guide — to be released later this year — will correct that long, notable absence. Sign up for the Kang Town newsletter This story was inspired by my newsletter, where I shared my predictions for which Southwest restaurants will get Michelin stars in 2026. Sign up here to get my latest intel and insights. “The Michelin Guide launched in Las Vegas in 2008, in the wake of the global economic crisis,” a Michelin spokesperson said this week. “As a result, the Guide chose to remove the city from its list of destinations. This year, the time proved to be right to launch a regional edition for the Southwest, inclusive of Las Vegas.” Michelin could change the dynamic on…
