Michelin Guide Gives Star To Wrong Restaurant

A small, down-to-Earth lunch counter popular with local workmen was swarmed with reporters and traveling gourmets last week after accidentally being given a Michelin star.

According to The Telegraph, the Bouche à Oreille cafe in Bourges, France, has blue plastic chairs and a neon sign in the window, and it serves things like lasagna, beef bourguignon, and steak and frites. The prix-fixe, three-course lunch menu costs about $13, and dishes are generally under $10. It's a popular place with regular customers, but last week it was suddenly swarmed with reporters and gourmets, after the Michelin Guide accidentally gave them a star.

The new Michelin Guide France for 2017 came out on Thursday, and its website listed Bouche à Oreille in Bourges as a one-star restaurant, but the Michelin star was actually supposed to go to a much fancier restaurant near Paris, which was also called Bouche à Oreille. The restaurants have the same name, and the Bourges restaurant is located on Route de la Chapelle, while the one near Paris was on a street called Impasse de la Chapelle. It was an embarrassing accident for the Michelin Guide, but it definitely caused a swarm over in Bourges.

"Suddenly, we were rushed off our feet,"  owner Véronique Jacquet said to The Telegraph. "Reporters were coming in and then my son phoned me from Paris, where he lives. He almost died laughing."

The mistake only occurred on the Michelin Guide website, not the print edition, but it was enough to cause a swarm.

The owner of the fancy Bouche à Oreille also thought the mix-up was very funny, and he reportedly called to invite Jacquet and her staff to dinner.