Chronicle restaurant critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan revealed at an event Wednesday night, on stage with predecessor Michael Bauer, that the newspaper was bringing back the star system for reviews, which went away with Bauer. And the first starred review in eight years is of House of Prime Rib.
According to Michael Bauer, who retired after 30 years as the Chronicle’s restaurant critic and overall food editor in 2018, the star-rating system that the paper employed during his tenure kept him “honest,” because no matter what he wrote, his praise or lack thereof would need to match whatever the ultimate star rating was.
Bauer tended to be a generous and mostly kind critic, which led to Eater nicknaming him “Mikey Two Stars” back in the early days of that site. And it was certainly true that the vast majority of restaurants that received reviews would get two or two and a half stars under his watch…