Hotel Emma in San Antonio is being recognized with two Michelin Keys, a new prestigious rating for hotels that mirrors the stars given to restaurants by the tire company.
In Texas, 17 hotels got one key and only three — including the Emma — received two keys. The other Texas two-key recipients were part of the Auberge Resorts Collection, the Bowie House in Fort Worth and the Commodore Perry Estate in Austin.
Only 412 other hotels in Canada, the U.S and Mexico made the rankings, an honor that was announced during a ceremony in Austin Thursday by the Michelin Guide’s CEO Gwendal Poullennec.
Of those, 294 received one key, 97 received two keys and 21 received the coveted three keys. No Texas hotels received three keys.
Poullennec said that the new recognitions, which follow a limited release of keys in April, reflect the range of experiences across the three countries.
“We have been very impressed in the U.S, … Canada and Mexico as well, by the diversity of the places,” Poullennec said. “You have … coastal retreats, you have urban oases, you have campsites, [and] isolated islands.”
“You have a lot of places with a lot of personality,” he added.
The Hotel Emma entry on the official Michelin guide recognizes the San Antonio hotel’s “sumptuously appointed public spaces, a throwback to bygone hotels of old, when hospitality was more central to civic functions.”
Luxurious amenities from “Frette linens, Malin + Goetz bath amenities and 48-inch HDTVs,” were highlighted, along with “dark-wood and aged bronze accents … [and] freestanding, clawfoot tubs.”
The entry also highlighted the hotel’s embedded restaurant, Supper.
“Supper, John Brand’s own New American brand, presents a flawlessly convivial and hyphenated dining experience: a farm-to-bistro, ingredient-driven tour-de-force,” the Hotel Emma review says. “Then there’s Larder, a classic grocer if we’ve ever seen one, furnishing old-world provisions and sundries from within Pearl’s old cellars.”
Dozens of anonymous inspectors have been working over the last year to unearth hidden and authentic gems from across the continent, focusing on five criteria:
- The hotel is an open door to the destination
- Excellence in interior design and architecture
- Quality and consistency in service, comfort and maintenance
- Consistency between level of service and the price paid
- Individuality reflecting personality and authenticity
Matthew Lauzon, Emma’s hotel manager, joined other recipients on stage, reflecting on the origins of the historic hotel.
“We … used to be a brewery, and it was in a not-so-great part of town, and it was dilapidated,” he said. “But our owner Kit Goldsbury had a vision, and against all of his advisers to make it a Walmart distribution center, he transformed it into what we have now.”
Lauzon said the “secret sauce” of the hotel is the team and employees.
The hotel, which is located in the former Pearl Brewhouse, is named after Emma Koehler, who ran the brewery for years after her husband and the company’s president Otto Koehler died in 1914.
In addition to backing the hotel, Goldsbury brought the Culinary Institute of America to the Pearl — cementing a transformation from a rundown industrial site, to a culinary and tourist destination in the early 2000s.
Lauzon told the San Antonio Report after the ceremony that the hotel will be striving to earn that third key in the coming years.
Lauzon said he isn’t sure exactly when the anonymous inspectors might have dropped by to complete their assessment, but he recalled the Michelin team coming into town about six months ago on what he assumed was unrelated business.
But as far as he is concerned, any guest could be an inspector — and expect the same treatment and service.
“It’s who we are every day, we live and breathe … five diamond service with every guest,” he said.
Michelin Stars for restaurants are expected to be announced for several Texas cities, including San Antonio, by the end of the year.
