This week the Yakimono restaurant - perhaps the last of the luxurious Tel Aviv sushi restaurants belonging to the founding generation of the branch - announced the closing of its doors.
Last week, the two old restaurants "Zepara" and "Topolopompo" of chef Avi Conforti announced that they were closed for good, as was the Chinese "Pat Kua" from Herzliya.
Yakimono is a piece of history, maybe even mythology in local terms.
It was founded in 1994, at the corner of Yarkon and Yordi Shirah streets, and in 2000 it moved to Rothschild Boulevard.
By the way, not many people know that the first Chinese restaurant in Tel Aviv was opened in the 1950s on Yarkon Street by the mother of Eliezer (Cheney) Marom, a former Navy commander, who was a Jew of Russian origin who married a Chinese man who converted.
All these closures are taking place precisely in the shadow of another, opposite trend, of bringing a Michelin guide to Israel - a step that, if realized, will finally put Israel on the global culinary map.
Despite the competition that has arisen for Michelin in recent years from other guides, its importance is still great from an economic, marketing and even cultural point of view.
This is an old, thorough and well-invested guide, whose anonymous reviewers are considered experts in the field.
A restaurant that wins a star becomes very popular almost overnight.
And there have already been known cases of chefs who committed suicide when they lost a star, even when they dropped from three to two.
Today, the Michelin guide rates restaurants in Italy, Spain, the USA, and in fact the entire world. Until now, the reason for his arrival in Israel was probably fear of the Arab boycott, but the Abraham agreements have probably changed the picture.
It seems that this is the moment when we have to ask ourselves honestly: Is Israel prepared for a Michelin review?
In terms of ingredients and flavors, there is no dispute that the food in Israel is simply great (I have a Dutch friend who comes every year for a week's visit to Israel, and gains at least 4 kg during it). There is also no dispute among the visitors that some restaurants in Israel long ago deserved one star (among them, Among others, Yossi Shetrit's Hiva, Pescado, Fronto, Pastel, Helena, Uri Bori, and Nimar.) Just at the beginning of the month, six Israeli restaurants entered the list of the 50 best restaurants in the Middle East, including, among others, Melgo, Melber, and Besta.
But if you take into account the two weak points of the Israeli restaurant - the service and the price - it seems that we are only moving away from the big world.
It is no secret that the service in Israel is not professional, is usually based on the work of inexperienced young people and tends to be alienating and even irritating.
And the prices - which are sometimes two or even three times what is customary in restaurants of a similar level abroad - are unbearable.
And since today everything is measured and judged as an experience, it is impossible to separate from the experience of eating in Israel these factors, which greatly cloud it.
These two neglected corners should very well be closed before the Michelin visitors get here.
were we wrong
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