One thing in Kansas City is people do NOT like to dress up for dinner. Casual is what people want even if the place has a celebrity chef. There is a small french restaurant like that.
Now I guess there are a couple of upscale places but I’ve heard its more of an image thing and one can find just as good a filet mignon, lobster, steak, sea bass or whatever in cheaper places.
One popular new thing - a chef will come to your house and cook for your dinner party.
Nonsense. People would dress up to go to Hayward’s BBQ when I grew up. You can find people dressed up all over the place if you were going to anything better than an Applebee’s. You might see some jackass at the Bristol wearing jeans and a t-shirt, but he’ll be completely out of place amongst everyone else wearing something nice.
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I been away a long time. Are they up to 100 or even 150 people yet? 
Not knocking San Miguel, by the way! I lived there 10 years (1989-1999), Estrella / Airport Road vicinity. Then I lived here for several years, backwoods up Park Hill Road. (ETA: Add Santa Margarita to list of places with no really upscale restaurant.) This is way better than living in any Big City, sez me. I wish I could be living there still.
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Esan (various spellings) is the name for the Northeast and is the part of Thailand where they eat bugs and raw fermented fish. If they’re not serving those, then it ain’t authentic. 
If you are using 50-90,000 as your criteria that is just some medium sized suburban communities around here. Most don’t have upscale restaurants but you can drive to one not too far away.
Bath Maine is about the worst I’ve seen. I ate in the Mexican Restaurant and when they asked me what I thought I said they should send someone to Mexico for a few weeks to get an idea what Mexicans eat. It isn’t whole wheat wraps for sure.
I will make a note to visit Mother Bears - thanks!
I suppose it largely depends on how you define “Upscale.”
Here in Springfield (pop. ~130,000) we have Obed & Isaac’s, which is a brewpub patronized by hipsters. At which you’ll likely pay upwards of $75/person if you order wine (or a house microbrew), appetizer, desserts, etc.
And then just down the road we have Maldaner’s, where shirts and ties are not expected, but are not out of the ordinary either. The food, IMHO, is meh.
However, I doubt that there is a Michelin star to be found in Springfield.
[continuing hijack] Dunno, I have never been to San Miguel, although we have passed by it many times on the 101. Kid #1 did his Mission project this past year so we have been talking about visiting the San Miguel Mission, but haven’t gotten there yet.
We are in the “big city” of SLO. 
Doesn’t meet the criteria of this thread though, as SLO a) has fewer than 50,000 people and b) has upscale restaurants.
Even little Santa Margarita (population ~1,200) has The Range. I haven’t been, but the food is supposed to be amazing.
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Hey, San Miguel has the Elkhorn, ostensibly the oldest bar in California, continuously operating for 150 years
God, yes. The best food is often found in the most unexpected places.
My brother was in Jonesboro, Arkansas on business. He was planning to take a group out for dinner and asked, “What’s the best restaurant I town?” The actual answer: “Shoney’s, but we’ll *never * get in there.”
I’m not sure Little Rock is much better. There’s a couple of places with actual table cloths, but they may be under glass.
Binghamton, New York. There’s a few independent restaurants that are a step above middle-end, and a few “classy” old-school Italian joints that have been around for years, but nothing approaching what would be at the lower end of the high end in Ithaca, Rochester, Syracuse, or Buffalo.
Same thing for Elmira. Just a very blue-collar city where mid-end indies and chains are about as good as it gets.
Yeah, I can’t think of anything that would qualify in Little Rock. There’s a nice beer pub, though; I think it’s called Flying Saucer.
I was going to answer Binghamton, NY too but I was going to include all the surrounding towns too (Endicott, Johnson City, Vestal, Endwell). If you’re in any of those towns and want something upscale I guess you’re driving to Syracuse (one hour away).
It’s alway surprised me that Silicon Valley (from Redwood City down to San Jose) has such a dearth of fine dining, if you take into account the massive population and the very high incomes. Outside of Manresa in Los Gatos, Le Papillon in San Jose, Chez TJ in Mountain View & Baume in Palo Alto, I can’t really think of any other notable fine dining locations.
Given that this is the region with the 3rd highest amount of billionaires in the world, it’s crazy to me that it’s such a desert for high end dining.
WAG-I would bet the money is “younger” and the earners weren’t raised in money(hence grew up eating ordinary fare) and haven’t had the time or inclination to “develop their palates” while working.
It’s actually the opposite. San Francisco, with it’s abundance of fine dining is where the young, new money kids are living. The Peninsula is middle aged technology workers with kids and grey haired venture capitalists and executives.
Another Silicon Valley datapoint - there’s a huge range of fantastic ethnic food available at extremely reasonable prices. I know foodie people who eat out for every meal, yet don’t feel the inclination to pay $200/head for upscale meals, as the cost/benefit analysis just doesn’t make it worthwhile.
And, although Cal casual is a pretty well understood dress code, plenty of programmers won’t wear even slightly fancy clothes.
