Bruce Naftaly, chef and co-owner of Ballard's Le Gourmand, deserves a lifetime achievement award, if not outright canonization. Since 1985—Le Gourmand will be 27 years old on March 6—he's been quietly, honorably using local and seasonal ingredients in the manner that's been recently, loudly hailed as revolutionary. But lifetime achievement sounds tired, while his care with Northwest ingredients and his insight into French techniques remains amazing. For very fine dining in Seattle, Le Gourmand has been a very fine choice for a very long time.

But all good things must come to an end, especially those good things that make for 80-hour weeks—and Bruce and his wife Sara have been working those all this time, doing all the sourcing and shopping (including for flowers) and cooking themselves (Sara makes the desserts). On the phone last week, Bruce said, "When you're doing it, it's the only thing you want to do in the world. But then you can't do anything else."

After Le Gourmand's last day on June 2, the Naftalys will continue teaching cooking classes, and Bruce also mentioned a book. Oh, and they're available for pop-ups—Bruce jokes that they're going to have t-shirts made saying that and "Inquire within."

What about Le Gourmand's magical sommelier? Bruce says maybe David Butler will open a wine bar, which he's been wanting to do "forever," which would doubtless be great.

What about the puppets—the weird, weird puppets on the walls of Le Gourmand's otherwise softly perfect poshness? They're still there, Bruce says, and maybe for the closing party they'll "enjoy some action."

Le Gourmand (with next-door Sambar) is for sale.