Charlie Trotter to close his world-renowned Chicago eatery BY JANET RAUSA FULLER Special to the Sun-Times 
 
 Chef Charlie Trotter in the kitchen and in the dining room of his restaurant at 816 W. Armitage Friday, Dec. 30, 2011. | Rich Hein~Sun-Times 
 
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 Charlie Trotter is calling it quits. 
 
 The celebrated Chicago chef told the Sun-Times in an exclusive interview that he will close his eponymous restaurant on Armitage in August, after 25 years in business. 
 
 Trotter, 52, is calling this a “sabbatical,” though. He plans to travel the world with his wife, Rochelle, and go back to school to study philosophy and political theory. He said he’s been accepted into three graduate programs, two in Chicago and one in California. 
 
 And once he completes his master’s degree, he says he will open another restaurant, though he says it’s far too early to say what sort of place it would be. 
 
 Trotter considered closing the restaurant before — after 9/11, when he watched from an airplane runway as the second plane hit the World Trade Center, and again five years ago — but the timing never felt right. 
 
 Until now. 
 
 The decision isn’t a financial one, said Trotter, who owns and will keep the adjoining buildings at 816 W. Armitage that house the 120-seat restaurant and the studio kitchen. Trotter’s To Go, his takeout shop at 1337 W. Fullerton, will remain open. 
 
 “We’ve always been profitable, that’s for sure,” he said. “We’ve certainly slowed down like a lot of high-end restaurants, but we’ve always been able to make money. We’ve always been busy. 
 
 “I just had to put the flag in the sand and say I’ve got to go for this; otherwise, I never will. If I don’t go for something while I’m in the prime of my life and I have the means to do it, well, why wouldn’t I?” 
 
 On Saturday, Trotter hosted his usual New Year’s Eve blowout, a $295 walk-around affair where, if you’re so inclined, you could hang out all night by the caviar station. He announced his plans to guests at the party, and to staff earlier in the day. The restaurant has about 60 full-time employees. 
 
 Trotter opened Charlie Trotter’s on Aug. 17, 1987. Fine dining in Chicago had had a strictly French slant until this 27-year-old kid from Winnetka came along. Ever-changing multi-course menus, ingredients sourced from around the world and hyper-attentive service became his hallmarks. Scores of young cooks, now leading some of the hottest kitchens in the city, cut their teeth at Trotter’s. Recent years have seen the elder statesman overshadowed by those proteges, most notably Grant Achatz, whose Alinea restaurant — just a few blocks away — was awarded, for the second time, three Michelin stars to Trotter’s two. 
 
 “We’ve been around long enough. We know what we do,” Trotter said of the Michelin rating, no small feat for any restaurant but perceived as a snub by many in the culinary community. 
 
 Trotter’s other projects through the years have stumbled. His two Las Vegas restaurants closed in 2010 after two years, and planned restaurants in New York and in Chicago’s Elysian Hotel never saw the light of day. 
 
 Unlike many tweet-happy chefs, who have discovered the power of social media to build their brands, or at least some buzz, Trotter has shunned Facebook and Twitter entirely. 
 
 “Trotter, a leader left behind,” read the headline of a New York Times article in March. 
 
 The leader, however, a James Beard award winner 10 times over, sees it as leaving on top. No regrets. 
 
 “This is our chance to say let’s end this on a great note of 25 years,” he said. “A quarter century of running a restaurant — that’s a long time to do one thing.” 
 
 The next eight months will be packed. There will be special dinners in Chicago and in other cities — including with Trotter’s close friends, the chefs Alain Ducasse and David Bouley, who also have restaurants turning 25 — leading up to Aug. 31, the final day of service. 
 
 Until it closes, the restaurant will be open four days a week as opposed to five, “to make it a little bit more special,” Trotter said — no doubt making a reservation that much more difficult to get. 
 
 He will continue his consulting role with Holland America Cruise Line and other projects he didn’t divulge. He also is working on a cookbook, his 16th, to be published in September. But he already is looking forward to devouring a different sort of book. 
 
 “When’s the last time I sat on a beach and read The Brothers Karamazov?” Trotter said. “It’s time.” 
 
 Janet Rausa Fuller is the former food editor for the Chicago Sun-Times. ||||| CHICAGO — Charlie Trotter , a pioneering chef whose restaurant in this city helped transform American fine dining in the last quarter-century, will close his famed establishment this year. 
 
 The announcement, first reported on Sunday in The Chicago Sun-Times, was viewed as a bittersweet if inevitable end for an elegant restaurant. It spawned a more creative way of thinking about food when it opened in 1987 and propelled the careers of numerous up-and-coming chefs. And it kept right on going as elaborate modernist competitors, as well as places that cared less about luxurious surroundings, grew up all around. 
 
 When such practices were all but unheard of in America, particularly in the Midwest, Mr. Trotter created a European-style degustation menu, a vegetarian tasting menu and a raw-food tasting menu. He placed a table of diners in the kitchen to watch the process. He pursued local farm products. 
 
 If some saw the decision to close Charlie Trotter’s, which is in a townhouse in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on the city’s North Side, at the end of August as an acknowledgement that the spotlight had moved on to newer, flashier restaurants, Mr. Trotter said the choice had not been driven by finances in the least. He said business had been “off” a bit but largely unharmed by the economic downturn. 
 
 Mr. Trotter, who notified his staff members and the patrons of a New Year’s Eve event ($295 per person) on Saturday, said he wanted to travel, attend graduate school in philosophy and political theory and, perhaps, eventually return to open a new restaurant. 
 
 “I can do this forever, and it’s most gratifying,” Mr. Trotter, 52, said in an interview on Sunday. “That said, there are so many other things to do in life. Twenty-five years in this line of work is fantastic. It’s just time to step back, breathe deeply and do something different.” 
 
 Locally and nationally, people in the dining industry said they were surprised or, if not entirely surprised, sentimental about the closing. Acquaintances and former employees described Mr. Trotter as a quirky perfectionist, a constant boundary pusher (using unlikely items like pig ears, in the memory of one admiring former employee) and a sometimes difficult boss. He was also credited, even by his critics, for being a trailblazer whose influences can be tasted and felt in many newer restaurants and someone who helped put Chicago, once known mostly for deep-dish pizza and hot dogs, on the epicurean map. 
 
 “In the late ’80s and through the ’90s, he was on top of the food world,” said Curtis Duffy, who moved to Chicago more than a decade ago to work for Mr. Trotter and described him as probably his most significant professional influence. 
 
 Mr. Duffy, who went on to be the chef at Avenues here and plans to open his own restaurant, Grace, this year, added: “It’s hard to stay on top of something that’s evolving. I think he’s still on top. He wants to close on top.” 
 
 In the 1980s, Mr. Trotter emerged from a sea of fine dining restaurants that were narrowly focused on French-style cooking, said Mitchell Davis, executive vice president of the James Beard Foundation. 
 
 “But Charlie helped define a unique American perspective on it, rich with French tradition and also other traditions in the world,” Mr. Davis said. “He helped make Chicago a global food town.” 
 
 To hear patrons of the restaurant tell it, Mr. Trotter made dinner no longer just dinner, but an event. Servers were known for their scrupulous attention and care. The small plates came and went with careful pairings of wine. Fellow chefs described Mr. Trotter’s kitchen as technically perfect. 
 
 In more recent years, though, there were setbacks. When the Michelin guide came to Chicago for the first time in late 2010, two edgy restaurants (Alinea and L2O) got the highest ratings, three stars. Mr. Trotter’s received two stars. And while the world of television chef shows and buzzy online restaurant promotions blossomed, Mr. Trotter mainly focused on his kitchen — a place where, even as modernist approaches began flourishing elsewhere, “when you eat an artichoke, it still looks like an artichoke,” said the chef Mario Batali, a friend. 
 
 In a fast-changing culinary world, rare is the fine dining restaurant that lasts 25 years. “Almost impossible anymore,” said Alan Richman, the food and wine critic for GQ magazine. “I think you’ll see fewer and fewer restaurants accomplish that.” 
 
 Mr. Trotter said he had first considered closing 10 years ago, then again five years ago. “It’s not just like some overnight thing I’m doing,” he said. “I did feel some pangs of sentimentality and nostalgia. On the other hand, full steam ahead.” 
 
 Reflecting on a quarter-century in the food world, Mr. Trotter said he had watched the evolution of American cuisine and the evolution of the American eater — from someone who enjoyed a once-in-a-while night out to the foundation of a “food-savvy populace” that dines out constantly. 
 
 Responses came fast after word of the closing began spreading on Saturday, Mr. Trotter said. People were already securing reservations for the final eight months of dinners.
– A Chicago landmark will soon be history. Legendary chef Charlie Trotter is closing his restaurant in August, after a quarter-century of service. It's not a financial matter: "We’ve always been profitable, that’s for sure," he tells the Sun-Times. But Trotter is ready "to put the flag in the sand" and achieve some non-culinary goals, including travel and a graduate degree in philosophy and political theory. When the restaurant opened in 1987, Trotter was just 27. Charlie Trotter's became known for its wide-ranging menus and impeccable service; the New York Times says it "helped transform American fine dining." Now, Trotter says, it's time for something new. "A quarter century of running a restaurant—that’s a long time to do one thing." Meanwhile, Trotter's devotees needn't despair: You'll still be able to get takeout from Trotter's To Go, and the chef plans a new restaurant after his "sabbatical."