Le Bec-Finale for Georges Perrier

THE GEORGES PERRIER era at Le Bec-Fin will end Saturday night.

Amid the hushed white-tablecloth grandeur of the dining room of the Walnut Street institution, beneath enormous crystal chandeliers, Perrier addressed several dozen staff members before dinner service yesterday to introduce Le Bec-Fin's new owner, Nicolas Fanucci.

"I never thought this day would happen," Perrier said, his voice breaking, his eyes welling with tears. "I'm 70 years old [actually, 68]. I just can't do this anymore. I have been working since I was 14 years old."

"My goal is to bring Le Bec-Fin to where it once was," said Fanucci in an interview.

The new kitchen will employ French techniques but stress local produce and ingredients. Fanucci, 41, said a chef was not yet on board and denied that David Breeden, a veteran of French Laundry sibling Per Se, would run the kitchen, despite local bloggers' insistence otherwise.

Fanucci, a native of the French Riviera who was general manager of Le Bec-Fin from 2000 to 2003, previously was general manager for six years of the French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., which stands atop most critics' lists of best restaurants in the United States.

"We want to keep Le Bec-Fin going for the next 35 years," Fanucci said. Perrier crowed: "I have had it for 42 years."

Perrier said he would take a vacation - his first in a decade. He owns Georges' restaurant in Wayne, the Art of Bread bakery/cafe in Narberth, and has a share of Mia in Atlantic City.

Perrier, in a separate interview, said he had wanted to get out of the business for about a year. Fanucci described the move to buy the restaurant as "evolution." "I held the best general manager's job in the country. . . . Owning Le Bec-Fin will allow me to follow what I have been training for all my career. It's a huge challenge."

Fanucci said he briefly considered changing the restaurant's name - "adding a little something to it, and I realized I was making it too complicated."

Decor will be simpler. The staff has been invited to apply for jobs at the revived Le Bec-Fin, which will open this spring but not take reservations till July.

The dining room will shrink as the anteroom, now used for seating, becomes a lounge. The recently renovated downstairs lounge will be redecorated again and brought back as a bistro. Perrier has been asked to name it.